It's Here! A Very Epilogue Editing Holiday Gift Guide
All small business. All amazing. And clicking all of these links...counts as writing
Friends!
Thank you for sending me all of your excellent ideas for our first holiday guide. You gave me SO MANY book recommendations (and I have so many of my own) that I’m saving those for a December post—we’ll have our own Epilogue Editing Jolabokaflod.
For this list, we have everything an academic needs to write her best life—caffeine, journals, jewelry, cookware (and a few places doing great work that could use our support). Check out the links, let me know what you buy, and let us know in the comments what else we should look at. And feel very free to forward this to everyone in your life who needs a little nudge or creativity in treating you this holiday season.
The gift of caffeine:
And coffee! Our recommender writes: If coffee counts as useful academic stuff, I highly recommend my hometown's Gimme! Coffee (now a worker-owned cooperative, and they ship nationwide in the US), especially their Leftist coffee beans blend and seasonal coffee toffee.
The gift of paper:
This is the notebook I use (I love the dots)
A recommender writes: This falls under both cute stuff and useful academic stuff - my friend, who is a brilliant adjunct faculty member and organizer from K-town Los Angeles, started an online stationary shop side-hustle featuring Korean, Japanese, and self-designed notebooks, planners, stickers, and accessories. She also regularly donates a portion of sales from different items to support community orgs and causes - like this and this.
The gift of looking—and feeling—good:
An ugly Christmas sweater to get you out of all future holiday parties
A sweatshirt I might get as a tattoo
this eye cream is the best-smelling thing I own
And a shout out to Outerknown shirts, which appeared on an MHAWS gift guide a few years ago. One reader was given a shirt and loves it.
I also bought myself this sweatshirt as a writing present this year after finishing a draft of an essay I’ve been working on, and I love it.
This sweater was my AcWriMo present to myself after it appeared in the MHAWS catalog last year, and I love it.
The gift of food and drink:
Everyone needs this garlic crusher (crush your goals, crush some garlic…
And to blend things (this is the cutest blender I’ve ever seen, and crushes every weird thing my kids put in it).
We eat approximately 7 million more apples now that we own this apple corer/slicer
Last year I got a Le Creuset dutch oven for my birthday, which has revolutionized my ability to make bread. This year, I’m caving and asking for a set of the mini cocettes. Mostly because they’re cute, but I am also very excited to make French onion soup in them.
The gift of art:
I haven’t stopped thinking about this painting since it caught my eye in the Art Institute of Chicago earlier this year.
I bought this New York City advent calendar a few years ago—it’s lovely (as is the rest of the art in the store.
The gift of role models:
(Can I also recommend her new podcast?)
The gift of time:
Inkwell writing retreats (These look amazing, and I might try one myself this fall!)
Marinara Timer Our recommender writes: My favorite website for setting up poms, because you can customize and also share a timer with someone else for co-writing!
The gift of experiences:
New York City is the greatest food city in the world, and there’s no better way to explore it than by eating. If you or someone you know is going to be nearby in 2025, consider a custom culinary cartographies tour from CityWalksNYC—or just eat vicariously through its new substack. (In full disclosure, CityWalksNYC is my partners’ new venture, and that’s how I can vouch for the quality of the guide—and the food).
If you’re not NYC-based or bound, I recommend finding someone who does these tours in your community! It’s the best way to see a place with new eyes (and to eat good stuff along the way)
The gift of giving
Here are groups that are doing some great work in a dark times on issues close to my heart—consider supporting them, or finding the folks doing the work close to your heart and supporting them.
Joe Katz assembled this fantastic list of organizations in every state doing the work to support immigrants in their community—their jobs are about to get a lot harder.
I can’t think of a group more deserving of support than the Campaign for Southern Equality, which supports LGBTQ+ organizing in the south, including running the Trans Youth Emergency Project.
Haymarket Books is trying to send 20,000 books to incarcerated folks.
World Central Kitchen continues to show up and feed people where ever disaster is.
Libraries for the People (I LOVE this group) is sponsoring #warm4holidays, inviting people to make warming kits for people experiencing homelessness and to drop them off at their local libraries. My kids’ school is going to do a joint PTO-Student Council project to make a bunch of these—maybe there’s an organization you’re close to that can make some too?
Jessica Valenti has a wealth of ways to get involved in the battle to protect abortion rights, including a link to support your local abortion fund.
That’s it! Please feel free to make this list better by leaving ideas in the comments. Supporting local artists and businesses is my favorite thing to do, so keep telling me how we can support you! (and look out for the booklist, coming soon!)
With love until December,
Kelly