A Writer's Guide to Brussels
Passa Porta, the international house of literature on Rue Antoine Dansaert, programs readings in Dutch, French and English and has its own bookshop and a co-writing space. Up the hill on the Mont des Arts, KBR holds every Belgian publication, and Tropismes sells books inside the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. Each March the Foire du Livre fills Tour & Taxis. Much of the city's literary life runs in French or Dutch, and novelists, poets and faculty with a monograph underway all use the same rooms.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Press · Journal · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Get a KBR reader's card first. It opens the national library's reading room and the literary archive upstairs.
KBR is Belgium's national library, and every Belgian publication reaches it by legal deposit. The general reading room is open Monday to Saturday to holders of a reader's card, and you can reserve documents ahead through the online catalogue. A quiet study room is set aside for work and research. The manuscripts of the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy can be browsed online.
Muntpunt is a Dutch-language public library in central Brussels, and many of its activities help people practice Dutch. Card holders can come in early on weekdays through Open+. Rooms can be hired. It is closed Sundays.
Riches-Claires is a French-language public library in the City of Brussels network. The City lists it among its free study spaces. It stays open into the early evening on weekdays and opens on Saturday mornings.
The Simone Veil human sciences library of the French-language ULB is in Building NB on the Solbosch campus. Visitors from outside the university can register as external readers, then use its e-resources on the library's public computers. Drop-in help and training sessions are open to them too. The university's archives and special collections can be searched online at catalogue.archives.ulb.be.
AML is an archive centre for Belgian literature, with audiovisual collections and an online catalogue. Its reading room is on KBR's third floor and opens on weekdays by appointment only. Book your seat and documents through the catalogue at least five working days ahead. Bring your KBR reader card.
Independent Bookstores
Most of these shops sell mainly French-language books. For other languages, start at Passa Porta and Librebook.
Tropismes is a general bookshop in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, and its stock is mostly in French. It specializes in literature and the human sciences, with children's books and comics as well. Authors come in regularly for its "Rencontre avec" talks. The shop is open daily.
The bookshop inside Passa Porta sells novels, poetry, essays and children's books in several languages. It is open every day.
Librebook is a European bookshop with contemporary fiction and essays in some 38 languages, including a shelf of European Union Prize for Literature winners. Its Aperobook evenings open the mic to poems and music. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.
SchaerBook is an independent bookshop for adults and children in the Plasky neighborhood, and most of its books are in French. It hosts author signings and literary evenings, along with presentations by local creators. Workshops include bookbinding. It closes Sundays and Mondays.
Herbes folles is a non-profit neighborhood bookshop in Anderlecht with novels, essays, comics and children's books in French and Dutch. It sells plants and local crafts too. Authors read here, and the shop runs creative workshops.
Saint-Martin, in the former Maison Martin Margiela building, deals in rare and out-of-print art books, artists' books and exhibition catalogues. The antiquarian floor opens by appointment. Launches and artist events run through the year, and the shop closes Sundays and Mondays.
Places to Write
Muntpunt's desks and Passa Porta's tables are both booked online, so reserve before you set out.
Passa Porta's shared workspace is for authors, translators, illustrators, humanities researchers and people who work in publishing. Apply through the online form, then book half or full days during office hours. There is a kitchen and a terrace, and the house's reference library can be used on site.
Anyone with an email address can book a free desk at Muntpunt through the Bookaplace app. Scan the table's QR code when you arrive. The building's café stays open late Monday to Saturday.
The Brussels CPAS, the public social welfare center, runs this free study room for anyone aged 16 or over. It is open Monday to Saturday. Sister rooms run in Laeken and Neder-Over-Heembeek.
Places to Eat
Piola Libri is an Italian bookshop and wine bar near Schuman that serves lunch and aperitivo. Its events are in Italian, from book presentations with authors to reading workshops and an open-mic poetry night. Some take place at a second address, Rue du Fort 15 in Saint-Gilles. It is closed Sundays.
Galerie Bortier is a restored nineteenth-century book arcade that now houses a food hall. Second-hand and art-book dealers still trade there, beside Kawa Club, a literary café, and counters that include a trattoria and a taproom. The arcade holds food-and-literature dinners. It is closed Mondays.
This heritage café is run by a non-profit, VZW Geert Van Bruaene, and it is open daily. Sunday afternoons bring storytelling, talks and object theater. Concerts fill some evenings.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
Start at Passa Porta, which programs in Dutch, French and English. The other houses here work mostly in French.
Passa Porta is the international house of literature in Brussels. It holds meet-the-author evenings, debates, poetry and book clubs, and every two years the Passa Porta Festival. Residencies bring in foreign authors, literary translators and ICORN writers. An online magazine carries its podcasts and recordings.
The Foire du Livre is Brussels' annual French-language book fair, held each March at Tour & Taxis. Entry is free with registration. Alongside author readings and publishers' stands, it runs professional workshops for the book trade. Its program is in French.
Maison Poème is a house for poetry and the spoken word, and it works mainly in French. Performed readings, reading circles and workshops fill its program, and it makes a podcast. It also runs a call for writers' residencies.
The Wittockiana is a museum of book arts and bookbinding built on the Michel Wittock collection, with bindings from the sixteenth century to the present. Beside its exhibitions on book arts and typography, it runs hands-on bookbinding workshops. Its website is in French and Dutch.
For Faculty and Researchers
Americans planning a research year at a Belgian university can look at BAEF first.
BAEF has its Belgian office in Brussels. Its fellowships of up to a year, with a stipend and health insurance, let American graduate students and early-career postdoctoral researchers study or do research at a Belgian university or research institution. U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible. Belgians apply to it for graduate study and research in the United States.
The F.R.S.-FNRS is a Brussels-based agency that funds doctoral grants, postdoctoral positions and research projects. Its calls include the human and social sciences. It also gives publication subsidies.
A Press in Brussels
Some of the press's titles are open access in the ULB Digithèque, so read a few before you write.
The Université libre de Bruxelles founded its publishing service in 1972. It issues peer-reviewed monographs, collective works and journals in French and English across about fifteen collections. Histoire, Science politique and Sociologie et anthropologie are among them.
A Journal Edited in Brussels
Our Promise
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.
Frontiers in Psychology is a multidisciplinary open-access journal publishing psychological research, from health and clinical psychology to cognitive science and consciousness research. Its field chief editor is based at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Preparing an article for Frontiers in Psychology
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For Belgian Writers
Apply by the language you publish in. French-language writers go to the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles; Flemish support runs through Literatuur Vlaanderen.
The Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles supports French-language writers of novels, poetry, short stories, theater and literary essays. Its grants run from an encouragement grant after a first book to one-month residencies in Rome or Berlin. Applicants must be Belgian or have lived in Belgium for at least three years, and must have published with a professional publisher.
Literatuur Vlaanderen, the Flemish literature fund, gives work grants for literary writing in every genre, from prose and poetry to comics. It also offers talent-development and travel grants. Some of its schemes are open to translators.
The authors' rights society Scam Belgique awards grants for book projects still at the writing stage, and for audiovisual and sound documentary. Only Scam members in Belgium can apply.
Belgian authors writing in French can use a workspace at Passa Porta at cost price, and Scam residency grants open it to Scam authors each year. During its August translators' residencies in Seneffe, Passa Porta offers two places to francophone Belgian writers.
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 Brussels are listed below.
Le Typographe prints on Heidelberg letterpresses more than sixty years old, and its workshop, shop and office share one building. Its agendas are sewn and bound by hand in Brussels. Custom jobs start with a project form. It is closed Sundays.
Grafik is an illustration shop, gallery and studio in Schaerbeek. Adults can take its workshops in risography, silkscreen and linocut. It also sells graphic novels and limited-edition prints, and it is closed Mondays.
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.
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- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
- Handling Statistical Copy in APA Style: Rules for Symbols, Numbers, and Spacing
- Crafting a Book Proposal That Academic Publishers Cannot Ignore
- De-Dissertationizing Your Prose: Stripping Away Academic Language for a Broader Audience
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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