If you think of yourself as a writer, chances are you’re going to have more blank notebooks than you can fill in a lifetime, a grudge against at least one stationery store, and a ton of pens. This goes double if you are a writer who has ever tried to get into something like bullet journaling. While most of our favorite writers are not influencers per se, it is sometimes fun to bring a little something from their working lives into our own. No one believes, or no one would admit to believing, that this will actually have any real effect on your own writing except, perhaps, to get you to sit down and face it more often. Isn’t that why we really hoard office supplies?

I can already tell that working on this article is going to be dangerous for my office supply budget, which isn’t so much a number as it’s the idea that I should absolutely not buy any more office supplies. The spinning pen caddy I was influenced to buy by the women of The Home Edit will not fit any more writing implements and retain its structure.

Before we begin, I would like to note that the information is not as diverse as I would like it to be. It is very easy to find Neil Gaiman’s favorite pen (Gaiman has been active on Tumblr for so long that I could probably find his favorite brand of toothpaste if I wanted to), but there is an issue of who is often granted interviews at that kind of length. Whose writing tools get to become “legendary” in the same way as Virginia Woolf’s purple ink?

Let’s dive into the goods here, shall we? Here are some of your favorite authors’ favorite pens.

Book clubs have always been popular, but they boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were unable to leave their homes to attend in-person meetups. It largely moved online since then, prompting many to launch their virtual book clubs. Many celebrities beyond Oprah and Reese started their own. Schools followed suit. Companies even developed book club programs for their employees. Book clubs also became a business by itself, with companies providing setup and logistics for other businesses.

And then brands big and small also jumped on the bandwagon. Media and tech companies such as Netflix and Apple started their own book clubs for their customers. Small businesses also took advantage of the trend by launching various virtual book clubs. In lieu of face-to-face meetings, they did virtual sessions via Zoom. Some businesses, however, went back to doing it in person, pairing their products, such as food and wine, with books and signing sessions. Some even charged tickets for these events.

This trend is not going away anytime soon.

Traditional book clubs like Oprah’s and Reese’s have their own audiences, which are typically adult females. However, there’s a new wave that’s capturing the attention of young people: celebrity book clubs for Gen Z.

A decades-long vegetarian writing about cannibalism in horror novels? That sounds like the start of a bad joke. Yet here we are. Cannibalistic horror is not a subgenre I’ve ever particularly sought out, and yet I’ve realized recently that it’s a subgenre I’ve read quite a bit, sometimes intentionally, often not. Maybe that’s because my philosophy with books is generally the weirder the better, and it doesn’t get much weirder (or more horrifying) than cannibalism. Most of these books incorporate a heaping helping of absurdism into their horror, so much so that some of these books could probably be considered more satire than horror. But don’t get me wrong: there’s plenty of horror to be had, too.

It’s probably obvious to say that these books all come with some major content warnings, but let’s just put it this way: there were a number of books I chose not to put on this list because they just went a little too far. All of these books incorporate cannibalism, which usually also comes with some blood and gore, not to mention murder. If you’re not up for that, this horror subgenre probably isn’t for you. Period.

Now, the real horror begins. Bon appétit!

If you’re a reader of kidlit, then it’s more than likely that you’ve heard of Kekla Magoon, prolific author of over 20 books for children and young adults. In addition to writing books for nearly every age and across a wide range of genres — from historical fiction to sci-fi to contemporary realistic to picture book biographies — Magoon has also garnered multiple awards and honors for her work. She’s the winner of the John Steptoe New Talent Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, and the NAACP Image Award. She’s collected numerous Coretta Scott King Honors as well as being a National Book Award longlist and finalist author. In 2021, she received the prestigious Margaret Edwards Award, given by the American Library Association for a lasting contribution to young adult literature.

Across the wide-ranging genres and topics of her work, Magoon often writes about teens and kids facing injustice in everyday life while still dealing with issues that feel relatable, such as friendship drama, characters wanting to prove themselves, and the ups and downs of coming of age in a complicated world. Her work can run the range from serious to funny, but her larger-than-life characters ground her fiction and make them relatable to readers. When it comes to her nonfiction, Magoon tends to write about Civil Rights and American history in the second half of the 20th century, and she’s written seven biographies for very young writers about famous and influential Black leaders.

There really is no wrong place to start in reading Magoon’s work! One of her more recognized works is X: A Novel, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, which is a novel account of Malcolm X’s teenage years. That’s a great novel to pick up, but below are three books that showcase Magoon’s range as an author and are all excellent entry points into her work!

'Cosy crime' is the new hit genre – but is it brilliant entertainment or twee?

September 2 – October 21, 2023

August 18 – September 23, 2023

The 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist has been announced! Chosen from 163 novels, this year’s shortlist is comprised of six novels that span the globe and the decades. Notably, this year’s entire shortlist is by authors never previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize, including two debut novels — Western Lane by Chetna Maroo and If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery. Novels by Irish writers made up a third of the longlist for the first time in the prize’s history and two of those authors have gone on to make the shortlist, Paul Murray and Paul Lynch. Overall the shortlist is made up of two Irish, one British, one Canadian, and two American authors.

The woman who inspired Lady Gaga's meat dress

When I was first hired as a bartender by the W Hotel in Seattle, the brand was still owned by Starwood, an indistinct consolidated corporation that has since been subsumed into the ravenous belly known as Marriott. There was a lengthy process involved in getting the job. I interviewed twice: once in the HR office and then a second time downstairs with the manager of the hotel restaurant and lounge. After being hired, I attended a mandatory, introductory eight-hour job training that was quite similar to the one I’d experienced prior to beginning a regrettable stint at Starbucks. I was stuffed into a room with about twenty other new hires—everything from housekeepers to sous-chefs to servers to maintenance workers—and we were each inundated with Starwood history. Starwood business policies. Starwood subsidiary family trees.

We watched videos. We read dense packets filled with glowing customer surveys and reviews. We broke into small groups, and we were quizzed about the things that we learned. We won prizes—Starwood-engraved keychains, W Seattle pens, and the like—for each answer we got right. These gifts would be tossed about the room by the two HR workers who gave these training sessions, and they would clap with absurd enthusiasm each time. Their gusto was on brand with that of a game-show host or some seasoned motivational speaker as they shouted into their blouse-pinned microphones.

“And you get a prize!”

“And YOU get a prize!”