A Writer's Guide to Belfast

The Linen Hall calls itself Belfast's oldest library. Writers come for the Northern Ireland Literary Archive, which keeps letters and manuscripts by John Hewitt and Louis MacNeice, among others, while researchers come for the 350,000-item Northern Ireland Political Collection. It opens on weekdays. There is a café on site.

Central is Libraries NI's main library for the city, open Monday to Saturday and late on Mondays and Thursdays. It has study pods. Heritage Services is on the second floor, and staff there offer one-to-one sessions on the newspaper library by booking. The map collection includes Ordnance Survey and geological maps.

This Libraries NI branch has a study area and exhibition space. Its adult reading group meets on the first Saturday of each month. The library stays open late on Thursdays and closes on Sundays.

Members of the public with a genuine need to consult printed material held nowhere else can apply for a one-month Visitor Pass, and Northern Ireland residents can pay for Associate Membership to borrow. Special Collections takes more planning. Its Reading Room on Floor 1 needs a Visitor & Consultation form at least one working day ahead and photo ID. The holdings run from manuscripts of the twelfth century on to historic maps and the University Archive.

No Alibis has been an independent bookshop since 1997. Crime fiction is its specialty, and it also stocks Irish writing and poetry. The shop hosts frequent launches and readings, some of them at Queen's, and its site links to No Alibis Press, a publisher of fiction. It closes on Sundays.

An Ceathrú Póilí has sold Irish-language books since 1983, and it stocks Scottish Gaelic and bilingual titles as well. The shop trades inside the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich and hosts book launches.

paperxclips is a queer-owned bookshop, coffee shop and community space, and it stocks inclusive literature for the queer community. It keeps a library shelf of donated books and holds a weekly Shut up and Write. The shop opens Wednesday to Sunday.

The Linen Hall's second-hand bookshop trades from the former Caffè Nero building on this corner. It sells donated books and literary finds, and the proceeds support the library. It opens Monday to Saturday.

Belfast Books sells new and used books, out-of-print titles among them. Its stock runs strong on Troubles history and politics, and on sci-fi and horror. Book your visit in advance through its #BookTheBookshop service.

Established opens early every day and takes walk-ins only. Its big communal tables suit a long session, alone or with a group. The kitchen serves until mid-afternoon.

Sojourn serves coffee and fresh bakes.

The MAC's café bar serves brunch and lunch Tuesday to Sunday, and the sweet treats are homemade. On show nights you can grab a booth while a bar menu runs later.

The Lyric calls itself the only full-time producing theatre in Northern Ireland, and it stands on the banks of the River Lagan. The café bar serves drinks before shows, at the interval and after.

The Black Box hosts poetry book launches alongside comedy and music. The open mic in the Green Room is free. The bar opens in the evening.

The Wynne & Pym café is inside the Ulster Museum, which is free to enter and covers art, history and natural science. The museum stands in Botanic Gardens. It is closed on Mondays.

Since 2003 the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's has been home to poets, novelists, scriptwriters and critics, and it counts itself heir to the Belfast Group of the 1960s. Its weekly prose and poetry workshops are open to writers at every level. The public can come to readings and lectures, and to the permanent Heaney exhibition in the Weston Gallery, Tuesday to Sunday. The centre also runs a Poetry Summer School and offers fellowships, among them the Ciaran Carson Fellowship.

The Crescent Arts Centre organises this charity festival of author talks and workshops. It presents the Mairtín Crawford Awards. Mentees from the Irish Writers Centre's New Voices: North programme give showcase readings here.

The Crescent runs courses across four terms, plus one-off workshops, from a Grade B listed building on the corner of University Road and Lower Crescent Park. Mairtín Crawford Award winners get writing space here, and past winners and placed writers are invited into its residencies programme.

The John Hewitt Society takes its name from the poet and works from The MAC. Its International Summer School pairs creative writing workshops with lectures and debate on culture and identity. The John Hewitt Birthday Reading is among its poetry events.

PRONI is Northern Ireland's official archive, and visits to its Search Room and Reading Room are free. Search the online eCatalogue before you go. The conflict, web archive, and family and local history collections are online too, and PRONI runs talks and workshops on using them.

The Institute of Irish Studies teaches a one-year interdisciplinary MA. Its Irish Studies Summer School is part of the Fulbright UK Summer Institute programme.

Queen's established the Mitchell Institute in 2016. Its work is shaped by a society that has come through conflict and a peace process, and it brings researchers from many disciplines together. Graduate students are a particular focus of its teaching.

Blackstaff publishes fiction and poetry alongside memoir, history and politics. Photographic books and sport are on its list too. The press gives its address in Newtownards, County Down.

No Alibis Press is an independently owned publisher, and the No Alibis bookshop links to its list. It looks for novels and story collections for adults in any genre, by new, rising and renowned authors.

Education Sciences is a peer-reviewed open access journal publishing research across education, from curriculum studies and educational policy to special education and teacher education. Its editor-in-chief is at Queen's University Belfast, in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work. Preparing an article for Education Sciences

SIAP is the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's National Lottery programme for individual artists who are ready to develop their practice. It can pay for research, time to create new work, training, mentoring or travel. Applications open once a year.

The Belfast Book Festival runs these awards, named for the Belfast poet Mairtín Crawford, with one category for poetry and one for the short story. Published and unpublished writers can enter if they have yet to publish a full collection of poems or stories, or a novel. Each winner gets a stay at a Belfast hotel and dedicated writing space at The Crescent.

This Irish Writers Centre programme gives emerging fiction writers and poets living in Northern Ireland sustained mentorship on a work in progress. Mentees also join group workshops and read at the Belfast Book Festival. The National Lottery funds it through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The Seamus Heaney Centre gives this prize each year for a poet's first full collection.

This page gathers grants and writing resources for students at Queen's University Belfast.

Belfast Print Workshop runs printmaking courses for all ability levels, and members can use its equipment with a technician on hand. The gallery keeps a year-round programme of exhibitions and events.

Belfast Book Binding, established in 2001, prints and binds degree theses. It also does short-run sewn bindings for new books. Old books come here for repair and rebinding.

Finebind hardbinds theses in Heritage Buckram cloth and also offers spiral binding and large-format poster printing. It serves universities throughout Ireland and the UK. Contact it by phone or email.