A Writer's Guide to Auckland
Start at the Central City Library on Lorne Street, where the Sir George Grey Special Collections hold a Shakespeare First Folio, and then go on to Unity Books on High Street. The Auckland Writers Festival comes to the city centre each May, and the Michael King Writers Centre hosts writers in residence in Devonport. Poets and novelists use these reading rooms and cafés, and so do academics turning a thesis into a book. Auckland University Press publishes poets as well as scholars.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Presses · Journals · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Book the heritage reading rooms before you go; the museum asks for a week's notice. The art gallery's library takes walk-ins.
Central City Library is home to the Sir George Grey Special Collections, which include a Shakespeare First Folio and a William Blake manuscript engraved by the poet himself. Book an appointment with a specialist to read heritage material in the Reading Room. Research Central, on Level 2, has research librarians and runs the HeritageTalks series.
The General Library opens daily, and members of the public may come in during staffed hours to browse the open shelves; borrowing takes a paid Community Membership. Outside readers can register to use He Māra Mahara Cultural Collections, from archives to Māori and Pacific sound recordings, in the Level M Reading Room on weekdays. Book ahead for archives.
The museum's research library was formed in 1867. It holds original letters and diaries, photographs, maps, rare books and early newspapers. Book collection material online at least a week ahead, or two working days ahead for original documentary heritage; the library takes up to three researchers a day, Tuesday to Thursday.
The gallery's research library sits on its mezzanine floor. Its archives cover artists and artist-run spaces, and it keeps artist files and exhibition ephemera; the gallery calls it Aotearoa New Zealand's largest collection of publicly available art publications and archives. It opens to the public Wednesday to Friday afternoons. No appointment is needed.
Independent Bookstores
Check the event listings at Unity Books before a visit. Its Auckland and Wellington shops both hold literary events.
Unity Books opens seven days on High Street and has a sister shop in Wellington. It stocks New Zealand and international literature and non-fiction. The children's shop, little Unity, is around the corner on Vulcan Lane.
Time Out has been an independent bookstore in Mt Eden Village since 1988, and book clubs and literary events can use its upstairs room. Staff take special orders. The shop also runs book subscriptions.
Hard To Find sells secondhand and antiquarian books, from rare and collectable titles to cheap paperbacks. It opens seven days and buys estates and private library collections. Call or email ahead if you want to sell books.
The Open Book spreads its second-hand stock through the rooms of a Ponsonby villa, with fiction of every kind alongside cookbooks and music. It hosts readings and runs craft workshops. In winter it closes Mondays and Tuesdays.
Rare Books deals in antiquarian books, maps, autographs and New Zealand material, and its booksellers belong to ILAB, ABA and ANZAAB. The upstairs shop opens by appointment. Phone first.
Dear Reader is a family-owned bookshop on Richmond Road, open seven days. It stocks contemporary fiction and non-fiction on subjects from gardening and architecture to travel. There are couches for browsing and a children's corner.
Places to Write
Britomart has two of these, Daily Bread and Amano. Get there in the morning if you want a long stretch before lunch.
Ozone's Grey Lynn eatery is a bright café built around an open kitchen and bar, serving breakfast and lunch daily. The WiFi is free once you sign in with an email. Groups can hire the separate meeting room.
Daily Bread is a bakery café in the Hayman Kronfeld Building, with free WiFi and staff who leave you to work. Lunch brings the meetings in.
Amano is an Italian-inspired bakery and restaurant across Britomart's historic Altrans and Quay buildings, opposite the harbour, and it opens daily. Freelancers meet and work at its large tables.
Al Brown's Federal Delicatessen is a New York-style Jewish deli, walk-in only and open daily from breakfast. Students and freelancers come for the all-day food, the WiFi and the bottomless filter coffee.
Places to Eat
The gallery's café is on Level 1, looking over Albert Park, and opens daily for coffee and cabinet food. The E H McCormick Research Library is in the same building.
Tempo is Q Theatre's café, restaurant and bar, in the building that houses the Rangatira, Loft and Vault stages. Reserve a table online. Q puts on theatre and dance as well as comedy.
Basement Theatre calls itself home to theatre makers and poets, among others. It has a bar, and you can book a table at its restaurant.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
Look into the NZSA's mentoring and manuscript assessment programmes, and keep May free for the festival.
The Auckland Writers Festival is held each May in central Auckland, with talks and workshops by New Zealand and international authors. Its Schools Programme brings children's and young adult authors to students at the Aotea Centre. Videos of past sessions stay on its website year-round.
The Michael King Writers Centre has supported writers since 2005 from the historic Signalman's House on the slopes of Takarunga. Its residencies run year-round. It also offers short-stay accommodation to visiting writers.
The New Zealand Society of Authors has represented New Zealand writers since 1934 and is affiliated with PEN International. It runs a mentor programme and manuscript assessments, and once a year writers can pitch a polished manuscript to a New Zealand publisher. Writers under 30 have Next Page Aotearoa. Ngā Kaituhi Māori is run by Māori writers for Māori writers.
For Faculty and Researchers
Tuwhera is AUT's open research platform. It publishes peer-reviewed journals and monographs, and its repository holds the full-text theses of AUT postgraduates. Its directory lists diamond open access journals from across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Presses in Auckland
Read a season of new titles from either press before you write your proposal.
Auckland University Press calls itself Aotearoa New Zealand's leading scholarly book publisher. Its list runs from history, law and politics to te ao Māori and Moana Oceania studies, and the AUP New Poets series brings out new poets. It publishes biography and memoir too.
Massey University Press is the publishing arm of Massey University. It publishes books for inquiring readers under the line "Mō Aotearoa, mā Aotearoa": for Aotearoa, about Aotearoa.
Journals Edited in Auckland
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 two or three recent issues, then the author guidelines, before you draft.
Journal of Pediatric Nursing is an Elsevier journal on the nursing care of children and families, from birth to adolescence. It publishes research, evidence-based practice, quality improvement and theory papers, and its editor-in-chief is at the School of Clinical Sciences at Auckland University of Technology. Preparing an article for Journal of Pediatric Nursing
AlterNative publishes peer-reviewed research on Indigenous worldviews and decolonization, written from Indigenous perspectives around the world. SAGE publishes it for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Its managing editor and one of its two editors-in-chief are at the University of Auckland. Preparing an article for AlterNative
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers publishes this quarterly journal. Its editor-in-chief is at the University of Auckland. Preparing an article for Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For New Zealand Writers
Most of these are open only to New Zealand writers, so check eligibility before you start an application.
The New Zealand Book Awards Trust runs the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, which honour New Zealand literature. Children's and young adult books have separate awards of their own.
Creative New Zealand offers the Michael King Writer's Fellowship and the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. New writers can apply for the Todd and Louis Johnson bursaries, and there is a Berlin Writer's Residency.
The Frank Sargeson Trust gives these fellowships so writers can work full-time on a book. The trust also keeps Frank Sargeson's house in Takapuna, which it calls New Zealand's first literary museum. The fellowships took their current name in 2025.
The centre awards residencies at the Signalman's House to New Zealand writers each year, season by season. One is a Māori Writers Residency, and some places go to international exchanges.
The NZSA administers awards for New Zealand writers, among them the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship and the Tāwhia Copyright Aotearoa | NZSA Research Grants and Writers Award. Look for the Shaw Writer's Award and the Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize on its site too.
For Students and Researchers
Students can find scholarships and campus writing prizes on our sister site, Editors For Students.
University of Auckland students can find scholarships, research prizes and writing workshops on this page.
AUT students have a guide of their own, from doctoral scholarships to writing support through the library.
Massey's page covers conference grants and hardship funding, and it points to free help from the university's Learning Advisers.
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 Auckland are listed below.
Read The Bookbindery's thesis notes before you print your final copy.
Studio One Toi Tū, at the top of Ponsonby Road, has a drop-in print studio with three presses, one of them large-scale. It opens on Tuesdays in set blocks through the year for a small hourly fee; bring your own tools and materials. The studio also runs short printmaking courses.
The Bookbindery has been run by the same Auckland family since 1979. Besides thesis binding, it repairs and restores books and does gold foiling. Its thesis notes cover margins, paper weight and fold-out A3 pages.
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.
- Crafting a Book Proposal That Academic Publishers Cannot Ignore
- De-Dissertationizing Your Prose: Stripping Away Academic Language for a Broader Audience
- Presenting Outcomes Data in DNP Manuscripts
- Coding with Clarity: Presenting Qualitative Themes and Excerpts Effectively
- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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