A Writer's Guide to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois

Bloomington Public Library books its study rooms and recording studios up to two weeks ahead. A writing group can reserve a Community Room up to twice a month, and an author giving a talk there can ask approval to sell their own books. Special Collections keeps a McLean County Authors Collection.

Normal Public Library has been in its College Avenue building since 1973. The first floor has study pods and a small workspace for up to four, bookable for two hours at a time and up to a week ahead. Civic, cultural and educational groups can book the basement Community Room once a month.

Milner is Illinois State's main library, on College Avenue across from the Bone Student Center. It has a quiet floor. Visitors park in the Bone Student Center lot just north of the library.

The Tate Archives, on the fourth floor of Illinois Wesleyan's Ames Library, welcome independent researchers and community groups. The holdings include books from the 12th century to the present and the records of local environmental activists' organizations. Arrange a visit by email.

The McLean County Museum of History keeps a non-circulating research library on McLean County and Central Illinois, with archives from the 1820s to the present. Researchers can use digitized city directories from 1855 to 1920 and the Pantagraph Negatives Collection. Research staff answer questions through the museum's contact form. The entrance is on Washington Street, and the museum is closed Sundays.

Bobzbay, in downtown Bloomington, has sold used, new and out-of-print books since 2009. Readers can trade books in for store credit, and the store takes special orders. Local authors can reach it through the author-inquiries page on its site.

Graham Crackers sells comics a short walk from Illinois State, with a deep wall of back issues, graphic novels and manga. New issues arrive weekly. Regulars can keep a pull list. The shop belongs to a small Illinois comics chain.

Jamie and Andy Hand opened Emerald & Amethyst in January 2025 on Route 66 in downtown Lexington, northeast of Normal. It sells books in many genres along with tabletop games, and it has a café area with seating. The free Quiet Reading Club meets on Friday evenings: an hour of talk, then an hour of reading. The store is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Coffee Hound roasts its own beans through Sirius Roasters, which began in 2015 as an offshoot of the cafés. The Uptown café is open daily, with WiFi for customers.

Coffee Hound's downtown Bloomington café is open daily. Customers get WiFi.

Co:Create is a coworking space in east Bloomington that sells day passes. Its shared coworking pass covers desks and café tables, the espresso bar and Wi-Fi. Writers who need a closed door can book one of six conference rooms or rent a private office.

LVLUP is open daily, with plenty of seating and an outdoor patio. Its community room can be reserved for a meeting or for quiet study.

The Coffeehouse has served Uptown Normal since 1996. The family that runs it roasts its own coffee and cooks a vegetarian and vegan menu. Local artists' work rotates on the west wall, and the café can be booked for events.

Jazz UpFront books live jazz, blues and soul, among other styles, for a 21-and-over crowd in downtown Bloomington. Poets can sign up for the Wednesday Open Stage. Expect craft cocktails.

Lucia Getsi, a longtime editor of Spoon River Poetry Review and professor emerita at Illinois State, endowed this annual reading in 2013. It brings award-winning poets to town each spring. Past readings have been held at the Normal Theater in Uptown Normal, with the English departments at Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan among the sponsors.

Each year Illinois Wesleyan's English department brings a writer or scholar to its Bloomington campus through the Colwell series. Poets and fiction writers have been among the guests. The series is tied to the R. Forrest Colwell Chair of English, established in 1972.

The Illinois State Poetry Society promotes poetry in all its forms and features its members' work. Its chapters nearest Bloomington and Normal are in Pontiac and Champaign. The Pontiac chapter meets on Zoom and draws members from beyond Pontiac.

Milner's Special Collections hold rare and fine books from the 1400s to the present and the H.K. Sage Lincoln Collection. The circus and allied arts archive keeps route books, posters and costumes. Children's literature includes the papers of author Lois Lenski. Write to milnerspc@IllinoisState.edu before a visit so staff can have materials pulled.

ISU ReD is Illinois State's open access repository. Anyone can read the theses and dissertations it holds, along with articles, reports, datasets and journals from the university community.

Illinois Humanities is the state's public humanities organization, supported by the NEH and the Illinois General Assembly. It runs the Road Scholars speakers bureau and community conversation programs. The Illinois State Poet Laureate is in residence there.

The Publications Unit is the publishing and teaching arm of Illinois State's English department, where graduate assistants and undergraduate interns gain hands-on publishing experience on its presses and journals. It publishes Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora and Spoon River Poetry Review. Its Downstate Legacies imprint brings out one or two books a year by Illinois and Midwest writers working outside the big metro areas. It also handles book production for FC2.

Rhetoric Review publishes scholarship across rhetoric and writing, from history and theory to cultural studies and technology. Its editor, Elise Verzosa Hurley, teaches at Illinois State University in Normal. Routledge (Taylor & Francis) publishes it. Preparing an article for Rhetoric Review

The Illinois Arts Council's Creative Projects Grant funds an individual artist's project that ends in a public release or presentation of the work. Applicants must be at least 21 and have lived in Illinois for a year. Students in degree programs are ineligible unless they are Ph.D. candidates who have finished their coursework.

Illinois Humanities gives Solo Project Grants to individuals located and working in Illinois for public humanities work. Literary works and zines qualify, as do oral history and community journalism. Small Illinois nonprofits can apply too.

The Society of Midland Authors has given juried book awards every year since its founding in 1915. Categories include fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's books. Authors qualify by living in, being born in, or having strong ties to one of twelve Midwest states, Illinois among them.

The Illinois State Poetry Society runs an annual contest for original, unpublished poems in several categories, open to members and non-members. Members who lived in Illinois when their poetry book came out can enter its Book of the Year contest.

The Illinois State Poet Laureate is an honorary post. A committee of experts selects the laureate and the Governor makes the appointment. The laureate brings poetry to people across Illinois through readings and programs, in residence at Illinois Humanities.

PIP prints books in small or large runs, paperback or hardback. Bindings include perfect-bound and saddle-stitched. It prints fiction and nonfiction, and its samples include a self-published title.