A Writer's Guide to Albany

The Washington Avenue branch is open six days a week and closed Sundays. Meeting rooms are reserved through the library's online calendar.

The Pine Hills branch on Western Avenue is closed Sundays too, and its late evenings fall on different weekdays from Washington Avenue's.

Manuscripts and Special Collections was set up within the State Library in 1881. Its manuscripts, rare books, and broadsides document New York from the 17th century to the present. Research is by appointment: ask at least 48 business hours ahead and wait for staff to confirm. The 11th-floor Research Room is open weekdays.

UAlbany's special collections are on the top floor of the Science Library and open to the public on weekdays. Writers can work with the business and literary manuscripts or the Mathes Children's Literature collection. The National Death Penalty Archive is here too.

The Albany Institute's research library holds manuscripts and special collections on Albany history and art. Visits are by appointment: email research@albanyinstitute.org at least two weeks ahead, and bring photo ID. Nonmembers pay a fee, and notes go in pencil.

The Book House has been in Stuyvesant Plaza for about 50 years, moving among storefronts in the plaza over that time. Its calendar runs to signings and book talks. Authors can also ask about consignment.

Market Block Books has been in downtown Troy since November 2004, and Book House owner Susan Novotny owns it too. It carries adult and children's books, with a large history section.

The Open Door on Jay Street in Schenectady began in 1971 as a children's bookshop. It carries more than 10,000 titles and keeps a Local Interest section. Authors come in for signings.

Amanda and Chris Goyer opened Lake Bound in Averill Park in October 2025. Its nearly 8,000 titles include local and indie authors, who also get signings and shelf space. Upstairs, a coworking lounge sells day passes and monthly memberships. There is a monthly book club. The store is closed Mondays.

Golden Leaf in Waterford calls itself a witchy bookstore and sells new and used books. Its book club meets at the Waterford Public Library on the third Monday of most months. The shop itself is closed Mondays.

Stacks opened its first café on Lark Street in 2014 and roasts its own beans. Weekends bring brunch. Downtown, Stacks in the Arcade at 488 Broadway has big corner windows, and another Stacks is at 90 State Street.

Professor Java's has three separate rooms and pitches itself for studying and meetings. All of its coffee is roasted on site. There is plenty of parking.

Uncommon Grounds bakes its bagels on the premises and roasts its coffee in small batches. Discover Albany recommends this café, across the street from the UAlbany campus, as an off-campus study spot. Its other Albany café is in Stuyvesant Plaza, the same plaza as The Book House.

Stacks runs the Carousel Cafe inside the New York State Museum, in the same building as the State Library and Archives. The café is closed Mondays.

Albany Distilling makes Ironweed bourbon and runs this cocktail bar and bottle shop on Livingston Avenue. The NYS Writers Institute has held its annual all-day community reading of a William Kennedy novel here; the Legs reading ran from noon to past midnight. There is live music, and DeFazio's Pizzeria is right next door. The bar is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Cafe Euphoria, on River Street in Troy, is worker-owned and operated by transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Its vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian menu runs from breakfast through dinner. Poetry slams and original-music open mics are among its events. It is closed Mondays.

The Writers Institute brings authors, journalists, and poets to UAlbany venues such as Page Hall, and to the State Museum's Huxley Theater, for conversations that usually end with a Q&A. It also runs a film series and the free Community Writers Workshop, and it publishes Trolley, a literary journal. Each year it presents the Albany Book Festival at UAlbany, free and open to the public.

The Hudson Valley Writers Guild is a nonprofit for writers in the Capital Region and beyond. It holds open mics and workshops, and members get an online Writers Room. Its Send It Out posts gather calls for submissions. The Guild also runs the DiBiase Poetry Prize.

Third Thursday Poetry Night has met at the Social Justice Center on the third Thursday of each month since July 2006. Albany poet Dan Wilcox hosts. A local or regional poet or writer reads first, then the open mic begins, and there is a suggested donation.

The State Library holds more than 20 million items, and researchers use them on-site, online, or through interlibrary loan. Bring questions to the 7th-floor reference desk. The library is open weekdays.

Hackman residencies support research in the State Archives' records on New York State history, government, or public policy. Faculty and graduate students can apply, and so can journalists and authors. The award helps with travel costs, and reviewers favor projects likely to be published or shared with the public.

Humanities New York funds and partners with organizations across the state. Its public programs, Community Conversations and the Humanities Unbound reading and discussion series among them, are free with registration.

Urban Affairs Review publishes research from different disciplines and methods on political processes, policy impacts, and governance in urban, regional, and metropolitan settings. One of its co-editors-in-chief is in the Department of Political Science at the University at Albany. Preparing an article for Urban Affairs Review

The New York Foundation for the Arts runs these unrestricted fellowships, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts. Applicants must be 25 or older and must have lived in New York State or a Tribal Nation within it for the past two years; anyone enrolled in a degree program is ineligible. Disciplines rotate over three years, and the writing categories are nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and playwriting and screenwriting. Residents outside the New York City metro area get priority.

The State Council on the Arts funds new work initiated by New York State artists at any career stage, and literature is one of its disciplines. Each application needs a New York State nonprofit sponsor, which receives the grant on the artist's behalf.

The Arts Center in Troy runs the State Council's community regrants for Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties. Artists living in those counties can apply for Individual Artist Grants to create a new body of work or for Artists in the Community Grants. The ART CONNECTS program covers a wider seven-county region.

Saltonstall offers juried, stipend-supported residencies in Ithaca to poets and fiction writers, among other artists, who live year-round in New York State or the Indian Nations within it. Writers who are parents or full-time caregivers can apply for seven-night stays. There is no application fee.

The Troy Book Makers design and bind books, handle printing and eBook conversion, and give itemized quotes. The office has moved to Schodack Landing. It is open weekdays, and visitors are asked to make an appointment first.

Fort Orange Press has been printing since 1905. Offset and digital jobs go through its in-house finishing and bindery, and it offers design as well.

The Arts Center in downtown Troy is a community arts center, and printmaking is one of its studio-art class tracks.