A Writer's Guide to Ames
Ames Public Library on Douglas Avenue houses the Iowa Center for the Book, and Dog-Eared Books on Main Street hosts the readings of Iowa State's Emerging Writers Series. On campus, Parks Library and its Special Collections reading room are open to researchers from the community. Two journals are edited here: Flyway, a journal of writing and environment, and the Journal of College Student Development, whose editor works at Iowa State. Poets and novelists use the same libraries and coffee shops as faculty with an article under review.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Journal · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Set up an Aeon account before you visit Special Collections, so your boxes can be requested ahead. The reading room itself needs no appointment.
Ames Public Library has meeting and study rooms, and it runs a Bookmobile. Hours are longest Monday through Thursday. On Sundays it opens only in the afternoon.
Community members and other guests can visit Parks Library and use its public computers and on-campus databases. Guests can also borrow through the guests-and-alumni program.
The reading room is open to all researchers. Request materials ahead through Aeon. Collecting strengths run from agriculture and rural life to design and engineering, and the department also holds rare books and oral histories.
The museum keeps a Reading & Research Room with maps and books. Its website adds aerial views and a WWII veteran database. It is open Tuesday through Saturday. For historic photographs, ask Ames Public Library, which hosts the Farwell T. Brown Photographic Archive.
Independent Bookstores
Two of these are downtown. The Book Shoppe is about 15 miles west, in Boone.
Dog-Eared Books is a woman-owned independent bookstore on Main Street with more than 10,000 titles. It hosts author signings and seasonal events, and it runs book clubs.
Literary Grounds is the library's used bookstore and café, in the lobby. Its shelves hold gently used books, recent bestsellers among them. Purchases support the library through the Ames Public Library Friends Foundation.
The Book Shoppe sells new and used books, more than 45,000 of them. It also stocks journals and sketchbooks, along with jigsaw puzzles and gifts.
Places to Write
Need to write after dinner? Café Diem stays open into the evening every day.
Café Diem is a neighborhood café serving espresso with handcrafted syrups, and it does breakfast and lunch. Discover Ames lists it among the city's places to work and study. The Wi-Fi is free.
Morning Bell is a worker-owned roastery and café with an espresso bar. Discover Ames suggests it as a place to get coffee and keep working.
Café Milo invites guests to sit down and stay awhile. The west location is open daily. A second café, at 3600 University Blvd, keeps weekday hours.
Burgie's has two shops in Ames, this one on Stange Road and Burgie's South at 110 Airport Road. Discover Ames recommends it for its ample seating.
Places to Eat
Alluvial Brewing sits on a rural road west of town, so check its calendar before you drive out.
Cornbred serves barbecue in an old train depot, and it has a covered patio. Discover Ames notes live music there in the warmer months. It is open daily, with brunch on Sundays.
Alluvial Brewing runs its shows as a listening room, and folk and bluegrass acts turn up often on the calendar. Keep conversation low during a set.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
Watch the English department's calendar. The Emerging Writers Series readings are free and open to the public.
Ames Public Library is home to the Iowa Center for the Book, the state's affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Its page tracks Iowa's Great Reads from Great Places titles for the National Book Festival and keeps a list of literary events around the state. At the library itself, look for generative writing workshops and author evenings.
Iowa State's Department of English runs a three-year MFA in Creative Writing and Environment and presents the Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writer Series. Its Emerging Writers Series holds readings of new work at Dog-Eared Books on Main Street.
Flyway is an online literary journal based in Iowa State's English department. Alongside poetry and prose it runs short scripts, visual art, and book reviews. Its sense of environment takes in built and urban places as well as wild ones, with their social and political sides.
For Faculty and Researchers
Nonprofits planning a public humanities program can apply to Humanities Iowa for a mini grant or a major grant.
The University Library's Digital Press publishes open access books and journals, and it also takes on textbooks and conferences. Its list centers on stories of Iowa and the Midwest and on scholarship in Iowa State's academic and research areas. No Iowa State affiliation is required.
Humanities Iowa, the state's humanities council, is based in Ames. It gives mini grants and major grants to nonprofits that serve out-of-school adults, and its Speakers Bureau sends humanities scholars to local events. For poets, it runs the Iowa Poet Laureate program and Poetry Out Loud. Its journal is Voices from the Prairie.
A Journal Edited in Ames
Our Promise
We will ensure that the final draft you receive from us is completely ready to publish or submit. We work with you until it is ready or refund your payment in full.
Read the author guidelines on the Johns Hopkins University Press site before you format the manuscript.
The Journal of College Student Development, the official journal of ACPA-College Student Educators International, publishes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies of student development and student services. It also runs essays on professional preparation. Its editor is at Iowa State University. Preparing an article for the Journal of College Student Development
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For Iowa Writers
Lyrical Iowa takes entries free of charge from anyone with an Iowa address.
The Iowa Arts Council gives these fellowships to individual Iowa artists, pairing funding with professional development. The council also lists an Artist Professional Development Grant and an Iowa Screenwriters Grant.
The Iowa Poetry Association runs this contest in adult and student divisions, from college down to the lower grades. Its annual anthology, Lyrical Iowa, prints 300 or more poems chosen from the entries.
The University of Iowa Press presents both national awards, and the winning story collections appear in its Iowa Short Fiction Award series. Judging runs through the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
The Iowa Review has run this contest in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction each January since 2003. Judges pick the winners from finalists the editors choose. Winners and runners-up appear in the December issue.
For Students and Researchers
Students can find scholarships and campus writing prizes on our sister site, Editors For Students.
Our sister site's Iowa State page gathers grants and writing resources for students there.
Printing and Binding
Off the Grid Editing offers book printing and binding at competitive rates. We handle layout, cover design, and print-ready files once your manuscript is edited. See our book publishing and printing services. Local printers and binders in Ames are listed below.
Copyworks prints course packets and résumés, and it handles mailings. Graphic design help and self-serve computers are available. It is closed Sundays.
When the Manuscript Is Ready
Off the Grid Editing has edited books and scholarship since 2002.
Publishing Scholarship
For a monograph, an edited collection, or a revised dissertation headed to a university press: dissertation to book editing, our guides to academic press requirements, English language editing for researchers, and journal article editing.
Publishing Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry
For a novel, a story collection, a memoir, or a book of poems: fiction and creative nonfiction editing, memoir and biography editing, developmental editing, and our guides to trade and literary publishers.
Every manuscript can also go through copy editing, line editing, or proofreading. The book editing services page compares all four levels.
- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
- Writing for the Peer Reviewer: Anticipating and Addressing Methodological Criticisms
- Coding with Clarity: Presenting Qualitative Themes and Excerpts Effectively
- Handling Statistical Copy in APA Style: Rules for Symbols, Numbers, and Spacing
- The "Ugly First Draft": Reducing Performance Anxiety
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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