A Writer's Guide to Hong Kong

Hong Kong Central Library is in Causeway Bay, on Causeway Road. Ask for the Hong Kong Literature Room and the Rare Book Reading Room. Groups can use the discussion room. It is open daily.

City Hall Public Library fills several floors of the City Hall High Block and is open daily. Start in the Reference Library. Writers working on the old city can use the Cultural and Historical Resources Corner for Central and Western District.

Kowloon Public Library is one of the system's major libraries, with a Reference Library and a students' study room. There is a coffee corner too. It is open daily.

Special Collections at the University of Hong Kong holds rare books, manuscripts and out-of-print publications, with resources on Hong Kong history and Western Sinology. Everything is read on site. Outside researchers can buy a Circle of Friends annual membership or ask about a day pass at libspeco@hku.hk. Book a research desk ahead, and email closed-stack requests at least three working days before your visit. It is closed weekends and holidays.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong's library holds special collections, and one-time visitors sign in with ID at the help desk. Independent researchers can use it through a paid membership. Come with materials to consult, since the library turns away visitors who only want study space.

Hong Kong Reader is an independent bookshop on the seventh floor; take the lift. It opens at noon and stays open into the evening. Its consignment shelf takes only second-hand humanities and social science books. Replays of past events are online.

ACO is a bookshop and publisher on the 14th floor of Foo Tak Building in Wan Chai. It holds talks and exhibitions. Its Sound-on-Site performance series has used both the shop and the building's staircases.

Inside the Broadway Cinematheque, kubrick runs a café and bookshop with its own publishing arm. Literature and philosophy share the shelves with film and photography. Look for the DVDs and records too.

Mohan and Nisha Mirchandani founded Bookazine in 1985, and the family still runs its English-language shops across Hong Kong. The Landmark Atrium shop holds free book launches and signings. Another branch, bookazine social, is at Tai Kwun.

Librairie Parenthèses calls itself Hong Kong's French bookshop, and it is up on the second floor of Duke of Wellington House. Alongside French school textbooks and stationery, it keeps a section of books about Hong Kong.

Boundary Bookstore publishes and sells Chinese-language books, with Hong Kong history and culture at the center. Its shelves hold Chinese literature from the diaspora, including work from Malaysia, Taiwan and Macau, and a few English titles. Authors come in for small sessions with readers.

Winstons is a neighborhood café that opens early every day and stays open into the evening later in the week. Time Out lists it among Hong Kong's late study spots. Other branches are in Kennedy Town and Tai Hang, and there is one in Sai Kung.

NOC is a Hong Kong specialty coffeehouse, and Time Out picks its Sai Ying Pun branch for working. Big windows look over the tram road. Its other coffeehouses include Sheung Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Elephant Grounds was founded in Hong Kong in 2013 and roasts its beans in-house. The Star Street café is open daily. Time Out says freelancers and students like its cafés.

Asia Art Archive keeps a free public reference library on art in Asia, open Monday to Saturday. Browse the open shelves, or view research collections on the library workstations. Some archival material is seen by appointment, so write to library@aaa.org.hk before you visit.

The Fringe Club on Lower Albert Road is an arts club with food and drink. Look in on the Anita Chan Lai-ling Gallery or one of its theaters, such as the Underground Theatre or The Vault. It opens daily at noon, except on public holidays.

Duddell's calls itself a cultural and social destination for people who appreciate the arts. The main dining room serves Cantonese food, and The Upper Room one floor up does casual all-day dining. Both are open daily.

Founded in 2001, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival brings established and emerging writers from around the world for an annual program of panels, readings, and literary lunches and dinners. Off-festival events run through the year. Watch for its workshops and writing competitions.

Since 2004 the International Writers' Workshop has brought writers from abroad to Hong Kong Baptist University to work with students, local writers and the public. Each autumn its Distinguished Writers Series offers a reading and a masterclass. In spring a four-week residency ends with a literary festival of readings and creative writing workshops.

HKU's School of English runs this reading and conversation series for writers with local ties. They present recent work and talk about their practice with the convenor and the audience. Walk in. No registration is needed.

Kubrick Poetry, founded in 2006, holds Sunday-afternoon readings in the first-floor auditorium of the Broadway Cinematheque. A moderator leads each session. Poets read in English, Cantonese, or both.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council organizes this annual fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Exhibitors bring books, stationery and educational media. Look for the Copyright Corner.

The Research Grants Council gives full-time humanities and social sciences faculty at the eight UGC-funded universities up to a year free of teaching and administration to research and write. The fellowship pays for a relief teacher and for research costs. Universities nominate the candidates.

The Institute of Chinese Studies hosts visiting scholars and public lectures, among them the Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professor lecture. It publishes the Journal of Chinese Studies and Twenty-first Century, along with two linguistics journals. Its research centers include one for ancient Chinese texts and one for contemporary Chinese culture.

HKUST's Institute for Advanced Study hosts fellows, visiting scholars and postdoctoral researchers. Most of its programs are in the sciences. Literature and the creative arts have events here too, including a series built around a creative writing literary award.

Hong Kong University Press publishes books in English and Chinese from the University of Hong Kong. Its recent titles cover Hong Kong history and law, and also photography and architecture.

Blacksmith Books is an English-language house based in Hong Kong. Most of its list is nonfiction with a local angle. It also publishes some fiction each year.

Proverse calls itself a boutique publisher. It publishes English-language novels, novellas, short stories and poetry, along with biographies and studies of Hong Kong's educational and legal history. The press runs the International Proverse Prize.

The Journal of English for Academic Purposes is the official journal of BALEAP, published by Elsevier. It covers English in academic settings, including assessment, teaching materials and discourse analysis. One of its two editors, Guangwei Hu, is at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Preparing an article for the Journal of English for Academic Purposes

The council's Project Grant is open to Hong Kong identity card holders aged 18 and over and to registered arts organizations. Literary arts is one of the fields it funds. Eligible projects include creation and publications, as well as critical reviews and archival work. Emerging writers should also look at the Emerging Artists Development Grant.

The council gives these awards every two years. Literary arts has its own Artist of the Year award and an Award for Young Artist for practitioners aged 40 or under. Individual artists may apply.

Proverse Hong Kong runs this annual prize for unpublished book-length work in English, whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry; translations are eligible. Writers over eighteen can enter whatever their nationality or residence. First prize is publication by Proverse. Poets have a companion award, the International Proverse Poetry Prize.

Hong Kong Public Libraries has run this annual competition for classical Chinese poetry since 1991. The form alternates between shi and ci from year to year.

Students at the University of Hong Kong will find grants and writing resources gathered on this page.

The same guide, for students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This page collects grants and writing resources for Hong Kong Polytechnic University students.

City University of Hong Kong students have their own page of grants and writing resources.

Students at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology can start here.

Hong Kong Open Printshop runs this letterpress studio and gallery at PMQ. It holds Chinese and English movable type, and its printing machines were donated by local pressmen. It runs letterpress workshops and is closed Mondays. The Print Lab and Archive are at JCCAC in Shek Kip Mei.

The Hong Kong print chain e-print has branches across the city and its head shop in Kwun Tong. It prints perfect-bound books and booklets, digital or offset, and does sewn hardcover binding. That covers a short run of chapbooks or bound copies of a thesis.