A Writer's Guide to Durham, England

Durham Clayport Library is the county council's library in the city centre, opposite the Gala Theatre. It has study tables and free Wi-Fi, and printing is self-service. Writers working on County Durham should ask for the local studies reference section. The library also arranges inter-library loans. It is closed Sundays.

The Bill Bryson Library is Durham University's main library. Visitors can read here on a day pass from the Help and Information Desk. Bring photo ID. Frequent visitors can apply for an annual visitor card, and non-members can pay to join as subscription borrowers. It closes to visitors during the April–May exams and October induction, so check before you travel.

The Barker Research Library is the reading room for Durham University's Archives and Special Collections, which run to over eight miles of archives, manuscripts and books. Cosin's Library and the Sudan Archive are among them. External researchers can book an appointment through the online enquiry form at least three days ahead. Everything is reference only.

Anyone can join Durham Cathedral Library as a Reader. The Sharp Library holds the modern lending collection and a few first-come study spaces, and it opens Monday to Wednesday. Rare books are seen in the Barker Reading Room on Thursdays and Fridays, by appointment booked by email at least a week ahead. Email before you travel.

Durham County Record Office has reopened as The Story, which brings five collections of historic records, documents and objects together with the County Registration Service. The first-floor research area has 16 computer terminals. Some items need several days' notice, so book ahead on the website.

Collected specialises in books by women and serves coffee and cake. It began in 2022 as a bookshop van, then opened a shop on the Riverwalk. Several book clubs meet here, and the shop hosts author events and talks. Self-published and independent authors have a page of their own on its website.

People's Bookshop is a radical shop for new and second-hand books, run by a community benefit society with a manager and around 40 volunteers. Its stock centres on politics, economics, and social and climate justice, and the second-hand shelves run to poetry and literary criticism. It moved from Saddler's Yard to the Prince Bishops centre in 2024. Author talks and poetry readings happen here. It opens daily.

Chris and Miles, a husband-and-husband team, own BookWyrm in the Market Hall. They specialise in LGBTQ+ books and in books from small authors and independent presses. Signings are announced on the shop's social media. It is closed Sundays.

The Writing Club at Collected meets on Sunday evenings. The shop also runs a Quiet Reading Club alongside its book clubs, and coffee and cake are served all day.

Vennels occupies a 16th-century building reached through the old alleyways, or vennels, off Saddler Street. About 150 seats are spread over three floors among original beams and fireplaces, and there is a heated courtyard. Students come here to work over homemade lunches. It is open daily.

Small Island Coffee is on Level 2 of the Bill Bryson Library, with plenty of seating for a long session. Visitors get in with a reference day pass.

The Story has a café and grounds as well as its research area. Plan a whole day here: request your items, work in the research area while they come up, then break for lunch.

The Undercroft is the Cathedral's café, set in the medieval undercroft just off the Cloister. It serves soup, sandwiches, scones and cakes. The Cathedral Library and Museum are in the same precinct. It opens daily.

Gala Lounge is the daytime café inside Gala Durham, the city's theatre and cinema, which programmes spoken word and talks. Clayport Library is across Millennium Place. The Lounge opens Tuesday to Saturday.

Cafédral is a first-floor coffee house with Georgian windows. In the evenings it becomes a small licensed performance space, and it has served as a Durham Fringe venue. The stairs up are narrow. It is open daily.

Ushaw was once a Catholic seminary. Its house, chapels and gardens are open to visitors daily, and it also has collections and exhibitions. The café is open daily.

New Writing North produces Durham Book Festival, a long weekend of books, ideas and conversation in central Durham, with events online as well. Gala Durham is one of its venues. The festival commissions new work, including a podcast series, and runs The Big Read and The Little Read. Its organisers say they would never ask writers to pay to appear.

New Writing North is the literature development charity for the North of England, based in Newcastle. Besides the book festival, it runs the Northern Writers' Awards and groups for young writers, and The Bee showcases working-class writers. In County Durham it has run Durham Writes with the county council, a poetry programme for local residents that included free taster sessions, mentoring and a scratch night.

Colpitts Poetry is a reading series that its host places in a fifty-year tradition of live literature in Durham. Each evening pairs featured poets from the North East and beyond with an open mic for poems and songs. Readings now take place at Redhills, the Durham Miners' Hall.

The Centre for Poetry and Poetics promotes the reading, writing and editing of poetry, and its readings, seminars and lectures are open to all. It presents readings at Durham Book Festival every year and appoints the festival's Book Festival Laureate. Researchers can work on the Bunting Archive at Palace Green Library.

The Institute of Advanced Study gives researchers time and space at Cosin's Hall on Palace Green. Its fellows come from Durham and from around the world, and the Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowships are for investigative journalism. Public lectures and seminars run each term.

Palace Green Library holds Durham University's historic libraries, among them Bishop Cosin's Library and the Routh Library. Medieval manuscripts are part of the Archives and Special Collections here, and the library puts on exhibitions. If you can't travel, ask about the Virtual Search Room for remote consultation.

IMEMS studies the pre-modern world and is the research centre for Durham's UNESCO World Heritage Site. Senior academics from outside Durham can apply for the Slater Fellowship to work on primary sources in the Durham collections. The Montaigne Fellowship supports work on the Montaigne texts held here. IMEMS also runs workshops and events.

Sacristy Press is a small independent publisher in Durham. Its list runs from theology and church history to the history of North East England. It also publishes historical fiction.

IMEMS Press is the scholarly imprint of Durham's Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, published in partnership with Boydell & Brewer. Its series include Studies in World Heritage and Science in Culture, c.350–c.1750.

Critical Perspectives on International Business, an Emerald journal, publishes critically reflexive research on international business and globalization, from multinational strategy to power relations between multinational firms and civil society. Its Editor-in-Chief, Professor Rudolf Sinkovics, is at Durham University. Preparing an article for Critical Perspectives on International Business

The British Journal of Social Work publishes work on social work theory, research, and practice from around the world and welcomes work that brings forward the voices of people who use social work services. Founded in 1970 by the British Association of Social Workers, which owns it, the journal is edited at Durham University's School of Education and Social Work and published by Oxford University Press. Preparing an article for The British Journal of Social Work

New Writing North runs the Northern Writers' Awards with support from Northumbria University and Arts Council England. The awards back work in progress with cash to buy time to write, and with mentoring and manuscript assessment. Some strands are for early-career writers.

New Writing North founded the Gordon Burn Prize with Faber and the Gordon Burn Trust in memory of the writer Gordon Burn, whose home city was Newcastle. It goes to published fiction and non-fiction in English that is "forward-thinking and fearless in its ambition and execution." For its first ten years the prize was part of Durham Book Festival. Newcastle University now sponsors it.

Arts Council England's Project Grants are open to individual practitioners as well as community and cultural organisations. The programme funds projects in the arts, libraries and museums.

The Royal Literary Fund gives grants to professional writers in the UK who are in financial need through illness, age or reduced income. Its paid Fellowships place writers in over 100 UK universities to help students with academic writing.

Durham University students can find grants and writing resources on this Editors For Students page.

Newcastle University students have a page of their own, covering grants and writing resources there.

The Students' Union prints and comb-binds dissertations, theses and reports. Order through its online form and send a PDF if you can. Outside term, requests and collections run Monday to Friday.

NewBridge Print Studio, about 15 miles north in Newcastle, is a printmaking studio and the home of Overlay Press. Its editioning service prints publications and promotional material for the creative sector. Groups can book tailored classes.