A Writer's Guide to Cambridge, England

Cambridgeshire Libraries runs Central Library in Lion Yard. It has space to study and meeting rooms for hire, and it is open daily. Writers researching the county will want the Cambridgeshire Collection on the third floor, where microfilm and microfiche readers are available.

Readers from outside the University register online, or in person by appointment if they can't use the online form. Once registered, you can use the Special Collections Reading Room, which holds manuscripts, archives and older printed collections, without booking ahead. Email specialcollections@lib.cam.ac.uk first to check on an item. Poet and TV scriptwriter Kaddy Benyon is the Library's Royal Literary Fund Fellow and gives free one-to-one writing advice to University students and staff.

The modern archives at King's are particularly strong in Bloomsbury Group papers and in the papers of economists around John Maynard Keynes. Arrange a visit through the Centre's Using the Archives page.

Churchill holds the papers of more than 570 political, military and scientific figures, from the late 19th century to the present. It opens on weekdays to up to nine researchers a day. Register in advance and book a seat through the online calendar. Bring photo ID the first time.

Gustave David, a Parisian who settled in Cambridge, started the business as a market stall in 1896, and his great-grandson David Asplin runs it now. The shop sells antiquarian, secondhand and remaindered books. Maps and prints are stocked too.

Sarah Key has specialized in antiquarian children's and illustrated books since 1987. The shop moved into the Haunted Bookshop building, near the church of St Edward King and Martyr, in 1993.

Bodies in the Bookshop sells crime fiction on two floors, new and secondhand as well as collectible. Anyone writing a mystery set in the city should look at the Cambridge section; crime in translation and the Golden Age have shelves of their own. The shop hosts author talks and book signings and runs book clubs. It is closed Mondays.

Cambridge University Press opened this shop in 1992 to show the full range of its publishing, on a site where books have been sold since 1581. It also prints backlist titles on demand. Authors give evening talks here, and the shop is open daily.

Plurabelle specializes in secondhand and antiquarian scholarly books, and its stock runs to about 70,000 books across 122 subjects. It also buys scholarly libraries.

Hot Numbers roasts its coffee at Shepreth. This café has long shared tables and a garden at the back, and its art exhibits rotate. Students fill it in term, and at peak times laptop users may be asked to move to a shared table.

This is the original 1920 branch of Fitzbillies, the Chelsea-bun bakery. One door leads to a coffee shop, and No. 52 is a table-service tearoom for brunch, lunch and afternoon tea. Walk-ins are welcome every day.

The café in the University's Botanic Garden is open year-round, with indoor seating and a terrace. Garden admission is charged, and Cambridge University students get in free with ID. Walk the garden between drafts.

The Courtyard Kitchen is the café inside the Fitzwilliam, one of the University of Cambridge Museums, whose collection runs from ancient Egyptian artefacts to contemporary art. The collections are free to visit. Museum and café are closed Mondays except bank holidays.

The Garden Kitchen runs the café at Kettle's Yard, the University's gallery of modern and contemporary art, set in a house. Entry to the house is free with a timed ticket, and chamber music concerts are held there. The café is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

This Hot Numbers occupies a former Victorian brewery just off Mill Road. Local art hangs on the walls and there are corners for reading. The café also hosts live jazz.

Francis Crick and James Watson announced the DNA double helix at The Eagle, a Grade II-listed 17th-century pub opposite St Bene't's Church. It serves food daily.

The Cambridge Literary Festival is a charity that runs Winter and Spring festivals of author talks, with one-off and schools events through the year. Past events are on the CLF Player to watch or hear online. Anyone can join the Friends or volunteer.

The Cambridge Poetry Festival is a charity that organizes a community-focused celebration of poetry in the city. It welcomes volunteers.

This research group in the Faculty of English hosts poetry readings, seminars and book launches, many of them in the Faculty's Judith E Wilson Studio. It is also home to the Judith E Wilson Poetry Fellowship and a First Nations residency.

This creative writing research centre at Anglia Ruskin University dates from 2024. Its work runs from short fiction and poetry to speculative and children's writing. It hosts live readings and workshops, and its members work with local writers and organizations.

PACE is the University's largest provider of part-time education, with courses for adults of all ages. Its undergraduate Certificates in Creative Writing run from October to June in two strands: Creative Non-Fiction, and Fiction and Writing for Performance. Short online courses and online talks with writers run alongside them.

Founded in 2001, CRASSH is one of the University's humanities institutes and describes itself as among the largest in the world. It offers Visiting Fellowships, along with Early Career Fellowships for Cambridge academics, and runs Interdisciplinary Research Networks and a conference programme. Postdoctoral researchers on externally funded projects work there.

Clare Hall, a college for advanced study, says it has the largest Visiting Fellowship programme in the University. Fellows come on sabbatical for up to a year, or for at least three months that include a Cambridge term. They get full college membership and become Life Members afterward. Earlier-career academics can apply to be Visiting Researchers.

The Open Research team at the University Library runs Apollo, the University's open repository for journal articles, monographs, theses and research data. The University also has open access publishing agreements with more than 11,000 journals.

Cambridge University Press is an imprint of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, which is part of the University of Cambridge. It publishes academic research and reference books, higher education textbooks and Bibles. More than 380 of its peer-reviewed journals are on Cambridge Core. Preparing a manuscript for Cambridge University Press

Open Book Publishers is an independent open access academic press founded in 2008. It publishes peer-reviewed monographs and edited collections, as well as textbooks and critical translations. Every book is free to read online.

The Lutterworth Press calls itself one of the oldest independent British publishing houses, trading since the late 18th century. Its catalogue covers adult non-fiction, religious and children's titles. A sister imprint, James Clarke & Co, publishes academic and theological books.

Arts Council England's DYCP programme supports individual creative and cultural practitioners who want to learn, innovate and take creative risks. The aim is a meaningful shift in their practice that leads to future opportunities. Anyone with one successful or two unsuccessful DYCP applications since November 2021 can't apply again.

Project Grants are Arts Council England's open-access fund for arts, libraries and museums projects. Individual practitioners can apply, as can community and cultural organizations.

The National Centre for Writing runs Escalator for unpublished, unagented fiction writers at the start of their careers in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk or Suffolk. Fellows get eight months of mentoring and a year of Society of Authors membership. A showcase puts their work in front of agents and publishers.

The Royal Literary Fund places writers as paid Fellows in more than 100 UK universities, where they help students develop their academic writing. It also offers grants to professional writers who need short- or long-term financial support.

Our sister site gathers research degree funding and writing prizes at the University of Cambridge, along with workshops for thesis writers.

J S Wilson & Son has bound books in Cambridge since 1830. It binds theses and dissertations of all types, with quick turnaround for deadlines, and can arrange thesis printing. It takes craft binding work too. The University's Student Registry names it as a thesis binder.

The Students' Union print shop prints theses and comb-binds them to University standards. Hard-binding orders are made with J S Wilson & Son. Email your documents in, because the shop takes no USBs. It is open weekdays.

The museum's print room is a working exhibition of letterpress equipment, with Albion, Columbian and Wharfedale presses and examples of Linotype and Monotype printing. On Print Shop Sundays, volunteers run the presses and visitors can print something to take home. The museum opens Friday to Sunday.