A Writer's Guide to Bristol
Bristol Central Library is on College Green, and its Reference Library upstairs holds the city's local studies collection. Lyra Bristol Poetry runs a poetry festival and the City Poet scheme. The Bristol Short Story Prize is international. Bristol University Press and Intellect both publish from the city, and novelists and poets share its bookshops and harbourside cafés with faculty revising an article for Urban Studies or Contemporary Political Theory.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Presses · Journals · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Bring proof of identity to the Reference Library, and email the university's Special Collections ahead for an appointment.
Bristol Central Library is open daily, with study space and wifi. Its first-floor Reference Library holds the local studies collection and family history resources, along with rare items such as early printed books and research material on the history of Bristol's slave trade. Rare items can need up to five working days' notice. You will also need proof of identity.
Bishopston Library is on Gloucester Road and keeps nine spaces for laptop users. It has wifi and a meeting room for hire. The library is closed Tuesdays and Sundays.
Bedminster Library is on Bedminster Parade in South Bristol. It has wifi and computers, and you can hire its meeting room. It closes Tuesdays and Sundays.
Special Collections at the University of Bristol hold the Penguin archives and the Feminist Archive South. The first-floor reading room is free and open to everyone by appointment, Tuesday to Friday. Laptops are allowed. Independent researchers aged 16 or over can also apply for a Day Reader pass to the library's printed collections.
The Theatre Collection is an accredited archive and museum of theatre and live art records, designated as an outstanding collection. Its reading room opens Tuesday to Friday by arrangement, and archive items should be requested at least two weeks ahead.
Independent Bookstores
Check a shop's events page before you go. Most of them run readings or book groups.
Storysmith is an independent bookshop on North Street in South Bristol, and it serves locally roasted coffee. Its author talks and poetry readings take place in the shop and at venues across the city, and it runs book clubs. The shop is closed Mondays.
Bookmarked is an independent general bookshop in Henleaze for readers of all ages. It runs a Translated Fiction Book Club and an open mic night. Author introductions are ticketed.
bookhaus is a member of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers, and its stock leans toward politics and independent presses. The shop hosts book launches and panel discussions.
East Bristol Books focuses on small-press and DIY publishing, including chapbooks and zines. It runs reading groups for poetry and politics, among others. The shop is closed Mondays.
Heron Books stocks about 4,000 titles for adults and children. It runs a monthly poetry series and several book groups, and it is open daily.
Arnolfini's independent bookshop, inside the contemporary arts centre, stocks titles across art and culture. The centre's programme includes talks. Arnolfini is closed Mondays.
Dreadnought Books is a second-hand bookshop in Hotwells. It buys books too, with a particular interest in anarchism and philosophy along with esoteric subjects such as folklore. The shop opens Tuesday to Saturday.
Places to Write
Three of the four are on the Harbourside. For an evening session, try Watershed.
Watershed's café-bar overlooks the harbour and has free wifi. Walk-ins are welcome, and it stays open into the evening every day. The menu runs from coffee and light bites to full meals.
Emmeline is the community café bar inside the Spike Island arts centre, and the venue describes it as a space to work and relax. Hot lunches change daily.
The café inside the Bristol Folk House stays open into the evening Monday to Thursday. The Folk House is an adult education centre, and its courses and workshops include poetry and writing for children.
Arnolfini's café bar on Narrow Quay is run in partnership with Wiper and True and FED. It opens daily.
Places to Eat
Bristol Old Vic and the Llandoger Trow are both on King Street.
The theatre's café bar serves coffee and cake, sandwiches and soup, with free wifi. It opens Monday to Saturday. Bristol Old Vic's Literary Programme commissions new work, and its Bill Cashmore Award gives one-act plays by writers aged 18 to 30 a professional production.
The café bar is one floor below Tobacco Factory Theatres and serves seasonal food. It is open daily. A market runs here on Sundays, and some evenings have live music.
The Llandoger Trow is a Grade II* listed inn. By tradition, Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk here, and the inn is said to have inspired the Admiral Benbow in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. It is open daily.
The Canteen is a vegetarian restaurant and bar that sources its food sustainably. Live music is free most nights, and it opens daily.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
Poets can start with Lyra's slams and workshops.
Lyra Bristol Poetry runs a poetry festival each year that brings poets from Bristol and abroad to the city. Slams and workshops are part of its programme. Lyra manages the Bristol City Poet and Young City Poet schemes.
Literature Works is the regional literature development agency for South West England, a charity in Arts Council England's National Portfolio. Writers can join its Writers' Register and book advice surgeries. It also offers TLC Free Reads and keeps a regional listing of writing opportunities.
For Faculty and Researchers
Faculty with a creative or community-based project should look at Brigstow's funding.
The Bristol Poetry Institute supports the study and practice of poetry at the University of Bristol and acts as a poetry hub for the city. It hosts readings and book launches, including a yearly reading by a visiting poet. It also runs a poetry recitation contest.
The Brigstow Institute is the University of Bristol's hub for creative and collaborative research. Its funding is open to academics and to creative and community partners, and it supports co-production.
Presses in Bristol
Read a few recent titles from a press before you send it anything.
Bristol University Press publishes academic books and journals in the social sciences, with a focus on global social challenges. Policy Press is its imprint.
Intellect publishes books and journals on film and the arts, with lists in media and cultural studies as well. Its list also includes handbooks and book series, and IntellectOpen is its open access programme.
Journals Edited in Bristol
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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 each journal's author guidelines and a recent issue before you shape an article for it.
Contemporary Political Theory publishes peer-reviewed articles and critical exchanges, with approaches that range from feminist theory to poststructuralism. Its two Editors-in-Chief are Terrell Carver of the University of Bristol and Samuel A. Chambers of Johns Hopkins University. Preparing an article for Contemporary Political Theory
Urban Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal for social science research on cities and regions. Its Editor-in-Chief, Michele Acuto, is at the University of Bristol. Preparing an article for Urban Studies
Proceedings B publishes original articles and reviews of broad general interest across the biological sciences. Its editor-in-chief is at the University of Bristol, and it is published by the Royal Society. Preparing an article for Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For English Writers
Short story writers have two competitions close by, one in Bristol and one in Bath.
Arts Council England's Developing Your Creative Practice fund supports individual creative and cultural practitioners who want to learn and take creative risks in their practice.
The Royal Literary Fund makes grants to professional writers in financial difficulty through illness or changed circumstances. Its paid Fellowships place writers in UK universities to help students with academic writing.
The Bristol Short Story Prize is an international competition, judged blind and open to published and unpublished writers in any genre. Shortlisted stories appear in the prize's anthology.
Lyra Bristol Poetry runs the Bristol City Poet role. The City Poet writes commissioned poems and performs at civic and community events. A Young City Poet scheme runs alongside it.
The Bath Short Story Award is an international competition with an award for an unpublished writer and a local prize. Shortlisted writers are offered publication in its anthology.
For Students and Researchers
Students can find scholarships and campus writing prizes on our sister site, Editors For Students.
Editors For Students gathers grants and writing support for University of Bristol students on one page.
University of Bath students have a separate page of grants and writing resources on Editors For Students.
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 Bristol, England are listed below.
Students who need a hardback dissertation can bind it on campus or on North Street.
Spike Print Studio describes itself as the largest open-access print studio in the South West. Members get access to its specialist printmaking facilities. Courses run from one-day workshops to ten-week evening classes.
Bristol Bound is a hand bindery that binds dissertations and theses. It also makes family memoirs and artist books, and it takes on restoration and conservation. The bindery is open Monday to Thursday.
Print Services prints and binds dissertations for the University of Bristol, which requires hardback binding for submission. A hardback takes two working days. Students order through the Student Print Submission portal, and other orders and questions go to print-services@bristol.ac.uk.
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
- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
- Writing for the Peer Reviewer: Anticipating and Addressing Methodological Criticisms
- Structuring the Theoretical Framework: Grounding Your Study in Established Scholarship
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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