A Writer's Guide to Baltimore: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

The Pratt's Central Library is Maryland's State Library Resource Center. Its Maryland Department and African American Department each have their own phone and email, and so does Special Collections. Meeting rooms can be booked. The library closes Sundays.

The Southeast Anchor branch holds more than 80,000 volumes in 27,000 square feet, with a reading garden and free Wi-Fi. You can reserve its meeting rooms, including a large auditorium-style room. It closes Sundays.

The Peabody opened in 1878, and five tiers of cast-iron balconies rise to its skylight. It holds about 300,000 volumes, most from the 19th century, with strengths in religion and in American history and literature. The stacks are closed, so visitors work on the ground floor, which is free and open to the public. Hours change from week to week. Check the posted schedule before you go.

The Maryland Center for History and Culture's research library holds more than 7 million items across five centuries, manuscripts and maps among them. The Calvert Papers and the Carroll Papers are here, along with the McKeldin-Jackson Oral History Collection. The center offers fellowships and a digital collections portal.

The Ivy Bookshop occupies a converted 19th-century house with three acres of gardens. Book clubs meet there, and its Personal Shoppers hand-pick books for subscribers. Some author events take place at partner venues around the city. It is open daily.

Atomic Books focuses on indie comics and small-press books. John Waters receives his fan mail here. The store's reading club and comic clubs meet monthly at Eightbar, the bar in the back.

Greedy Reads has two shops, this one in Remington and a second at 1744 Aliceanna St in Fells Point. Its owner, a publishing veteran, chooses the stock. The store hosts author events and a book club, and it runs The Lost Weekend, a literary festival in Remington.

Viva Books sells new, used, and hard-to-find titles and specializes in used art books. Poetry and music titles are on the shelves as well. The store hosts author talks, and live music with its neighbor Stem & Vine. It is open seven days a week.

Normals has sold used books and music for more than 30 years. It is strong in philosophy and the Greek and Roman classics, and in speculative and hardboiled fiction. Visit Baltimore lists poetry readings and film events here. It is open daily.

The Book Escape sells new and used books and keeps tens of thousands more in storage. Used vinyl and art are for sale too. It is open daily, apart from occasional posted closures midweek.

Ceremony's Mount Vernon café is bright and airy, with seats by the windows and a patio outside. The Johns Hopkins News-Letter includes it in a guide to off-campus study spots. It opens early every day, and the Baldwin Library is on the same street, at 610 Park Ave.

Good Neighbor runs a café and a home-goods shop in a converted house, with a guesthouse as well. The Banner compared working there to working in a well-decorated friend's home.

Mindpub Cafe has plenty of electrical outlets and a secluded couch. It keeps its longest hours Tuesday through Thursday and closes Mondays.

Bird in Hand, a café and bookshop in Charles Village, is The Ivy Bookshop's sibling store. Its food and drinks are locally sourced. From Wednesday through Saturday it stays open into the evening for After Hours drinks.

Red Emma's has been a worker-cooperative bookstore and café since 2004. Screenings and Free School classes fill its events calendar, and it has served as a CityLit Festival venue. It is closed Mondays.

Gertrude's, which John Shields co-founded in 1998, serves Chesapeake cooking inside the Baltimore Museum of Art. Its main dining room overlooks the sculpture garden. It is open Wednesday through Sunday.

CityLit Project is a Baltimore literary nonprofit. Each spring it puts on the CityLit Festival, a daylong event with about 80 authors, and it teaches community writing workshops. It also holds CityLit Stage and CityLit Studio events and runs youth programs.

Writers LIVE! is the Pratt's author talk series, held at the Central Library. Some talks are streamed. Register through Eventbrite. The Pratt's writing programs also include the Light Street Writers Exchange, a writers' group that meets at the Light Street branch.

The Maryland Writers' Association is an all-volunteer nonprofit. Its chapters, a South Baltimore Chapter among them, hold meetings with guest speakers. Quick Notes, its monthly newsletter, covers events and publishing opportunities.

Red Emma's runs a monthly book club and holds screenings and community events in its Free School Classroom. Have an event in mind? Propose it through the form on its site.

The Baltimore Review publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. It has appeared quarterly online since 2012, and each year's work is collected in print. Barbara Westwood Diehl founded it in 1996, and it has been an independent nonprofit since 2004. Look for its Featured Maryland Writers section and its contests.

Maryland Humanities is a statewide educational nonprofit based in Baltimore, and it offers grants. Its programs include One Maryland One Book, a statewide book club. For scholars, it points to Maryland History Day and the Regional Humanities Networks, among others.

The Grass Institute is a hub for the humanities departments at Johns Hopkins. It sponsors scholarly meetings and public events. It also hosts visiting scholars and offers student fellowships.

Researchers can use the Sheridan Libraries' special collections and archives and browse its online exhibitions. A Sheridan research center works with humanities scholars and students on the history of Renaissance books.

Johns Hopkins University Press publishes about 150 new books a year, in fields from history and religion to public health and the Chesapeake Bay region. It also publishes scholarly journals and is home to Project MUSE, an online library of scholarly content. Preparing a manuscript for Johns Hopkins University Press

Apprentice House is an independent publisher at Loyola University Maryland. Faculty built it as a learning lab where students gain book-publishing experience. Its list includes fiction and poetry, and authors work with the press from manuscript development through final book design. Preparing a manuscript for Apprentice House Press

Mason Jar Press publishes books and chapbooks in paperback and eBook. The list runs from memoir to flash fiction, and one eBook collects interviews with writers on writing.

Passager publishes writers over 50. Its journal, also called Passager, appears alongside poetry books and the Burning Bright podcast. The press holds events and workshops as well.

CityLit Press is CityLit Project's imprint, and it runs the Harriss Poetry Prize.

AORN Journal is the peer-reviewed journal of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, publishing perioperative nursing research and evidence-based clinical practice. Editor-in-chief Laurie Saletnik is vice president and chief nursing officer for perioperative services at the Johns Hopkins Health System. Preparing an article for AORN Journal

Quality Management in Health Care covers the theory and strategy of quality management, including how an organization's structures and processes affect patient outcomes. Editor-in-chief Jill Marsteller is on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Preparing an article for Quality Management in Health Care

Formerly Administration in Social Work, this peer-reviewed journal has published research and practice on nonprofit and public-sector human service organizations since 1977. Its editor, Karen Hopkins, is at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Preparing an article for Administration in Social Work

This free, open-access journal publishes peer-reviewed evidence and experience from global health programs carried out under real-world conditions. The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs owns and publishes it. Ruwaida Salem is the managing editor. Preparing an article for Global Health: Science and Practice

This State Arts Council program gives Maryland artists money for working or living expenses. Recipients are picked each year by random selection among eligible applicants. Past recipients include writers.

The State Arts Council's Creativity Grants go to independent artists and small organizations in Maryland, for new work or community-based projects, among other activities.

The Rubys are project grants for artists 21 and older who live in Baltimore City or Baltimore County and have practiced their discipline for more than three years. Literary Arts covers fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and graphic novels. It opens every other year, paired with Media Arts. The program also gives an Alumni Grant and microgrants for early-stage projects.

Passager's annual poetry contest prints its winner and honorable mentions in a contest issue of the journal. The press also gives the Henry Morgenthau III Prize for a first book of poetry.

This page gathers grants and writing resources for Johns Hopkins students.

Printmakers Kyle Van Horn and Kim Bentley run Baltimore Print Studios, a public-access shop for letterpress, screenprinting, and risograph. You can take a workshop or rent studio time by the hour. The studio also offers design services and occasional commercial printing.