A Writer's Guide to Linköping

The city's main library faces Slottsparken, by the cathedral, and has study spaces and a café serving light lunches. Three small conversation rooms are free for up to two hours a day if you sign the schedule at the door. In the same building, Stiftsbiblioteket holds nearly 250,000 manuscripts and books from the Middle Ages onward, read in its own reading room, where you may photograph material with your own camera. Most library pages are in Swedish.

Anyone 15 or older can get a card here with valid photo ID. English-language fiction is on floor 6, and there is a poetry corner on floor 3. For silence, use the reading room on floor 4. The closed stacks in Studenthuset hold special collections, including the GDR Culture Centre Library and the Wessén linguistics collection; ask at biblioteket@liu.se.

The Medical Library is open to the public. Its study places are grouped by noise level, with a quiet reading room at the innermost part of the library. Faculty writing in the health sciences will find collections in medicine and nursing here.

Linköpings Bokhandel is a stand-alone general bookshop with its own café, Bokcaféet, which Visit Linköping recommends for studying over coffee. Its friends' association, Bokstödet, runs a free events programme with author talks most weeks and occasional live music. It is open daily. The shop works in Swedish, and its shelves include Danish and Norwegian books.

Visit Linköping names this calm café as popular with people studying or working. It serves breakfast and lunch, with options for vegan and gluten-intolerant guests. Afternoon tea is available every day if you book at least two days ahead.

Skylten is the city's cultural house, with art studios and a gallery, Galleri Gjuteriet. Its coworking space has informal workspaces for people in the cultural and creative industries, and Café Drivbänk in the building serves homemade food and fika. Meeting rooms can be booked through the city. It is open weekdays. The site is in Swedish.

Östergötland's city mission runs this café and bakery by the river. Lunch comes with a vegetarian option every day it is open, Monday to Saturday.

Babettes is a café and artisan bakery in a yellow turn-of-the-century house on one of Linköping's oldest side streets. It also puts on evening events, from concerts to a literature salon. Every seat is drop-in. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Centralbryggeriet is a small local brewery. On the last Wednesday of each month it hosts PÖL, short for Poesi och öl i Linköping, an open stage where you can read your own poems or listen. Each round of readings ends with live music. Entry is free, and booking is recommended.

Dahlbergs is an old-fashioned café in the middle of the Gamla Linköping open-air museum. Lunch means open sandwiches or a seasonal soup. Linköpings boksällskap hosts evening author talks here; register by email. The café is closed Mondays.

The cultural association Kulturföreningen TellUs Östergötland runs this free one-day festival each year at the city library. Two stages host author conversations and new-book presentations, and there is a children's programme. The association's site gathers news from publishers and authors, with a focus on regional writers. The festival and site are in Swedish.

Författarcentrum Öst calls itself Sweden's largest author agency, and its region takes in Östergötland. Members get a profile through which libraries and schools can book them. Its projects include Läsning Pågår Linköping, an author-visit programme for the city's schools. The site is in Swedish.

LiU E-Press is the university's open-access publisher, founded in 1996 and run by the University Library. It hosts about a dozen academic journals and conference proceedings, all free to read and with no publishing fees. Authors keep copyright. Researchers working on Östergötland can also search its bibliographic databases and digitised historical documents.

Language and Culture is a research environment in the Department of Culture and Society, set up in 2000 as a meeting place for linguistic and literary research. Its literary scholars work on older and contemporary literature, including comparative literature, while its linguists study everyday conversation and multimodal interaction. Three seminar series meet here: Language and Culture, Conversation and Interaction, and Robot AI in Society.

Project Management Journal is the academic and research journal of the Project Management Institute (PMI), publishing research, techniques, theories and applications in project management. One of its two editors-in-chief is at Linköping University. Preparing an article for Project Management Journal

Region Östergötland gives this grant to professional cultural creators who live or work in Östergötland. Writers qualify with a literary work from an established publisher in the last five years, or with two works through a hybrid publisher or their own imprint plus membership of Sveriges Författarförbund or an equivalent association. Apply through the Region's e-service.

Region Östergötland gives two cultural prizes. Stora kulturpriset honours a significant contribution to cultural life in Östergötland, and Lilla kulturpriset goes to cultural creators registered in the county who are early in their careers. Nominations are open all year through an online form, though you cannot nominate yourself.

The City of Linköping gives this stipend each year for meritorious work in fields that include literature and journalism, or to support further training. It usually goes to someone early in a cultural career. The city also gives an honorary award, the honnörsstipendium, for many years of cultural work in Linköping.

Adall Grafiska is a city-centre print shop offering printing and bookbinding. It also handles large-format printing and scans and prints drawings, with delivery. It is open weekdays.