Whether you are looking for a gift for the other writers in your life or thinking of ways to commit to your craft in 2026, we put together a gift guide perfect for the holiday season.
BOOKS
We asked our instructors and staff to share the book they’re giving friends and family this holiday season. Take a look at the list below for the readers on your shopping list!
Libby Waterford: For the cozy fantasy lover in your life, I recommend Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. I picked up a copy at Southington’s new queer bookshop, The Enchanted Violet, and couldn’t stop smiling as I read about a retired warrior orc opening up a coffee shop.
Elise Hart Hipness: There’s nothing better in the cold months, than curling up with a chilling mystery. I highly recommend Connecticut author Tessa Wegert’s newest book, In the Bones. It’s the first in her brand new North Country series. With exquisite prose, a chilling murder, and a cast that includes a retired hockey star, a thief, and a tight-lipped local, this is one of those books you can’t put down until the last page.
Jessie McEntee: WWW student Eric Eichhorn just published Ogallala, a delirious romp filled with dark humor. Buy it for lovers of Fargo and Fleishman is in Trouble.
Padya Paramita: I’d love to recommend Authority, an essay collection by Andrea Long Chu, to any fans of pop culture and cultural criticism. Chu dives into a wide array of subjects surrounding the media landscape of the last five to ten years, from video games and TV shows to the #MeToo movement. Her voice is strong throughout. Highly recommend for anyone who appreciates reading well-articulated approaches to pop culture by writers who do so in brilliant ways.
Elise Chidley: Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny is a heartwarming, funny, character-driven story that examines love, family, and community, spinning gold out of the everyday moments of small-town life.
Rahla Xenopoulos: I adored Fagin the Thief by Alison Epstein. It is a reimagining of the world of Oliver Twist, written with great care and insight.
Liz Matthews: In her first memoir, A Truce That Is Not Peace, novelist Miriam Toews attempts to answer the essential question: Why do you write? with her signature voice and style. If you’re a fan of braided essays (which we’re offering this winter!), vignettes, or flash prose, I highly recommend this book or any of Toews’s beautiful and haunting novels.
Sam Keller: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is inspired by the diaries of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife and healer who kept a record of every birth, death, and crime in the close-knit community of Hallowell, Maine where she served. This may suggest the novel is concerned only with every day domestic issues, but it includes murder, sexual assault, cover-ups, corruption, and extraordinary bravery and the frozen setting of the story along the Kennebec River during a fierce winter serves the tension of the story well.
Chris Belden: George Gissing’s New Grub Street is about two writers, one of whom writes character-based fiction that does not sell, the other who writes popular articles and strives to stay on top of the commercial heap. It sounds contemporary, but this classic novel was published in 1891. Reminiscent of Dickens in its humor and twists and turns, but less sentimental, New Grub Street features especially strong female characters.
Amanda Parrish Morgan: This year I’m giving every runner I know Nicholas Thompson’s The Running Ground. I love to run but usually find books about running fall victim to the worst cliches of sportswriting. This book, though, is not a motivational or how-to guide but rather a meditation on a complicated father-son relationship and the snarled intersection of ambition and aging.
EXPERIENCES
Giving the gift of a creative experience to a loved one is the best way to honor and support what makes them special.
Westport Writers’ Workshop Pitch and Publish Conference: Join Westport Writers’ Workshop for a full day of dynamic talks and industry panels, the rare opportunity to pitch your book—including submitting five pages of your work to two literary agents and one-on-one pitches— and a keynote address from acclaimed author Helen Simonson. Connect with fellow writers, deepen your understanding of the publishing world, and end the day in celebration at our Saturday evening wrap party. https://westportwriters.org/pitch-and-publish-2026/
Westport Writers’ Workshop Writing Retreat: Join Westport Writers’ Workshop instructors and writers for an immersive retreat at the Highlights Foundation campus, tucked away in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Designed specifically for writers seeking to refine their craft and elevate their storytelling, you will have daily designated solo writing time, group prompt writing sessions with program director Liz Matthews, craft lectures with author and instructor Julie Sarkissian and screenwriter and instructor Alana Sanko, as well as yoga, and evening activities including readings and film screenings.https://westportwriters.org/2026-writing-retreat/
This transformative experience will offer dedicated time to dive deep into your manuscript, discover new genres and strategies to establish a more regular writing routine, or simply provide the accountability and community that is missing in your regular life.
Gift Cards: Give your loved one the flexibility to choose from any one of our 33 workshops or a specialized one-time workshop that piques their interest and creativity. https://westportwriters.org/product/give-the-gift-of-writing/
BY SUZANNE FARRELL SMITH At my first grad school program, my inaugural class was a writing-heavy course on cultural criticism, co-taught by a famous, cantankerous, prolific author. He told us, in so many words, “Writers must write every day. If you don’t write every day, you are not a writer.”
BY BARBARA JOSSELSOHN Not too long ago, my family and I took a week-long vacation to Sonoma. The weather was glorious, and eager to spend lots of time outdoors, I asked the hotel concierge for the best local hiking trails. She told me that the Jack London State Historic Park
