Give a gift subscription, plus our 2020 holiday guide

It’s that time of year again. Give the gift of your favorite writer to a friend, family member, or loved one by adding “/gift” to the end of any Substack URL with paid subscriptions (e.g., https://emilyoster.substack.com/gift).

By popular request, we’ve now made it possible to schedule your gift delivery for a future date, so you can get all your holiday shopping done today.

If you’re a writer with paid subscriptions, make sure to let your readers know they can give a gift subscription to your newsletter.

If you’re looking for a gift to give, here are a few suggestions for the holiday season. As a bonus, we’re featuring Substack writers who are also published authors, so you can buy your loved ones a book with a paid subscription to match.

Did you give a gift subscription this year? Share your recommendations with us in the comments!

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Crafts & activities

Paula Forbes

• Substack: Stained Page News, a newsletter about cookbooks.

• Book: The Austin Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from Deep in the Heart of Texas, a cookbook about the food of Austin, Texas.

Clara Parkes

• Substack: The Daily Respite, a brief interval of relief delivered to your inbox every morning.

• Book: Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool, an account of the yarn-making industry, told through Clara’s cross-country adventure as a knitter in pursuit of the perfect yarn.

Historical fiction

John Birmingham

• Substack: Alien Sideboob, a column with humorous takes on the news and whatever else is on John’s mind.

• Book: The Axis of Time, a series of alternate-history fiction that reimagines the outcome of World War II, starting at the eve of Pearl Harbor.

Memoir

Daniel Lavery

• Substack: The Shatner Chatner, a newsletter filled with literary humor and explorations.

• Book: Something That May Shock and Discredit You, a mix of personal and cultural history, told through pop culture analysis.

Cheryl Strayed

• Substack: Cheryl Strayed, a newsletter that includes Cheryl’s “Dear Sugar Letters,” where she answers letters from real people seeking advice.

• Book: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, a memoir about piecing one’s life back together on an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike.

Parenting

Emily Oster

• Substack: ParentData, a newsletter about pregnancy and parenting-based data.

• Book: Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know, a series of books that take an evidence-based approach to pregnancy. 

Emily Writes

• Substack: Emily Writes Weekly, a newsletter about parenting, sex and sexuality, and whatever else is on Emily’s mind.

• Book: Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another, a book for sleep-deprived parents everywhere.

Poetry

Tyler Knott

• Substack: Chasers of the Light, a newsletter filled with poetry, inspiration, and musings on life.

• Book: Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series, a collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper.

Yanyi

• Substack: The Reading, a creative writing advice column.

• Book: The Year of Blue Water, a collection of poems about searching for self-knowledge through multiple identities.

Science

Philip Plait

• Substack: Bad Astronomy, a newsletter for people who want to learn more about Earth, space, and the universe.

• Book: Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World, a book about the science behind a series of end-of-the-world scenarios, like asteroids and black holes.

Sports

Matt Brown

• Substack: Extra Points, a newsletter that goes behind the scenes of college sports.

• Book: What If?: A closer look at college football's great questions, a book about the history of college football's big decisions.

Technology

Antonio García Martínez

• Substack: Pull Request, a newsletter about tech and culture, written by technologists, for technologists, and about technologists.

• Book: Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, a book about García Martínez’s time working at Facebook on their nascent advertising team.

Zeynep Tufekci

• Substack: Insight, a newsletter for people thinking deeply about the world’s hardest puzzles.

• Book: Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, a book about the internet’s role in modern social movements.