In the digital age, a writer’s portfolio is no longer a list of credits; it is the most important piece of non-fiction: the story of their professional identity.
For any writer networking as a professional freelancer or editor, a compelling online portfolio is crucial. Social media can be useful for making connections, but a professional online portfolio is what sells you and your work.Â
The truth is, we do judge a book by its cover, and the writers in this best-of know that their work is first read by the visual design of their online portfolios. Your online portfolio website can be as simple as a biography and list of published work–which may convey confidence for the very experienced and widely-published. Or, you can add more depth with a CV, essays, stories or blog posts to really forefront your writing. Before making your own, visit these outstanding writer websites for inspiration.
Akwaeke Emezi
Lauded as “a once-in-a-generation voice” by Vulture magazine, Akwaeke Emezi’s prolific, cross-genre body of work includes the New York Times bestseller The Death Of Vivek Oji and the National Book Award finalist Pet. They are an accomplished writer, filmmaker, and artist whose work has also seen them develop a feature film with Amazon Studios.Emezi’s Format site utilizes the Foray template, immediately customizing it with a bold, high-contrast palette—a vivid yellow background paired with thick, stylized black typography. This immediately captures attention, making the writer’s name a memorable, punchy brand. The template’s clean, classic design allows for a vast array of work to be neatly organized across a clear top-level menu, including dedicated sections for Writing, Visual Art, Film/TV, and Music.
Yumiko Fujiwara
Yumiko Fujiwara is a writer, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist whose global perspective has shaped her storytelling. Fujiwara is a seasoned professional whose screenplays have been selected for prestigious lists and international film festivals. She has also directed and created branded content for clients like Google, Toyota, and Uniqlo, and her audiovisual work has been exhibited internationally.
Using Format’s Skyline template, Fujiwara makes brilliant use of a theme often favored by photographers to create a stunning writing portfolio that draws the viewer in with a beautiful cover page that opens to her compelling content. The minimalist design and accessible left-hand navigation provide a clean, elegant experience, with a single scrollable page dedicated to her writing projects. This artful pairing of image and text reflects her background as a visual storyteller, beautifully bridging her work in film and photography with her writing.
Kristen Bateman
Kristen Bateman is an author, editor, and creative consultant and passionate maximalist. A prolific writer, she has contributed features to virtually every major publication, including Vogue, The New York Times Style Section, Dazed, and W Magazine. She has also published a number of books, including The Little Book of New York Style.
Bateman employs the Line template, which beautifully balances her editorial authority with her distinctive personal style. Line is designed to play with minimalism in text, and colour and image in transition; she uses the design fundamentals beautifully, breaking down categories with a playful layering of image, text and colour, then moving into a clean, high-impact grid of publications. It’s a chic and playful site that perfectly reflects Bateman’s style of writing and aesthetics.
kuulikki
Junshu Gu (kuulikki) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and urban explorer based in London, UK. With an MA from the Royal College of Art, her work draws from over a decade of media experience to intertwine themes of escapism, post-truth, and social anxiety. Her formal practice, which incorporates text, painting, sculpture, and time-based media, is often minimal yet precise in messaging and viewer experience.
Gu uses the Horizon template, a theme typically used for its full-view, horizontal scrolling display, to create a stunning conceptual portfolio that blends text and image. The site’s title, “I’m Increasingly Pessoptimistic,” establishes the intellectual tone. Instead of traditional navigation, Gu has customized the upper menu with inscrutable emoticons symbols—a clever nod to the anti-novel and a refusal of easy categorization or title. The horizontal scroll presents projects with striking minimalism, pairing a short, evocative text with images. This customization transforms the image-focused template into an immersive art book, effectively showcasing her writing alongside her visual art and documentation of sculptural work.
Rickie Marsden
Rickie Marsden is an award-winning creative, currently serving as Executive Creative Director at the agency 3rdspace. Marsden has built a career on the principle that “good enough is the enemy,” a philosophy that has earned him numerous accolades, including D&AD Pencils and Cannes Lions. His work is both humorous and heartfelt, often tackling social issues in unexpected ways, such as his universally powerful “Nobody Is Normal” campaign for Childline.
Marsden uses Format’s Aperture template, a perfect fit for a creative director whose writing is for visual mediums. The landing page greets visitors with a dynamic, looping video that cycles through a highlight reel that sets a tone of humor and visual intrigue. The site’s clean grid layout allows the creative assets to hold space beside the detailed project descriptions that showcase the powerful copy, intention and making of campaigns. It’s a fantastic example of a writer’s portfolio that leads with a bold, visual statement while letting viewers into the creative process.
Holly Attrill
Holly Attrill is an award-winning senior creative and copywriter working internationally in advertising. Currently at W+K LDN, Attrill’s background is as diverse as her portfolio, including an advertising award for a product she designed and a former blog, “Tw*ts on Tinder,” that was a dinner party hit. Her work is characterized by powerful, inclusive concepts that drive major campaigns.
Attrill uses the Slate template, a theme designed to set portfolios in motion with smooth transitions and full-width images. This choice is ideal for her video-heavy commercial work, while providing a minimalist text-focused introduction. She customizes the template’s header with a concise navigation that lists each major campaign and poject—like “Coca-Cola,” “BMW Joytopia,” and “Tw*ts on Tinder”. The display of her work is clean and direct: a short, informative text block introducing the campaign, immediately followed by the full-width video asset, allowing clients to quickly grasp the scope and execution of the creative concept. A professional, high-impact presentation for a senior advertising copywriter.
Mary Morgan
Mary Morgan is a writer and visual artist whose practice is firmly rooted in research and theory, with a focus on body politics. Her work seamlessly integrates visual and written components, making the exploration of her portfolio an immersive, intellectual experience.
Morgan utilizes the Horizon template, a theme that prioritizes a full-view, image-focused display. Her landing has been customized for a striking atmosphere featuring a single, moody photograph—and an intriguing project menu. Blending poetic titles with clear categories like “writing & research” and “art and visual work.The “Written Works” page reveals an editorial approach: a clean, minimalist layout that provides direct access to her published work. By offering immediate links to her Newsletter and quotes in the press, Morgan transforms her portfolio from a passive display into an active hub for her writing and community.
Critically, Morgan leverages Format’s e-commerce capabilities to great effect, featuring a dedicated Format Store to sell both art prints, objects and her text-based work, modeling how a creative can generate income from their work autonomously.
Anderson Matthew
Anderson Matthew is a director, editor, photographer, and writer whose practice spans film, video, and publishing, his work explores nature and queer perspectives. He is the creator/editor of the essay anthology Deviant Proposals: An Anti-Binary Journal.
Matthew employs the Horizon Left template, using its fixed left-hand navigation to categorize his extensive, multidisciplinary work: film & video, photography, books & zines, and curation & programming. The “Books & Zines” gallery uses a clean, minimal grid to display his physical and digital publications, immediately making them available for purchase through his dedicated Format Store and showcasing his talent as a writer and publisher. The structure successfully manages an enormous amount of work, from his feature film Baja Come Down to his experimental short films, proving that a single portfolio can effectively house a vast and varied creative career.
Alice Driver
Alice Driver is a James Beard Award-winning investigative journalist from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Her work and writing focus on the American food system, immigration, and unjust labor practices, is driven by a commitment to justice and equality. The author of Life and Death of the American Worker, which won the prestigious Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize, Driver’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and National Geographic.
Driver employs the Aperture template, which is traditionally an image-forward theme, to create a deeply compelling, editorial-style portfolio for her investigative work. The clean, minimalist layout is used to give her journalism and book high-level visibility. The homepage features large, clear graphics showcasing her book’s reviews—with pull quotes from The New Yorker and The New York Times, alongside links to major booksellers, making the site an immediate resource for her work. A dedicated “Journalism” page presents a clear list of her articles, visually punctuated by preview images of high-profile pieces from The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker establishing her authority and impressive publication history at a glance.
Scott Broker
Los Angeles based writer Scott Broker holds fellowships from Lambda Literary and Tin House. A nominee for three Pushcart Prizes and a finalist for multiple awards, his fiction has appeared in prestigious journals including Ecotone, Guernica, and The New England Review. His debut novel, The Disappointment, is forthcoming from Catapult.
Broker uses the Mica template, a theme that prioritizes clean lines and balance, for a highly polished, literary portfolio. The site immediately establishes a professional brand, focusing the homepage on the striking cover art of his forthcoming novel, complete with an unmissable Pre-Order button. The navigation is simple, directing visitors to “Publications,” “Workshops,” and “Editing & Developmental Consultations,” clearly articulating his range of services and creative focus. The “Publications” page is easy to navigate and lists his literary magazine contributions with concise publication details and a link to read the work. This design choice transforms the portfolio into an authoritative, streamlined literary storefront.
With FORMAT, Create a Portfolio that Reads Beautifully
Essential Tips for a Killer Writer Portfolio Website
You’ve seen the best in action—now stop procrastinating (you’re a writer, you know you procrastinate) and build your own. A truly effective online writing portfolio blends compelling work with strategic design.
1. Structure Your Portfolio for Your Audience
Whether you’re aiming for an agent, an editor, or a client, your website structure should reflect your professional goals:
- Journalism Portfolio: Prioritize publication authority. Use a clean, chronological list or grid layout to highlight your best clips, prominently featuring bylines from top news agencies and media outlets. Include a page for awards and speaking engagements.
- Creative Writing Portfolios: Emphasize the visual experience. Feature book covers, excerpts, and your author headshot. Use clean templates to let the text take the stage, and dedicate separate pages for published work, works-in-progress, and literary awards (e.g., Lambda Literary, Pushcart Prize).
- Freelance Writer Websites: Showcase range and results. Group your work by niche (e.g., Tech, Beauty, Finance) or content type (e.g., SEO articles, case studies, long-form). A great freelance writer website proves your flexibility and competency across various content contexts.
2. Focus on Visual Impact and User Experience
A writer’s portfolio shouldn’t be text-only. The best examples, like those above, use design to set a professional tone:
- Lead with Your Brand: Use a high-quality headshot or a striking visual that immediately establishes your aesthetic (e.g., a bold color scheme, a customized font, or a single powerful image).
- Keep Navigation Clear: Use a simple menu structure (Home | Writing | Bio | Contact) so visitors can immediately find what they need. If you have diverse work, use sub-categories (e.g., Writing > Fiction and Writing > Investigative). Break the rules as needed, but know that you need a hook if viewers are to follow.
- Concise Descriptions: Pair each work sample with a brief logline or summary. Don’t make clients click through to a full article to understand the work.
3. Maximize Your Portfolio’s Reach
An impressive portfolio is only effective if people can find it. Focus on these audience-growth areas:
- SEO is Essential: Use clear titles, headers, and alt-text for images (especially book covers and clip screenshots). Make sure your site is mobile-friendly to keep your personal brand at the top of search results.
- Integrate Your Bio: Your “About” section is critical. Write a concise, professional summary that highlights your top achievements first, but also injects a touch of your personality.
- Share and Connect: Integrate social media buttons (LinkedIn, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads) and ensure your portfolio link is in your email signature and all professional profiles.
Need the right platform? Choose a dedicated portfolio builder.
Write words, not code, a FORMAT website will get you a professional look with a dedicated portfolio with customizable designer templates. Our platform built for creatives offers an easy editing process, professional SEO tools, and social sharing features, allowing you to focus on your writing.
Want to see more inspiring websites?
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Contributor
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Julia Martin is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Montreal. With an MFA in Visual Arts and a BFA in Photography, her work has been exhibited across Canada, China, France, and Finland, including multiple artist residencies. She has taught at the University of Ottawa, served on art juries, and has fifteen years of experience as a freelance photographer. Julia's own artistic practice could best be described as "sad stories punctuated by jokes."
Though sometimes it's the other way around.
