A Writer's Guide to Hartford

The main branch of Hartford Public Library is open daily, and you can reserve a room through the library's website. It houses the Hartford History Center. Its collections run from books and periodicals to manuscripts and photographs of the city.

The State Library works out of the State Library and Supreme Court Building on Capitol Avenue. Its History and Genealogy unit holds Connecticut vital records and newspapers, and the library also keeps the State Archives, government information and legislative histories. It is open weekdays and closed on state holidays.

Trinity's public research library holds rare books, special collections and the college archives. Anyone can visit on weekdays. To work with the collections, email or call for an appointment; staff also answer research questions from the public by email or video.

The museum's Waterman Research Center is open Tuesday through Saturday, always by appointment. It offers research fellowships and an online collection search. If you would rather hire help, it keeps a list of independent researchers.

River Bend's West Hartford store is on Park Road, right next door to AC Petersen. It runs book clubs, and its event listings include programs at Playhouse on Park.

The Glastonbury store, about 8 miles southeast of downtown Hartford, is open daily. Like the West Hartford shop, it sells books and audiobooks.

The Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore on Main Street calls itself Middletown's independent bookstore. It hosts author events and workshops, and book clubs meet there.

The Wicked Press sells new and used books and runs a coffee bar. Its specialties include horror and mystery, along with romance and science fiction. Its book club is The Wicked Readers Society.

Harriet's Writing Room is Stowe's former bedroom in the Stowe House, furnished with a chair and a small table. You book it for one or two hours. Bring pencil and paper or a laptop. Food and drink stay with staff. Sessions run Mondays and Tuesdays or by special arrangement.

A small group gets three hours of uninterrupted writing time in Twain's own library. The room has no outlets, so charge your laptop fully before you come. For handwriting, bring pencils only. Ticketed sessions go up on the program page as they are scheduled.

Victus is a Hartford coffee shop and roaster with a café on Main Street downtown. A study-spot directory lists fast Wi-Fi and room for group study.

Semilla serves coffee and tea drinks, with free Wi-Fi and seats indoors and out. It hosts events from time to time, and you can use the space for one of your own.

BMuse is the café at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Main Street art museum that dates itself to 1842. It is open whenever the museum is, Wednesday through Sunday.

Story and Soil is an independently owned coffee and tea café on Capitol Avenue, open daily. The café is 500 square feet.

Cafe Louise runs this seasonal café on the second floor of the Mark Twain House visitor center, open May through October. It serves sandwiches and salads with coffee, and it pours beer and wine. The Wi-Fi is free.

Twain's Hartford home is now a museum with a section for writers called I'm a Writer, where you will find classes and workshops. It also gives the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.

The Stowe Center for Literary Activism is a museum and program center in Stowe's Hartford home. It presents the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. Salons at Stowe and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Symposium are among its other programs.

Friends & Enemies of Wallace Stevens sponsors readings and events in the poet's honor. Its Wallace Stevens Walk follows his daily route from the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company to his home on Westerly Terrace, marked with numbered stones. Each year brings a Birthday Bash with a guest speaker, and in summer a Rose Garden Reading of Connecticut poets in Elizabeth Park. The group also has a student poetry prize.

The Connecticut Center for the Book, a program of CT Humanities, keeps a CT Authors directory that Connecticut writers can join. Its statewide calendar lists readings and writing workshops. Under For Writers, look for directories of MFA programs and conferences, and of journals and publishers.

Riverwood Poetry Series is a nonprofit devoted to poetry in Connecticut. Each reading pairs a nationally known poet with a Connecticut poet, and the poets sign books and talk with the audience afterward. Readings have been held in the Wadsworth Atheneum's Avery Theater.

The Watkinson runs this two-and-a-half-day teaching workshop on bringing special collections and archival materials into the classroom.

CT Humanities, based in Middletown, gives Quick and Major Grants to libraries, museums and other cultural organizations. Its digital projects include ConnecticutHistory.org and Teach It.

The official journal of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation publishes peer-reviewed scientific research on trauma and dissociation, with Taylor & Francis as publisher. Its editor is at UConn Health in Farmington, in the Department of Psychiatry. Preparing an article for Journal of Trauma & Dissociation

The Mark Twain House & Museum gives this award to a contemporary book whose voice helps shape America's cultural narrative, in the spirit of the voice Twain created in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Volunteer readers and judges help choose the finalists and the winner.

The poet James Merrill's former home in Stonington, a National Historic Landmark, gives a writer living and working space to complete a project of literary or academic merit. Merrill Fellows give public readings at Bank Square Books.

The Connecticut Poetry Society runs a set of contests, among them the Connecticut Poetry Award and the Vivian Shipley Poetry Award, both open to all poets. Each contest has its own submission window every year, and entries go through Submittable. Unless a contest's page says otherwise, poems must be original and previously unpublished.

The Greater Hartford Arts Council gives these grants to individual artists and makers in the region. The money can go toward developing creative work or growing a creative business.

Editors For Students gathers University of Hartford research awards and fellowship nominations in one guide, along with campus tutoring.

The UConn guide covers research funding and writing prizes. It also points to the UConn Writing Center.

The Watkinson awards this travel grant each year for research in its ornithology holdings that will lead to a book, article, dissertation or online exhibit.

PIP Hartford prints fiction and nonfiction books in small or large runs, paperback or hardback. Bindings include saddle stitching and perfect binding. It is open weekdays.

Robin Price's 1,500-square-foot letterpress and book arts studio is in a historic textile mill, the Starr Mill. It has Vandercook proof presses and a Potter pedestal press, 25 cabinets of metal type and bookbinding equipment. Visitors are welcome to see the studio and ask about getting involved.