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

The Main Library downtown has an 800-seat reading room and a café. For local or family history, go to Local History & Genealogy in person or book one-on-one help online through Reserve an Expert.

Thompson Library keeps long hours seven days a week. Work in the quiet Grand Reading Room or book a group study room. Visitors from outside the university can use guest computers.

The collections run from medieval manuscripts to contemporary novels and zines, and they include literary archives and the Charvat Collection of American Literature. The reading room is open weekdays by appointment only. For literary research, write to the Curator of Modern Literature & Manuscripts.

Billy Ireland holds what it describes as the world's largest collection of cartoon and comics materials, from original art to archives and manuscripts. Researchers work in its reading room. The museum galleries close Mondays and on home-football Saturdays.

Prologue stocks new releases along with works in translation and small-press titles. Authors read here often.

The Columbus press Two Dollar Radio runs this bookstore and café, and the shelves lean toward independently published literature. Readings and book clubs fill the calendar, along with storytelling nights. It's closed Mondays.

The Book Loft fills thirty-two rooms in pre-Civil War buildings that once held general stores, a saloon, and a nickelodeon. It's open every day into the late evening.

Gramercy is a locally owned neighborhood bookstore that carries signed editions and runs book clubs. Its author events happen in the store and at nearby venues, including the Drexel Theatre and Bexley Public Library.

Clintonville Books sells new, used, and rare books. Its academic shelves, partly bought from Ohio State faculty, cover subjects from religion to anthropology. Local authors come in for signings and readings.

Storyline is a woman-owned neighborhood bookshop in the Tremont Center, and it's open daily. Its book clubs split by genre, from literary fiction to mystery.

Cover to Cover sells children's and young-adult books and holds story times and reading clubs. It also brings children's authors to the Main Library downtown for evening events.

Kafe Kerouac is a coffeehouse and bar near campus that sells used books and records and stays open late. Nobody minds if you hold a table through a long study session, though not every seat has an outlet. Tuesday night is a music open mic.

The Main Library has computers and printing, and the upper floors are the quietest. A writing group can reserve a meeting room free during library hours, as long as an adult cardholder books it.

Roosevelt is a social-enterprise coffeehouse that partners with organizations fighting hunger and human trafficking, among other causes. It's open daily. A second café is in Franklinton, at 462 W. Broad St.

Upper Cup is a neighborhood roaster with a plant-filled café and plenty of seats. It's open daily.

Heirloom is the café inside the Wexner Center for the Arts, and it's open weekdays. The WexStore is on site, and the center's calendar runs from film screenings to talks.

Schokko is the Columbus Museum of Art's café. The museum is closed Mondays and stays open late on Thursdays.

Natalie's is a music hall and kitchen with two stages. I Like It Like That, the bar inside, serves small plates and pizza. Gramercy Books holds some of its author events on the Music Hall Stage.

Thurber House is a nonprofit arts center and museum in James Thurber's former home. It runs adult workshops and a writers' studio that meets in person and online, plus programs for young writers. Author events bring in national and local writers. The museum of Thurber memorabilia is open on weekends.

Founded in 1929, Ohioana collects and preserves Ohio literature, and it holds more than 80,000 books by or about Ohioans. The Ohioana Quarterly reviews recent books. Ohioana also puts on the annual Ohioana Book Festival.

The Humanities Institute runs the Humanities Collaboratory, where faculty and graduate students form working groups by application. Its centers range from Folklore Studies to the Melton Center for Jewish Studies. Humanities on Tap, its public series, brings monthly events to venues around Columbus.

Ohio Humanities shares 77 Jefferson Avenue with Thurber House. It gives grants for humanities projects, Spark Grants among them, and runs a Speakers Bureau and Lumen Magazine.

Libraries Publishing works with Ohio State editors to publish open access journals online. Planning a conference? It also handles presentation archives and formal proceedings, and it offers consultations on publishing projects.

The center runs Ohio State's Writing Center, which gives free help to the university community at any stage of a draft. Writing Across the Curriculum and the Writing Associates Program belong to the center too. The Journal of Writing Analytics is based here.

Ohio State University Press publishes scholarly books, most of them in literary and cultural studies, where its list includes comics, narrative theory, and Victorian and medieval studies. It also publishes in American studies and linguistics, among other fields. Mad Creek Books, its creative imprint, publishes the winners of The Journal's annual non/fiction and poetry prizes.

Two Dollar Radio is a family-run publisher of novels and story collections, now an imprint of Seven Stories Press. It calls its books bold works of literary merit. The press also runs the Headquarters bookstore and café on Parsons Avenue.

Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing is a Sigma Theta Tau International journal. It publishes knowledge syntheses that turn research into practice recommendations, along with large-scale original studies. Its editor is at Ohio State's College of Nursing. Preparing an article for Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing

Nursing Research began in 1952 as the first nursing journal founded expressly to publish research. It publishes empirical studies on nursing interventions and patient outcomes, plus biology reviews and methods papers. Editor-in-chief Rita Pickler is at the Ohio State University College of Nursing. Preparing an article for Nursing Research

Applied Nursing Research publishes peer-reviewed studies that turn evidence into practical strategies for nursing care and education, with an emphasis on technology and innovation. Its editor, Stephen McGhee, is at Ohio State. Preparing an article for Applied Nursing Research

The Journal of Higher Education publishes empirical and theoretical research on higher education in the United States. Its editor is at Ohio State. Preparing an article for The Journal of Higher Education

Wiley's Journal of Clinical Psychology publishes research on psychopathology and psychotherapy, along with assessment and clinical outcomes. Daniel R. Strunk, one of its two editors, runs a depression research lab at Ohio State. Preparing an article for Journal of Clinical Psychology

Children and Youth Services Review publishes multidisciplinary research on programs and policies for vulnerable young people up to age 25 and their families. Gia Barboza-Salerno of Ohio State is one of its three co-editors-in-chief. Preparing an article for Children and Youth Services Review

The Ohio Arts Council, the state arts agency, gives Individual Excellence Awards for outstanding accomplishments by Ohio artists. Fiction and poetry are among the award categories.

Artist Projects grants fund work in Franklin County by individual artists or groups in any discipline. The council's Funds for Artists, which help artists make new work and reach a wider audience, list literary arts among eligible fields, and so does its Legal Grant & Lawyer Referral Program.

U.S.-based African American writers, scholars, and researchers can apply for a residency in the late artist Aminah Robinson's Columbus home studio. The Columbus Museum of Art created and underwrites it, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council lists it with its artist grants.

Thurber House gives this national prize for humor in two categories, writing and cartoon art.

Ohioana gives the Ohio Book Awards every year to books by Ohio writers, with a separate category for books about Ohio or an Ohioan.

Thurber House hosts two residencies in Columbus: the John E. Nance Adult Writer-in-Residence and the Wayne P. Lawson Children's Writer-in-Residence.

Ohio State students will find grants and writing resources gathered on this page.

Capital University students have the same kind of guide.

Otterbein students have a page of their own.

John and Allison run Igloo, a letterpress and bookbinding studio that shares space with the stationery store Paper Tabby in Clintonville. They take custom work, books and portfolios included, and sell hardcover journals.

Columbus Recreation and Parks runs this adult arts center. Printmaking is among its studio classes, and it has two galleries.