A Writer's Guide to Geneva

The Bibliothèque de Genève is the city's public and heritage research library, founded in the 16th century. Some of its collections are on the UNESCO register. Access to all of them is free.

La Cité is the largest of the city's seven municipal libraries, and its 3,000 square meters were renovated in 2015. The day's newspapers are on the ground floor, and whole floors are given to music and to digital media. Authors come for readings and workshops all year.

The Pâquis branch keeps its adult collections on two floors, with internet terminals in the first-floor multimedia space. Its author meetings and workshops appear on the municipal libraries' agenda.

The Société de Lecture is a membership library founded in 1818. Members read among its 200,000 volumes in historic reading rooms and salons. Membership also opens the literary program.

Librairie du Boulevard has been a self-managed independent bookshop since 1975. It is strong on essays and novels, and on comics and social and political titles too. Book presentations and readings are on its calendar.

Pages & Sips is an English-language bookshop and café in a two-storey arcade across from Rousseau's birthplace. It is open seven days. Poets read here, and authors come in to sign.

Le Temps d'un Livre is a general bookshop whose staff post regular picks in contemporary literature. Authors meet readers in the store, and children come for creative workshops.

Papiers Gras is a comics (bande dessinée) bookshop and gallery that also sells second-hand comics. The shop holds frequent signings and exhibitions. It is closed Sundays.

Le Vent des Routes is a travel bookshop with foreign literature at the heart of its stock. Guidebooks fill the shelves too, and the cartothèque holds maps from around the world. It is closed Sundays.

Les Recyclables is a bookshop-café on the same street as Librairie du Boulevard. Novels, crime fiction, and English-language books share the room with savoury and sweet café food. It closes Sundays.

Maison Rousseau et Littérature runs writing workshops in the house where Rousseau was born. It also rents out its rooms.

A Geneva remote-work guide lists Pages & Sips among its laptop-friendly cafés and calls it a quieter alternative. It is open every day.

An association runs the Bains des Pâquis, a lake bathing pier with its own buvette. Philosophy talks and exhibitions fill its cultural program. The Bains also publishes the Journal des bains.

Blé Noir serves Breton crêpes made with Swiss products inside the Comédie de Genève theater. It stays open for dinner on performance evenings.

Susan Tiberghien founded the Geneva Writers' Group in 1993 for English-language writers, beginners and published authors alike. It now has more than 200 members from about 30 countries. Monthly workshops and masterclasses run from September through June, some in person and some online. The group also organizes the Geneva Writers' Conference and a Meet the Agents program for pitching work. Its biennial anthology is Offshoots: Writing from Geneva.

Visiting writers give talks at the Société de Lecture, and members join its reading circles and workshops. The NextGen program serves young adults. Staff will help with research.

MRL calls itself the first house of literature in French-speaking Switzerland, and it holds literary meetings and debates on a regular basis. The Parcours Rousseau, an audiovisual tour of Rousseau's life and work, runs on site.

The Fondation Jan Michalski is in Montricher, in the canton of Vaud. A writers' residency and a library share the site with an auditorium, an exhibition space, and a café. Residents present their work in the Jeudi en résidence series.

Researchers in classical antiquity can stay at the Fondation Hardt for one week to two months, with a specialized library in the residence. A scholarship program supports stays. The foundation also convenes and publishes the Entretiens sur l'Antiquité classique, an international colloquium series.

Fondation Brocher hosts researchers from around the world in Hermance. They come for residencies and workshops and for the Académies Brocher. Its focus is interdisciplinary research on the ethical, legal and social dimensions (ELSI) of medical developments and health policy.

The Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, founded in 1951, is listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World program and open to researchers. Search its online catalogue first. Its museum traces about five millennia of the history of writing.

Librairie Droz publishes and sells books of scholarship (livres d'érudition) on periods from Antiquity to the present. History and the history of law are among its fields, as are linguistics and religion. It also publishes scholarly journals and open-access books through OpenDroz.

Labor et Fides describes itself as the principal French-language Protestant publisher. About 1,400 of its titles are available, from spirituality and Protestantism to religions and society.

Éditions Zoé is an independent literary publisher, founded in Geneva in 1975. It publishes fiction and correspondence, with a paperback line called Poche. The literary review viceversa littérature is on its list as well.

The Bulletin is a fully open-access public health journal that WHO has published since 1948, with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries. Most of its editorial advisers hold WHO posts in Geneva. Preparing an article for the Bulletin of the World Health Organization

The Federal Office of Culture runs the Swiss literature awards for authors of Swiss nationality or living in Switzerland. Publishers enter recently published literary works in any of the national languages or a Swiss dialect.

The canton's Service cantonal de la culture gives these writing grants to established writers. Applicants must be from Geneva or live legally in the canton, and they need at least three books with a publisher.

This cantonal grant, partly privately funded, supports a French-language project in literature or poetry. It goes to Genevan writers with at least three books from a publisher, either from Geneva or resident for at least two years. A writer can receive it once.

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia funds literature, with residencies and research trips among its measures. Its Translate Swiss Books platform promotes translation of contemporary Swiss literature.

The Fondation Jan Michalski awards this literary prize.

Editors For Students gathers grants, prizes and writing support for University of Geneva students, most of it aimed at doctoral students.

Courses at the Atelier genevois de gravure contemporaine run from intaglio and woodcut to typography and risograph. Members can use the studio on their own, and artists working in printmaking can apply for a year-long studio residency. It is open weekdays.