A Writer's Guide to Ann Arbor

The Downtown Library is AADL's main branch. Study rooms for one to four people go first come, first served, while the two meeting rooms and the third-floor Community Room are booked online with an AADL card. Local book clubs meet in the Community Room, Literati's among them.

Westgate has four study rooms on a first-come basis and two meeting rooms you can book online. A Sweetwaters Cafe operates inside, next to the reading tables. Schuler Books is in the same shopping center.

The Ypsilanti District Library's downtown branch is a few doors from Black Stone Bookstore. YDL has study carrels and meeting rooms you can reserve online. For local history, start with the Ypsi History Collection and the Ypsi Stories podcast.

The center keeps the library's rare and primary-source collections on the sixth floor of Hatcher Library. Visits are by appointment.

The Bentley is free and open to the public, and staff bring materials to you in the reading room. It holds the University of Michigan archives and what the library calls one of the largest collections on Michigan history, with letters and photographs among them. It is closed Sundays and Mondays. Parking next door is free.

Literati runs reading series in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and several book clubs meet through the store. Its calendar also lists the University of Michigan's Zell Visiting Writers Series. The store is open daily.

Black Stone, founded in 2013, is a bookstore and cultural center built around Black writers and readers. Book launches and author signings happen in the store, and some events move to YDL's Whittaker branch. It is closed Sundays.

Schuler Books, a Michigan independent with four stores, has its Ann Arbor shop in the Westgate Shopping Center, the same plaza as AADL Westgate. It sells new books for all ages, with a children's section and a newsstand. Authors come in for events.

Booksweet is a neighborhood bookstore in the Courtyard Shops, under its current owners since 2024. It sells new books and book-related merchandise and lists its events on Eventbrite. The store is open daily.

Motte & Bailey sells used and rare books. It is strongest in ancient and medieval history and in science fiction and fantasy, and it stocks books about books. The shop also does appraisals and is closed Sundays.

Jessica Tharp runs Book Love Bar, where the coffee and tea are free. Several book clubs meet there, fantasy and sci-fi among them, and the store holds writing workshops. On the first Friday of each month, a free open mic takes poetry and prose.

Third Mind deals in first editions of the Beat Generation and related movements. Each month it features a poet. New items go up on its website every week, and the shop also lists itself as an event venue.

Crazy Wisdom is a longtime Main Street bookstore for spirituality and self-discovery, with shelves running from Eastern philosophy to consciousness studies. Its current operators have run it since June 2025. Workshops and live readings take place upstairs in the Celestial Lounge, and the former tea room can be rented for events. It is open daily.

The Dawn Treader sells used, rare, and antiquarian books, from current paperbacks to incunabula, along with maps and prints. Africa Schaumann has owned the shop since 2022. It buys books and is open daily.

Hyperion roasts its own coffee and makes origin trips to its growers. The Ypsilanti café opens early every day. A second café is in downtown Ann Arbor at 111 W Liberty St.

Sweetwaters has eight shops in the Ann Arbor area, and the Kerrytown café also serves alcohol. Motte & Bailey Booksellers is a short walk away on North Fourth Avenue.

Rosewood is RoosRoast's solar-powered café and roastery headquarters, open daily, with outdoor tables under umbrellas. A second café has served downtown on Liberty Street since 2016.

Zingerman's Coffee Company pours its single-estate, small-batch coffees at its coffee bar on Plaza Drive. It is open daily from early morning into the afternoon.

Blue LLama is a jazz club and fine-dining restaurant with live jazz five nights a week, two sets on most evenings. Reserve online. It is open Wednesday through Sunday.

The café inside the museum calls itself a place to sip, savor, or study. It is open daily, including Mondays, when the galleries are closed. Admission to the museum is free, and the Zell Visiting Writers Series reads in its Helmut Stern Auditorium.

Ypsi Alehouse is a gastropub where local singer-songwriters play most nights. The Theater Shop organizes the Alehouse Poets Open Reading here, with open sign-up before the reading starts.

The Ann Arbor District Library runs the A2 Community Bookfest each year at the Downtown Library. Authors and booksellers take tables at the vendor fair, and so do publishers ranging from small presses to university presses. Author talks and writing workshops run through the day.

The University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program presents this series with the U-M Museum of Art. Writers from Michigan, across North America, and abroad give public readings and craft lectures.

The University of Michigan's Hopwood Program has run since 1930. Its Hopwood Room in Angell Hall keeps a circulating library of contemporary literature and writing resources, along with a historic Hopwood collection. Readings and talks happen there too. The weekly tea is open to all.

826michigan runs free writing programs for students ages 5 to 18 across Southeast Michigan, from after-school writing labs to a yearly student publishing project. Writers can sign up to volunteer.

Michigan Publishing, at the University of Michigan Library, is the home of the University of Michigan Press. It publishes scholarly and educational work in a range of formats. Its open-source Fulcrum platform hosts books, and it also runs the Deep Blue repositories and the ACLS Humanities Ebook collection.

Michigan Humanities is the state's humanities council. Its Touring, Gathering, and MI Museums grants support programs around the state, and it runs the Great Michigan Read and the MIStories podcast.

The University of Michigan's Clements Library funds research in its American history collections with residential and digital fellowships. Most are open to faculty and doctoral candidates as well as independent researchers and public historians. One goes to creative professionals, writers among them. Subjects run from Native American topics and the Great Lakes to cartography and book history.

Dzanc is an independent nonprofit press that has published literary fiction since 2006. Story collections and poetry are on its list too. The press runs contests and mentorships, and its affiliated arts studio, Dzanc House, is in Ypsilanti. Preparing a manuscript for Dzanc Books

The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing. Its scholarly list covers the humanities and social sciences. It also publishes English language teaching materials and a regional list on Michigan and the Great Lakes, and it has an open-access program.

The Ann Arbor District Library founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support local writers. It publishes fiction and nonfiction for young readers and adults, all by authors who live in Washtenaw County.

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine publishes original research and commentary on primary and secondary prevention, along with health services research on prevention and public health. Its editor-in-chief is at the University of Michigan, and the managing editor also works in Ann Arbor. Preparing an article for American Journal of Preventive Medicine

CultureSource and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation give these grants to artists and collectives who live and work in Washtenaw County. They fund artist-led public projects in the county that serve and collaborate with BIPOC communities.

Each year the Library of Michigan chooses twenty books by Michigan authors or about Michigan and the Great Lakes. The list comes with a celebration and a statewide author tour.

Kresge Arts in Detroit gives these fellowships to artists living in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Literary arts is one of the disciplines. The Kresge Foundation funds them, and the College for Creative Studies administers them.

Our sister site's guide for Eastern Michigan University students gathers grants and writing resources in one place.

Dzanc House is an arts studio affiliated with Dzanc Books, and it has a risograph printer. Riso workshops run there, and the Riso x Lab is booked by the hour. The house also holds writing workshops and a community poetry series, and it offers room-and-board or day-studio residencies for up to three artists or writers at a time.

The Secret Lab at the Downtown Library holds Letterpress Open Labs several times a month. Riso Lab and Screen Printing Lab sessions meet there too. Each year AADL also holds a Printmaking Festival with letterpress and hand-printing vendors and demos.