30 Gifts for Writers: A Writing Teacher’s Guide for 2026
Most lists of gifts for writers are written by people who sell pens. This one is written by a writing teacher. For thirty years I have taught writers in university seminar rooms, community colleges, at in-person writing retreats, and now online with students on six continents, and I have watched which presents actually change a writer’s year. Notebooks can go unfilled. Mugs chip. What stays is time, attention, and the company of people who take the work seriously.
So this guide to the best gifts for writers is arranged the way writers actually live: by what they need. Some of these cost nothing. Some are the gifts of a lifetime. All of them are things my students use.
How to choose gifts for writers: what they really want
Before you buy, it helps to know what writers are quietly hoping for. In my experience it comes down to four things. They want to be read closely, by someone who takes their sentences seriously. They want company, because writing is lonely and a good class feels like finding your people. They want time, the one resource no writer ever has enough of. And they want permission, a sign from someone they love that their writing matters enough to invest in. The best gifts for writers give at least one of these.
Quick picks by budget. Under £20: a craft book, a hand lens, a literary journal issue, or a handwritten letter about their writing. £20 to £60: the Nature Writing Workbook, a fountain pen, an Ordnance Survey map of their home ground, or a single Footpath masterclass. £60 to £250: noise-cancelling headphones, three or five Footpath classes, or a year’s journal subscription. The gifts of a lifetime: a term-length writing course, one-to-one mentoring, or a place on a writing retreat.
Gifts for writers that give time and teaching
1. A writing course gift voucher
If you give one thing from this list, make it this. A course gives a writer structure, deadlines, feedback and a room full of people walking the same path. My writing course gift vouchers can be spent on any course, masterclass, mentoring or retreat, so the writer chooses. Each arrives as a card signed by hand and sent by post.
2. A beginner’s masterclass
For someone who has always wanted to write but feels intimidated, a single two-hour class is the perfect first step. The Footpath is my series of five live masterclasses in narrative nonfiction for beginners, £50 for one class, £135 for three or £225 for all five.
3. One-to-one mentoring
For the writer deep in a book, nothing replaces a mentor who reads the whole thing. Mentoring gives sustained, personal editorial guidance: someone who knows the project, holds them to their goals and tells them the truth about their pages.
4. A place on a writing retreat
A retreat is the purest gift of time: days away from dishes, email and obligation, with nothing to do but write. My Retreat into the Devon Countryside runs from 30 April to 2 May 2027 at Ashley Court, with Kathleen Jamie leading poetry and prose workshops and Jon Boden giving a songwriting workshop and a performance by candlelight.
5. The gift of an ordinary day
Not every gift of time costs money. Take the children for a Saturday, cook for a week, or cover a shift so the writer in your life has a whole day at the desk. Write it on a card. It may be the most treasured present they receive.
6. A library membership
A writer needs a room of one’s own, even a borrowed one. A membership of The London Library gives access to a great reading room and millions of books for a writer who lives or works in London; elsewhere, a local independent or subscription library can do the same.
Books on craft: the best gifts for writers who read
7. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The funniest, kindest book about the writing life. Perfect for someone just starting out or someone who has lost heart.
8. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Short, strange and luminous. Every serious writer should own a copy, and most end up underlining half of it.
9. The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick
The essential book for anyone writing memoir or personal essay. Gornick shows the difference between what happened and what the story is really about.
10. Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
A master of narrative nonfiction on structure, revision and research. Ideal for the writer who has plenty of material and doesn’t know how to shape it.
11. Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
A practical, exercise-filled guide to sentences, rhythm and point of view, from one of the great writers of the last century.
12. A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
For poets, and for prose writers who want their sentences to sing. Clear, generous and beautifully brief.
Gifts for nature writers
13. Writing Wild by Kathryn Aalto
My own book: the lives, literature, legacies, and landscapes of twenty-five women who changed how we see the natural world. A reading list and a travelogue in one.
14. Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
A celebration of the language of landscape, with glossaries of local words for weather, water and ground. A treasure for anyone who writes about place.
15. A hand lens
A small 10x lens opens the world of lichens, mosses and insects. Observation is the nature writer’s first discipline, and this is its cheapest instrument.
16. An Ordnance Survey map of their home ground
A custom-made map centred on the writer’s own village or favourite walk is a beautiful and personal gift, and an invitation to know a place more deeply.
17. An all-weather field notebook
A waterproof notebook, such as Rite in the Rain, lets a writer take notes in the drizzle on the hill, which is exactly where the best sentences begin.
18. The Nature Writing Workbook
My Nature Writing Workbook (£29) is a guided season of observation and writing exercises, downloadable and ready to begin on Boxing Day.
Tools for the writing desk
19. A good fountain pen
A reliable, affordable fountain pen such as the Lamy Safari makes handwriting a pleasure. Many writers draft first by hand, and a good pen invites them back to the page.
20. One excellent notebook, with a purpose
Rather than a beautiful blank book that feels too good to use, give one notebook with a job: a commonplace book for collecting quotations, a field journal, or a reading log. Write the purpose on the first page.
21. Noise-cancelling headphones
For the writer who works in cafés, shares a house or commutes, silence on demand is a genuine gift.
22. A desk hourglass
A thirty-minute hourglass turns “I must write” into “I will write until the sand runs out.” It is a lovely object and a practical one.
23. A distraction blocker
A subscription to an app such as Freedom blocks email and social media during writing hours. Unglamorous, and often transformative.
Subscriptions and memberships
24. A literary journal subscription
The best writers are the closest readers. Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, Granta, Orion, The Paris Review and Poetry arrive through the year and remind someone, issue after issue, that you believe in their reading life.
25. The Oxford English Dictionary online
A personal subscription to the OED is a luxury for any word-lover: etymologies, historical quotations and centuries of meaning at their fingertips.
26. Society of Authors membership
For a writer with a book contract or published work, membership brings contract advice, grants and a professional community.
Gifts for Winnie-the-Pooh lovers
27. The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh
2026 is the centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh, first published in October 1926. My book walks through the real Ashdown Forest behind the Hundred Acre Wood, and it makes a lovely gift for readers and writers alike in this anniversary year.
Personal gifts for writers that cost almost nothing
28. Their manuscript, printed and bound
Have their draft printed and bound as a single copy. Seeing their work as a book, even an unfinished one, is deeply moving.
29. A letter about their writing
Tell them which of their pieces stayed with you, and why. Specific praise from someone who has truly read their work is rare and precious.
30. Your full attention
Ask to read something they’ve written, then read it properly and talk about it over dinner. Writers are sustained by readers, and you can be one. I read poetry and prose by candlelight at breakfast and dinner to my children while they were growing up. It has left a lasting impression.
Last-minute gifts for writers
My gift vouchers are signed by hand and posted, so please order by December 18 or Christmas delivery. If you find yourself shopping at the last minute, overnight delivery is available, though a little lead time is always appreciated.
Gifts for writers: your questions answered
What is the best gift for a writer? Time and close reading. A writing course, mentoring or a retreat gives both, which is why they top this list.
What do you buy a writer who has everything? An experience rather than an object: a masterclass, a retreat, or a day of uninterrupted writing time.
What is a good gift for an aspiring writer? A beginner’s class and a copy of Bird by Bird. Together they give encouragement and a first real step.
What is a good gift for someone writing a memoir? Vivian Gornick’s The Situation and the Story and a course with a teacher who will read their pages closely.
Is a writing course a good Christmas gift? Yes, especially with a voucher, which lets the writer choose their own course and start in the new year when resolutions are fresh.
A gift that lingers
Experiences shape us, challenge us, and become part of our story. In a world that moves quickly, there is something profoundly grounding about giving a writer the time and company to make something that lasts. Explore all the options and give a gift that endures: writing course gift vouchers.