A Writer's Guide to Lawrence, Kansas

The Lawrence Public Library has four study rooms you can book on the main level, and four single-occupancy study pods on the lower level go to whoever arrives first. Writing groups can reserve one of its three meeting rooms, which have videoconferencing. The Helen Osma Local History Room keeps Lawrence newspapers on microfilm along with Douglas County census and marriage records. Visiting authors give talks here.

Watson, KU's oldest and largest library, holds its collections in the humanities and social sciences. The fourth floor is quiet, and the fifth floor has quiet study under the Gothic windows. Reserve a group study room online. If you come from outside KU, read KU Libraries' Other Library Users policy before you count on access or borrowing.

Spencer holds KU's rare books and archives. Its literary and science fiction collections sit beside the Kansas Collection, with African American and Latina/o collections among its holdings. Open an Aeon account before you request material in the Reading Room.

Anschutz houses the KU Writing Center. The second floor is quiet study space, and the Beaham Reading Room is on the fourth. The building also holds the Thomas R. Smith Map Collection, which the library places among the largest academic map collections in the U.S.

Tommaney is the library of Haskell Indian Nations University. Its research guides and writing resources are online. The library keeps hours Sunday through Friday and closes on federal holidays.

The Raven is Lawrence's independent general-interest bookstore, with a local-books section and the Perfectly Queer Little Library. It hosts author readings in the store and sells books at author events at the public library and KU. Local authors can pitch an event to the store through its website. It is open daily.

The Dusty Bookshelf is a locally owned used bookstore with a second shop in Aggieville, in Manhattan, Kansas. Its stock runs to scarce and collectible books and vintage pulp. Together the two stores run book clubs and a zine club. It is open daily, with late hours on Friday and Saturday.

La Prima Tazza is a downtown coffeehouse, open every day, with early openings and evening hours on weekdays. A study-café listing tags it for quiet study and notes that seating is limited.

The Sunflower Cafe & Pub is inside Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, which says the café has room to work alone or to gather a group at a large table. A KU admissions blog points students to the window chairs and upstairs couches. It is closed Mondays.

J&S Coffee opens early every day on West 6th Street. Window seats line the front, and benches and booths fill the back. The music stays low enough to study by. It is busy, so a seat can be hard to find.

Z's Divine Espresso has two Lawrence shops, and the lobby at Z's South stays open into the afternoon every day. Reviewers on a study-café listing praise its quiet study spots and comfortable chairs.

Free State is a brewpub on Massachusetts Street downtown. Its menus include vegetarian and gluten-free versions.

The Eldridge House Grille is the restaurant in the Eldridge Hotel, with a contemporary American menu and a patio. The hotel stands on the site of the Free State Hotel, which New England Emigrant Aid Society settlers built, and its history pages cover Quantrill's Raid. Writers working on Bleeding Kansas can start there.

The Lawrence chapter of the Kansas Authors Club meets one Saturday a month at the public library, and members bring their writing for feedback. The statewide club welcomes academic writers as well as creative ones. It runs the annual Kansas Writing Convention and publishes the zine Writing From the Center.

James E. Gunn founded this center in KU's Department of English for the study of science fiction and other speculative forms. Its monthly book club meets online during the academic year for fans around the world. Researchers can use its science fiction and fantasy collections, and the center holds the Sturgeon Symposium.

The Kansas Book Festival is a free annual festival at Washburn University in Topeka. Authors and publishers can apply for a table to exhibit their books.

The Hall Center is KU's humanities research center, with funding for faculty and students in the humanities and the arts. It runs a Resident Fellows program. Faculty Shut Up & Write is among its scholarly programs, and Meet KU's Authors is open to the public.

This office hosts journals at journals.ku.edu and takes deposits of faculty work in the KU ScholarWorks repository. Bring a publishing agreement to one of its copyright consultations. A publishing specialist is on staff.

Humanities Kansas is a nonprofit based in Topeka. Its grants for humanities projects include Action Grants and Humanities For All Grants. Groups can book a speaker through its Speakers Bureau, and it also runs Talk About Literature in Kansas.

The University Press of Kansas is the consortium press of six Kansas state universities, KU among them, with offices on KU's west campus. Its list covers American politics, including the presidency and political thought, along with military history and intelligence studies. Native American studies and books on Kansas and the Midwest are part of it too. The Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures takes Conley's life and work as its framework.

Latino Studies is an interdisciplinary journal on Latina/x/o life in the United States and the wider diaspora, including struggles for equality and representation. Palgrave Macmillan publishes it. Editor-in-Chief Marta Caminero-Santangelo is at the University of Kansas, and so is the managing editor. Preparing an article for Latino Studies

Rhetoric & Public Affairs is a Michigan State University Press quarterly on the history and criticism of public discourse. Its articles take up campaigns for social and political justice as well as legislative and judicial deliberation. Editor Jay P. Childers is in KU's Department of Communication Studies. Preparing an article for Rhetoric & Public Affairs

Remedial and Special Education is a SAGE journal of interdisciplinary articles that bridge theory and practice in educating people for whom typical instruction falls short. It publishes research syntheses and field evaluation studies. Kathleen Lynne Lane of the University of Kansas is a co-editor. Preparing an article for Remedial and Special Education

The Journal of the History of Sexuality publishes research on the history of sexuality across periods and regions, along with book reviews. Nicholas L. Syrett of the University of Kansas edits it with Ishita Pande of Queen’s University, where the editorial office is. The University of Texas Press publishes it. Preparing an article for the Journal of the History of Sexuality

American Studies is an interdisciplinary humanities journal that publishes articles, special sections and issues, pedagogy articles, and book reviews, with at least one issue a year given to transnational work. Founded in 1959, it is edited in the Department of American Studies at the University of Kansas and sponsored by the Mid-America American Studies Association together with the University of Kansas and the University of Minnesota. Preparing an article for American Studies

The Kansas Arts Commission runs the Poet Laureate of Kansas, an honorary post that promotes the reading and writing of poetry across the state. Applicants must be published poets who live in Kansas. The laureate serves a four-year term and gives readings and workshops around Kansas.

The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission presents the Phoenix Awards each year to artists in fields that include the literary arts, and to arts educators. Recipients are nominated by others.

Lawrence Transit runs this poetry contest each year, with a local poet leading the selection. Poems in English or other community languages are welcome. Each selected poet becomes poet laureate of a bus route. The poems ride on the city's electric buses for a year.

Kansas Authors Club members can enter the club's annual book awards. The Coffin Memorial Awards cover fiction and nonfiction, and the Nelson Poetry Book Award goes to a Kansas poet. The "It Looks Like a Million" awards judge the design of independently produced books. The club also runs an adult literary contest.

The Gunn Center gives this award each year to the science fiction short story from the previous year that its jury judges best. Science fiction writers and scholars sit on the jury.

Editors For Students covers KU's undergraduate research awards and graduate fellowships, with a guide to writing help at KU's Wingspan center.

The Kenneth Spencer Research Library offers travel awards to researchers who come to Lawrence to work in its collections.

The Lawrence Arts Center's printmaking studio has a Vandercook letterpress and a type collection. Etching presses and screen-printing equipment share the space. Adult classes include intro letterpress and pop-up book structures, and open studio time is self-guided. The center is closed Sundays.

This franchise print counter makes copies and does coil binding, enough for bound manuscript or thesis copies. A second Lawrence store, at 3514 Clinton Pkwy., Suite A, also binds.