A Writer's Guide to Hoboken and Jersey City
Start in Hoboken at Little City Books on Bloomfield Street, which hosts author events and runs book clubs. In Jersey City, the writers' group Jersey City Writers runs workshops from First Street on three evenings a week, and the New Jersey Room at the public library holds complete city directories for both cities from 1849 to 1925. Wiley has its headquarters on River Street in Hoboken. The poets in a Wednesday critique group and the faculty member revising a monograph use the same reading rooms.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Presses · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Write ahead before a research trip. Hoboken's Special Collections take appointments, and the Stevens and Saint Peter's libraries set their own access rules.
The Grand Street Branch is on the second floor. The library's Special Collections, from Hoboken history and city directories to the Sinatra Collection, are open by appointment only; call or email the reference desk first. City directories and old Hoboken newspapers are online through the DigiFind-It portal.
The Priscilla Gardner Main Library heads a Jersey City system of ten branches. Its New Jersey Room handles local history.
The New Jersey Room holds more than 20,000 volumes, with an emphasis on Jersey City and Hudson County, and a picture collection of over 13,000 images. A novelist setting a book here can work from the complete Jersey City and Hoboken directories for 1849 to 1925, or from the Jersey Journal index. No appointment is needed. The department still recommends contacting it ahead (NJRoom@jclibrary.org).
The Williams Library serves Stevens Institute of Technology. Only current students, faculty, and staff may enter, along with alumni who hold a valid alumni ID, and everyone taps a Stevens ID at the door.
The O'Toole Library serves Saint Peter's University, and its holdings include the university archives and special collections. Visitors should contact the library before they go.
Independent Bookstores
Check the calendars before you go; three of these stores have hosted poetry nights or open mics.
Little City Books is an independent general bookstore with a Children's Annex and a section of books signed by their authors. It runs author events and community book clubs. Poetry evenings have been held here too.
WORD, the independent Brooklyn bookstore, runs this Jersey City branch near Hamilton Park. It is open daily. Authors read on the main sales floor, and the store has also hosted open mic nights.
Symposia is a community bookstore selling used books, and its events calendar stays full. The Hoboken Silent Book Club and a Philosophy Club meet here. At the Gratitude and Grievances open mic, people share short songs, poems, and comedy.
Dungeon Books specializes in science fiction and fantasy and also carries comics and tabletop RPGs. Dungeons & Dragons nights run every week.
Àbákẹ́, owned by Jacquees Peace Thomas, is a bookstore and café stocking books that amplify marginalized voices. Five percent of proceeds go toward literary programs in Jersey City. It has hosted author talks. The shop posts its news on Instagram as @abake.cafe.
Places to Write
For company while you draft, try Monday Morning Motivation at Jersey City Writers (listed under Writing Community): stretching first, then a silent 30-minute writing sprint.
bwè kafe is a family-run coffee company that roasts in Jersey City, and its Washington Street café has hosted art exhibitions. A second Hoboken café is at 1401 Adams Street in the North End. The Newport café in Jersey City, at 140 River Dr. S, has seats with outlets and a communal worktable.
Lackawanna Coffee has three work-friendly cafés in Jersey City, all open daily. The Grove Street shop has outdoor space. For an indoor day, go to Warren Street.
Mission50 is a coworking space with drop-in options and dedicated desks, plus private suites. When you need silence, there is a quiet corner, and phone booths take the calls.
Places to Eat
Both of these have hosted open mics, so check their pages before you plan an evening.
Kọ Café is a co-working space and creative hub, with room for live music and poetry and a podcast studio. Open mics and workshops run here. The kitchen serves a small-chop menu drawn from across Africa, jollof rice and Nigerian meat pies among them, with the café's own So gbọ coffee blend.
Three Thirds is a café inside the 3 Acres apartment complex, and many items on its menu are made from scratch. During the Jersey City Art and Studio Tour, it has hosted an OpenRoad Poetry open mic with a West Side Community Artists showcase. It is on Instagram as @threethirdscafe.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
For readings and classes across Jersey City, start with the Arts Council's arts calendar.
Jersey City Writers is a writers' group open to all genres. Its workshops on Tuesday and Thursday evenings critique submitted work or respond to prompts, and the Jersey Plums meet on Wednesdays to critique poems. At The Full Story, held on select Saturdays, the group discusses one writer's book-length manuscript. Genre Nights bring live readings of local work.
The Arts Council supports Jersey City artists and cultural organizations through grantmaking and advocacy. It keeps the citywide arts calendar and a grants and funding page, and it works with the city on the Jersey City Poet Laureate program.
For Faculty and Researchers
The Writing & Communications Center, part of Stevens's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, works with faculty and staff as well as students from any discipline. Consultations are one-on-one, in person or online, on written and oral projects. A writer with a large, long-term project such as a dissertation can request a standing weekly appointment with the same consultant.
The museum's online database holds more than 30,000 photos and documents, and it publishes residents' oral histories as chapbooks. Send research questions to info@hobokenmuseum.org. Talks on Hoboken history and occasional poetry programs fill its calendar. It is closed Mondays.
The Council is New Jersey's state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its Community History program comes with project funding, and its monthly Resource Roundup collects grants and jobs. It also awards the Stanley N. Katz Prize for excellence in public humanities.
Presses in Hoboken
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We will ensure that the final draft you receive from us is completely ready to publish or submit. We work with you until it is ready or refund your payment in full.
Before you write to either press, read through its recent books in your field or genre.
John Wiley & Sons publishes scholarly journals and books across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. It also publishes textbooks and courseware, and it partners with scholarly societies on their journals. Preparing a manuscript for Wiley
Jack Cooper and Roxanne Hoffman edit Poets Wear Prada, an independent Hoboken press that has published poetry collections, chapbooks, and anthologies since 2006. Its list also includes flash fiction, short story collections, and essays.
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For New Jersey Writers
Check each program's current cycle and categories. The Jersey City awards require city residency.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts funds these fellowships for practicing New Jersey artists, and Mid Atlantic Arts runs the application and review. Its categories have included poetry and playwriting/screenwriting.
These unrestricted grants go to Jersey City residents, 18 or older, who are exploring a career in the arts. The Jersey City Arts & Culture Trust Fund supports the program, and literary applicants may send up to 20 pages of text.
The laureate serves a two-year term as Jersey City's ambassador for poetry, giving readings and workshops and working with local organizations. The Arts Council reviews nominations, and the Mayor makes the appointment. Applicants must be Jersey City residents with at least three years of ties to the community and a record of performing or publishing poetry.
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson gives this prize for a book of poems published the previous year. Authors and publishers may submit. The winner gives a reading and teaches a workshop at the Poetry Center.
The Poetry Center gives these prizes for single unpublished poems, in honor of Allen Ginsberg's Paterson upbringing. Winning and honorable-mention poems appear in the Paterson Literary Review.
For Students and Researchers
Students can find scholarships and campus writing prizes on our sister site, Editors For Students.
Editors For Students keeps a guide to grants and writing resources for Stevens students.
Saint Peter's University students in Jersey City have a matching guide to grants and writing resources.
Printing and Binding
Off the Grid Editing offers book printing and binding at competitive rates. We handle layout, cover design, and print-ready files once your manuscript is edited. See our book publishing and printing services. Local printers and binders in Hoboken and Jersey City are listed below.
JC Print Room is a community printmaking space with etching classes and workshops in block printing and cyanotype. It offers memberships, and its Printmaking Hangout meetups are free.
For a chapbook or zine, Daffodil Print makes saddle-stitched booklets the same day, from 8 to 64 pages, in 5.5x8.5, 6x9, and 8.5x11 sizes. It also prints posters and documents.
When the Manuscript Is Ready
Off the Grid Editing has edited books and scholarship since 2002.
Publishing Scholarship
For a monograph, an edited collection, or a revised dissertation headed to a university press: dissertation to book editing, our guides to academic press requirements, English language editing for researchers, and journal article editing.
Publishing Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry
For a novel, a story collection, a memoir, or a book of poems: fiction and creative nonfiction editing, memoir and biography editing, developmental editing, and our guides to trade and literary publishers.
Every manuscript can also go through copy editing, line editing, or proofreading. The book editing services page compares all four levels.
- Crafting a Book Proposal That Academic Publishers Cannot Ignore
- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
- Writing for the Peer Reviewer: Anticipating and Addressing Methodological Criticisms
- Tracking Source Material: Best Practices for Archival Citations in History and Humanities
- The "Ugly First Draft": Reducing Performance Anxiety
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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