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

The State Library sits in the Cultural Precinct at South Bank. In the John Oxley Library, researchers work with original diaries, manuscripts and maps, and the State Reference Library keeps a quiet place to study. kuril dhagun is the library's gathering place for First Nations communities.

Brisbane Square is Brisbane City Council's central library, open daily except public holidays. Its study rooms on Levels 1 and 2 have power points and can be booked for up to two hours a day. Writing groups can hire one of several meeting rooms. There is a literature lounge too.

New Farm Library is a council branch with a quiet room. Its 40-seat meeting room is available around the clock and is booked by phone, which suits a writing group. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.

The Fryer Library was founded in 1927 as the Fryer Memorial Library of Australian Literature, and it now holds UQ's special collections. Its FW Robinson Reading Room also serves users of the UQ Archives. Visitors from outside UQ register online for a 12-month membership, then book an appointment, usually Monday to Thursday. Bring a pencil.

Avid Reader is a general independent bookshop with a full events calendar. Its program runs from author talks and panel discussions to book clubs and writing workshops. Book Bar is its night series.

Avid Reader's children's and young adult shop is next door on Boundary Street. It hosts launches and story times, along with writing and art workshops. Its site keeps a section for self-published authors.

Bent Books is a secondhand bookshop on Boundary Street, with its stock arranged by category. It buys books by appointment, so email photos of the spines first. The shop is open daily.

Archives Fine Books has sold second-hand and antiquarian books since 1985 from the ground floor of the heritage-listed John Mills Building, and it calls itself the largest second-hand bookstore in Queensland. Look in its literature, philosophy and small-press sections. It runs a Book Collecting Prize. The shop is closed Sundays.

Cursive Knives is a literary-fiction bookshop in Fortitude Valley that stocks recent fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Monthly book clubs and writing workshops share its calendar with zine making and movie nights. It sells in store only.

Riverbend Books has been an independent general bookshop in Bulimba since 1998. Watch its calendar for ticketed author talks and Bookchats.

Karen and Michael Weibler have owned Books@Stones since 2003. The shop specialises in Australian fiction and non-fiction and children's books, and it sells nursing and medical textbooks as Allmedic Book Supplies. Launches and the Poets@Stones series are on its program.

Mary Ryan's sells books and music and has a café. Its shops are in Merthyr Village in New Farm and in Milton. Featured authors visit for events.

Queensland Writers Centre members can book a place at Writing Friday, held every week at the State Library. Writing Saturday runs fortnightly. Both follow the Pomodoro technique.

Volunteers lead this free Writing Friday group in the Kelvin Grove Library at QUT. No booking is needed. Sessions run every second Friday in the early afternoon.

Veneziano roasts its coffee at this West End café and runs a training studio next door. Style Magazines recommends its individual tables and booths for laptop work. It is open daily until early afternoon.

Industry Beans fills a converted warehouse in Newstead's back streets. From the tables you can see the working roastery and a coffee greenhouse. Style Magazines lists it among Brisbane's laptop-friendly cafés. It is open daily until mid-afternoon.

The Gallery of Modern Art and the Queensland Art Gallery are free to enter and sit 150 metres apart in the Queensland Cultural Centre. GOMA Bistro and QAG Cafe both serve during the day. The galleries are open daily.

The State Library's café serves coffee, tea, sandwiches and hot food, and it pours alcoholic drinks as well. Working in The Edge? Its own café, The Brink, is on level 1.

Brisbane Powerhouse is a 1920s power station turned arts centre on the river. It programs theatre, comedy and visual art, and it runs artist residencies. Eat Italian at Bar Alto, or sit on the terraces at Mary Mae's, which serves all day. Vertigo is the third restaurant. The building is open seven days.

The Queensland Writers Centre is the state's writers' organisation, running workshops, residencies and Year of the Novel. Members can have a manuscript assessed or work with a mentor. Its site lists the Johnno Award, the Queensland Poetry Awards and the Aurealis Awards.

Brisbane Writers Festival is held on the banks of the Maiwar, with author conversations, a Young Adult program and an international strand. Out-of-season events run through the year. Festival Friends is its membership, and the festival administers the Queensland Literary Awards.

IASH is UQ's humanities research institute, focused on intellectual and literary history and on critical and cultural studies. It hosts Faculty and Visiting Fellows for short stays. It runs public lectures and seminars, and it puts out podcasts.

The State Library's fellowships fund research projects on Queensland's memory, past and present. The John Oxley Library Fellowship takes Queensland history as its subject. Others cover Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, LGBTQIA+ histories and the state's music history, and fellows present their work at Research Reveals talks.

University of Queensland Press started as a traditional university press. It now publishes for general readers: fiction, non-fiction and poetry, along with Indigenous writing and youth literature.

IP is a Queensland royalty publisher founded by Dr David Reiter. Its adult and children's imprints publish fiction, non-fiction and picture books. It is a digital publisher as well.

Boolarong Press publishes Australian history and Aboriginal studies, including titles on the Aboriginal history of Greater Brisbane. Memoir, biography and children's books are on its list too. It also offers printing and self-publishing services.

The Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare publishes peer-reviewed work on telemedicine and e-health, including how different countries and health systems use new technology in health care. Its Editor-in-Chief, Anthony Smith, is at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Preparing an article for Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare

International Social Work is a peer-reviewed journal on social work, social welfare and community development, and it encourages comparative and cross-national research. Patrick O'Leary of Griffith University in Brisbane is its first-listed co-editor. Preparing an article for International Social Work

The Queensland Literary Awards recognise established and emerging writers from across Australia in a range of genres. Brisbane Writers Festival manages them, with Queensland Government support through Arts Queensland.

These fellowships support a 12-month writing project in any genre by a Queensland-based writer with a publication history. Early-career writers are the focus. The cash is meant for living expenses while you write, and professional development is designed with each fellow.

Queensland-based individual artists, writers among them, can apply to this Arts Queensland fund to develop and present new work.

Creative Australia's national grants are open to practising artists and arts professionals who are Australian citizens or permanent residents. Literature has its own assessment panel, and publishing counts as an eligible activity.

UQ students and researchers can find grants and writing resources for their university in one guide.

QUT students have a guide of their own.