2023 Holiday Gift Guide: Author Picks

Frank Lawson

Lawson is the co-author of POCtober Sketchbook.

• Ben Passmore's Your Black Friend and Other Strangers tells stories through the lens of a frustrated Black anarcho-punk. His social and political commentary is relatable to me and the artwork is pretty slick too!

Damon Mosley

Mosley is the author of Smile for We: Seeing Black Men in a Different Light.

• Sacred Nile by Chester Higgins, text by Betsy Kissam. Rethink Black history with this gorgeous collection from one the most prolific and celebrated African American photographers of all time. This journey through ancient times seen through a modern lens is a great gift to remind us of the beauty of our past.

Maggie Smith

Smith is the current Wexner Center for the Arts Pages artist-in-residence and New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, as well as Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change.

• The Back in Five Minutes cap by David Shrigley. I’m prioritizing rest in the new year, so I love the message of this cap. It’s an in-person out-of-office reply—and a cool fix for any bad hair day to boot. 

Scott Woods

Woods is proprietor of Streetlight Guild; the author of We Over Here Now, Prince and Little Weird Black Boy Gods, and Urban Contemporary History Month; and a contributor to Matter News.

• Tokyo Jazz Joints by Philip Arneill and James Catchpole. Imagine a tiny, smoke-filled cafe that serves you drinks and bathes you in jazz curated by the owner. Now imagine hundreds of places like it all over Japan. This book is a engrossing photographic tour of jazz kissa, where the listening of a Black art form becomes a meditative act.  
• The Death of the Artist by William Deresiewicz. The author interviews hundreds of people in every corner of the arts to interrogate what the actual lives of creative people look like in a capitalist world. Anyone who creates anything needs to read this. 
• Can I Kick It? by Idris Goodwin. A poetry collection for people who think they don’t like poetry. Goodwin’s work is accessible but not trite. Brimming with cultural touchstones from the Wu Tang Clan to Harriet Tubman to Ferris Bueller to Game of Thrones, Can I Kick It? is a mixtape of brilliant ideas and assured lyricism.
• Trust the Circle: The Resistance and Resilience of Rubén Castilla Herrera by Paloma Martinez-Cruz. A moving, powerful love letter to Columbus activism, centered on the life, ideas and actions by Herrera, who passed away in 2019. In a world that’s literally on fire, Trust the Circle is a balm and a call to action in our everyday lives. (And while you’re at it, pick up Martinez-Cruz’s Food Fight. It, too, is amazing.)

Donte Woods-Spikes

Woods-Spikes is the author of So.Long.: Unfinished Good-byes with the Children of COVID-19. He's also a filmmaker, speaker, and creator of the "Stop Procrastinating" apparel seen around town. Visit Woods's website or watch his Tedx Talk, "Young Black Men, Left Out Again" for more info.

• A planner for the year 2024. It's always good to be prepared for the upcoming year.
• A coffee mug. Coffee and tea drinkers could have 2,187,242,350 mugs and they'll love everyone they have. Believe me, I know.
• Thinking outside the Store, there are warm socks for community members without housing. If you see them while driving, having a pair of socks on hand is very helpful for the upcoming cold months. (Editor's note: here's a suggestion for a basic multi-pack of socks for men and a similar style of socks for women.)
• Also, cat food for feral and stray cats in your neighborhood. I mean, cats are amazing, so we should feed them. 
  (Editor's note: there are a number of local charities that take pet food donations, including Colony Cats, PetPromise, and Little Boo Rescue of Ohio.)