A Writer's Guide to Irvine

Heritage Park Library has two study rooms, free to book online up to seven days ahead with an Irvine Public Library card, for up to two hours a day. Its public computers run Microsoft Word, and you can print here. The branch is open daily. The Irvine Fine Arts Center is also on Yale Avenue.

University Park Library, on Sandburg Way, is open daily. Its public computers have Microsoft Word, and you can send print jobs from your own laptop or phone.

Katie Wheeler has one study room. Book it with your library card up to seven days ahead, for up to two hours a day. The branch is open daily, and the library system runs book clubs as well.

The Special Collections reading room, on the fifth floor of Langson Library, is open to independent researchers and community members. Its rare books include a Shakespeare First Folio, and the Critical Theory Archive and the Southeast Asian Archive are here too. Request materials and book an appointment through Aeon at least seven business days ahead. The reading room opens Monday through Thursday during the academic year, and visitor parking is in Lot 1, across from Langson.

Newport Beach's main library is about six miles southwest of central Irvine. You can book its study and meeting rooms, and it keeps a calendar of writing programs. Author talks take place in Witte Hall.

The Sherman is a research library on the history of the Pacific Southwest, set inside a botanical garden in Corona del Mar. Writers working on the region can use its archives and city directories. The historic photographs are searchable online. Read the posted access policy and call ahead. The library gallery sometimes closes for classes or events.

Arvida is a woman-owned shop in Old Town Tustin that sells mostly used books, with some new titles. The used stock includes queer and autobiographical literature. The store runs several book clubs and hosts author readings and writing workshops. It also publishes the Arvida Review, a short-fiction publication.

LibroMobile is an independent bookstore and literary project in Santa Ana. It focuses on BIPOC writers and ethnic studies and carries Spanish-language books. Zines and self-published work have shelf space too. The store holds creative workshops and live readings and runs the Crear Studio gallery at 222 W. 5th St. downtown. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Laguna Beach Books has been an independent general bookstore since 2006, across from Brooks Street Beach. It hosts author events and a book club, and it will special-order a book for you.

Stephanie Pao started The Fleuria as a book truck in a 1968 Volkswagen. Her romance bookstore now has a permanent Airstream at The LAB in Costa Mesa. It stocks romance and popular fiction. There is an audiobook walking club, too.

Heartbound is an AANHPI-, women-, and family-owned romance bookstore in downtown Anaheim, open since October 2024. Its book clubs include romantasy and queer romance, and it hosts author signings. It is closed Mondays.

The Lost Bean roasts organic coffee and has seven locations across Orange County. The Irvine café is in Woodbridge.

Blue Hummingbird is an Irvine roaster, and its tasting room on Alton Parkway has a spacious patio. The company runs other cafés in the city as well, including Spaces by Blue Hummingbird at 530 Technology, Suite 100.

Press & Moka is in the Irvine Business Complex, on Von Karman Avenue. It has café tables inside and a wide patio with a putting green. It is open daily.

Kéan is an Orange County roaster with a coffeehouse on Westcliff Drive in Newport Beach, about six miles southwest of central Irvine. A second Kéan café is in Tustin, at 13681 Newport Ave #14.

Ada's Table is the Bowers Museum's café in Santa Ana. It takes its name from Ada Bowers, whose family's gift opened the museum in 1936. Lunch and quick bites are served Tuesday through Sunday, and you can book through Resy.

Chapter One is a gastropub in a former bookstore in downtown Santa Ana. It is open daily and serves brunch on weekends. Groups can book its Red Room for private events.

Sherman Library & Gardens serves afternoon tea on scheduled dates, booked through Tock. Plan it for the same day as a visit to the Sherman's research library.

Chapman University's center for poetry presents the Poetry Reading Series, a yearly run of readings and lectures supported in part by Poets & Writers. It also records poet interviews and mounts exhibits. Since 2013 it has published TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics, an international journal.

Orange County Public Libraries brings authors to branch libraries and community venues across the county for free keynote talks, many of them conversations with an interviewer. Most need no registration. Local bookstores sell the books at most events.

The foundation presents the long-running Witte Lectures and the Library Live author series. It also hosts a book discussion group and writing workshops. Members can watch past talks in its online video archive.

Orange County Romance Writers is for romance writers at every career level. Its eleven monthly meetings a year bring in speakers on craft and the business of publishing, on Zoom or hybrid at the Brea Civic and Cultural Center. Members also meet on Zoom for weekday writing sprints and craft book clubs. There is a member anthology.

The Humanities Center in UC Irvine's School of Humanities holds public events and interdisciplinary conferences and hosts visiting fellows. Its research grants and grant-writing consultations are for UC Irvine faculty. Graduate students there can apply for cross-disciplinary research positions.

UCHRI is the University of California's systemwide humanities research institute. UC faculty can apply for the Manuscript Workshop and Research Development Program, and UC graduate students for Dissertation Support. It also publishes Foundry and holds public events.

California Humanities is the state's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its grants include Connecting California and the California Documentary Project.

The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution's journal publishes research on evolution at the molecular level, plus methods papers and reviews. Editor-in-chief Brandon Gaut is at UC Irvine, and co-editor-in-chief Claudia Russo is at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Oxford University Press publishes it. Preparing an article for Molecular Biology and Evolution

The Law and Society Association's journal publishes sociolegal research from any jurisdiction or discipline, from empirical studies to theoretical essays and book reviews. Its co-editors, Lee E. Cabatingan, Bill Maurer, and Justin Richland, are all at UC Irvine. Cambridge University Press publishes it. Preparing an article for Law & Society Review

Founded in 1973, Political Theory publishes work on contemporary and historical political thought, normative and cultural theory, and the history of ideas from a range of philosophical, ideological, and methodological perspectives. It is co-edited at the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Santa Cruz and published by SAGE. Preparing an article for Political Theory

The California Arts Council's fellowship supports individual artists in any art form at Emerging, Established, and Legacy tiers. Arts Orange County administers it for Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Applicants must be 18 or older and have lived in the region for at least two years.

Arts Orange County, the county's nonprofit arts council, gives these awards each year to artists, arts organizations, and patrons. Honors include the Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award. Honorees are nominated by others.

The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco gives these awards each year for books by authors living in California. Fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are among the categories, and so is Californiana.

Costa Mesa names a poet laureate to promote reading and writing through poetry. The laureate leads readings, workshops, and poetry events in the city's parks and libraries and at its festivals. Poets apply under the program's published guidelines.

Editors For Students keeps a guide to grants and writing resources for UC Irvine students.

Concordia University Irvine students have a guide of their own.

The same guide, for Chapman students in Orange.

The city's arts center teaches printmaking classes for adults 18 and older and runs a printmaking open studio. Classes and schedules are listed on yourirvine.org.

Sir Speedy's Orange shop prints short or long runs of books. It binds them in paperback or hardback, saddle-stitched or perfect-bound.