2024 Indie Press Literary Gift Guide
The holiday season is fully upon us and that means it’s time for our annual Small Press Literary Gift Guide. This list features fun book merch, discounted book bundles, writing classes, and more. Shop small, support indie, and spread the literary love to all the bookish friends in your life!
Holiday Book Bundles, Subscriptions, and Merch
For the people you really want to impress, don’t just give one gift, give a bundle!
After Dinner Conversation Subscription
The perfect subscription for the friend who fancies deep conversations after all those holiday dinners. An independent nonprofit literary magazine focused on philosophy and ethics driven short story fiction.
Autofocus Holiday Bundles and Merch
A gift for that family member who believes the truth should never get in the way of a good story. Autofocus Books is offering a variety of discounted book bundles for holidays. All bundles with 3+ books come with a free Lives of Writers T-shirt.
Ↄalamari Arↄhive Discounted Book Bundles
Don’t know how to choose a book for a friend? Let Ↄalamari Arↄhive do the work for you! Ↄalamari Arↄhive is an autonomous island of misfit lit, art + music, beholden to no one. Since 2003, Ↄalamari has pushed the envelope of what language can do, publishing over 100 book + album objects (including Sleepingfish magazine + the incorporated 3rd bed + Starcherone imprints). Calamari Archive offers discounted bundles from inventory we have on hand, from 2 for $25 up to the 10 for $50 "omakase/chef selection" (where you describe preferences and we pick for you).
Fonograf Editions Press Membership
The gift that keeps on giving! In 2025 Fonograf Editions will publish eleven books, by authors such as Eileen Myles, Darcie Dennigan, Ahmad Almallah, Kimberly Alidio, and Nora Claire Miller, among others. Becoming a member of Fonograf Editions gets you all those books for just $12 a month. This deal is insanity squared. Then tripled. Then squared again.
Malarkey Book Club Subscription
We’re a big fan of the work Malarkey Books puts out and they have a great Book Club subscription that’s wonderful for anyone who would love to take the guesswork out of finding great new books. A subscription to the Malarkey Book Club will guarantee you (or someone you love) a year of book mail. There's poetry, there's fiction, there's stickers! Malarkey is a small press dedicated to publishing the books that fall through the cracks.
Split/Lip Press Holiday Bundle
It would be an understatement to say we love Split/Lip Press. We simply think they are one of the best small presses around (we are especially obsessed with Sean Enfield’s Holy American Burnout!). For the 2024 Holiday Season they’ve put together a Book + Beanie Set! Order any 2024 title and receive a one-size-fits-all black SLP logo beanie with the purchase—perfect for gifting gifting to yourself and others! Read our interview with recent Split/Lip author Heather Bartel here. Split/Lip Press is dedicated to publishing boundary-breaking fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid books, lifting the transition boards that prevent fluidity and smashing those we cannot pry up.
Stanchion Book Club Membership
We regularly see Stanchion Magazine on best of indie lit mags, and beginning in 2025 they will offer a Book Club Membership. It includes six physical books, advance reader copies of book PDFs, and special goodies delivered to your door alongside books. In the past, these special book club goodies have included handpoured candles, homemade crocheted stuffies, bookmarks, journals, tote bags, heirloom flower seeds, autographs, handwritten recipes from an author, and much more.
Thirty West Publishing is hands down one of the best small presses around. Not only do the publish exceptional books, but they do so much to create fun community experiences for writers. The Westies 2024 Bundle is more than you can handle. Enlarge your T.B.R. pile with our most ambitious year yet: three collaborative novels, two chapbooks, two story collections, and a single novella and poetry collection. Now's your chance to become a Westie without a subscription. Stickers, bookmarks, membership card, and maybe a bonus book included.
Woman. Warrior. Writer. apparel.
Created by Stephanie Han, Woman. Warrior. Writer. is inspired by Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, a revolutionary book that gave a voice to women of Asian descent and their struggle to selfhood. In this spirit, Woman. Warrior. Writer. gear honors all women who write and who strive to tell stories that center women’s experiences. Join the sisterhood of writers dedicated to writing their truth to power.
Okay, so we had to add ourselves to this list. We recently released our dad hat, so you can wear our mantra everywhere you go! It’s the perfect gift for your writer friends.
Writing Classes & Communities
Looking for a gift for someone who wants to level-up their writing life? Check out these writing classes and communities.
Write or Die workshops
Our 2025 lineup is lit! Through bold and innovative workshops, we empower writers to hone their craft, explore fresh perspectives, and embrace their unique voice. Whether you’re starting out or deep into your career, Write or Die is here to celebrate and nurture the creative spirit.
We are excited to offer a special offer for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Use code GIFT25 to get 25% off all one day workshops OR code GIFT20 to get 20% off all multi-week workshops. Offer last until 12/8/2024
The Forever Writers Club Community: Mindset matters. Strategies only work when they make sense for who you are and your unique lifestyle. Forever Writers Club community empowers creatives to break free from self-doubt and limiting beliefs by integrating mindfulness, mindset work, and self-discovery.
The Writing Salon is a creative writing school for adults based in San Francisco. They offer classes and events online and in person. Writers of all levels are welcome, and people from all walks of life are part of The Writing Salon community. Their Round Robins are a great place to jumpstart a strong daily writing practice and they have one starting January 5th. There is something for everyone at The Writing Salon!
Writers.com, the oldest writing school on the internet, offers courses in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. This season, they are offering 10% discounts on all gifted courses and 40% off on all self-guided courses.
WritingWorkshops.com Holiday Sales
WritingWorkshops.com is an official education partner of Electric Literature. They are a home for writers who want to strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of their craft, and forge a path to publication. WritingWorkshops.com's Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale offers 20-30% off all one-time Zoom Seminars! Take 20% off when you register for one seminar OR get 30% off when you sign up for two or more upcoming one-time seminars. Use promo code WWBFCM20 for 20% off one seminar. OR, use promo code WWBFCM30 for 30% off when you sign up for two or more upcoming one-time seminars. Offer lasts through 12/6/24.
Indie Book Recs
The best gift you can give to your bookish friends? Books, books, and more books! Impress them by gifting them a book that hasn’t made it to mainstream Book Club picks. Like discovering a soon-to-be-famous band before anyone else has heard of them, indie books guarantee to make the bibliophile in your life feel erudite and cool! Here are some indie titles and presses that won’t disappoint.
C4G is “Picking up the slack. Publishing books we want to read and publishing them with love.” There newest title The Champ is Here is currently available for pre-order. The Champ is Here by Nathan Dragon, a perfect little short story collection to read right before the new year. 10 years of hard work. "[The narrators in CHAMP] daydream themselves into boxers, pumpkins, and drowning victims. Parakeets die like bats, and laborers only know they exist when their workplace’s punch-in clock confirms: “IN AT ALL.” Read our interview with the founders here.
A small, not-for-profit publisher run by authors, Fiction Collective Two is a hub for artistically adventurous, non-traditional fiction. They have published more than two hundred books, and continue to publish six new books every year. We recommend starting with Tannery Bay by Steven Dunn and Katie Jean Shinkle (read an interview with the authors here); Double Check for Sleeping Children by Kirstin Allio; The Flat Woman by Vanessa Saunders; The Castle by Seth Rogoff; and The Houseboat Veronica by Josh Bell
Great Place Books publishes literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and work in translation. Their mission is to be a home for rigorous, weird, beautiful books—and their readers. We recommend Cascade by Julia Hannafin. You can read our interview with the author here. In addition to book publishing, A Great Place Books also offers regular seminars, including an upcoming class on the work of Joy Williams.
June Road Press is a friendly little poetry press based in Pennsylvania, publishing just two finely crafted full-length collections each fall with a focus on first or second books by women. Use the promo code FESTIVE all season for $3 off any direct order from the press website—and check out their recently published titles: Violeta Garcia-Mendoza's Songs For the Land-Bound and Abbie Kiefer's Certain Shelter! They also have cute pins and magnets to remind you that good poetry has staying power.
KERNPUNKT is a home for experimental writing that believes in art over entertainment. During the month of December, all KERNPUNKT titles will be on sale. Celebrate the end of the year with thought-provoking, experimental books that treat literature as an art form.
kith books is a TransMad Cripqueer owned and operated press that exists to platform predominantly trans, Mad, queer, and disabled creators.
Lefty Blondie Press promotes the poetry of woman-identifying and non-binary people. LPB publishes limited runs of handbound, hand-cut, and hand-numbered chapbooks; handset letterpress broadsides and bookmarks printed on exquisite paper for engaging, unique, hand-numbered pieces to display and share.
Looking for an artsy and literary stocking stuffer? tiny wren chapbooks fit perfectly in a pocket, a stocking, or a hidden compartment. Printed on linen paper, they are pleasing to hold and pleasurable to read. Each chapbook contains beautifully crafted, tiny poems that feed mind, soul, and heart.
What Books Press was founded in 2009 by a like-minded writers in Los Angeles who came together to create an outlet for groundbreaking fiction, poetry, and translation, with extraordinary art on every cover. Many What Books Press authors are, like What Books Press, Californian, and take a keen interest in work that originates in, mirrors, fantasizes on, and disassembles our special left coast circumstances.
Wonder publishes innovative writing of all kinds. We recommend starting with Precious Okoyomon’s debut book of poems But Did You Die?
