A Writer's Guide to Madison, Wisconsin

Central is the main library of the Madison system, with meeting spaces and 11 study rooms. Reserve a room by phone with your library card, or walk in; each person gets up to three hours a day. The Bubbler, the library's art and hands-on learning program, has its space here and runs artist residencies and exhibitions.

Pinney has five study rooms, each bookable for up to two hours a day, along with two community rooms and a studio space. The branch is closed Sundays.

Memorial is the university's research library for the humanities and social sciences, and it stays open into the late evening. No UW ID? Show a driver's license or passport at the Welcome Desk by the State Street entrance for a day pass. You can also apply for a community borrowing card.

Special Collections opens to visiting researchers on weekdays, and no appointment is needed. Set up an Archives and Special Collections account to place requests. Literary holdings include the Cairns Collection of American Women Writers and a Little Magazine collection of avant-garde literary periodicals, with author collections alongside. Twentieth-century Latin American poetry is here too.

The Society's library and archives are free and open to the public. The Society counts its newspaper holdings among the largest in the nation, and its collections are strong in social action and organized labor. Register with a photo ID to use the Archives Reading Room. Bring pencils; pens are not allowed. It is closed Sundays.

A Room of One's Own is a trans-owned feminist bookstore, open since 1975. Its shelves are strong in women's studies and in LGBTQ+ fiction and nonfiction. Look for local small-press books as well.

Leopold's pours espresso by day and cocktails at night. The books around the bar are shelved by country or world region.

Lake City Books is a woman-owned shop selling new and used books. It opened in 2023. The store hosts book clubs and author talks.

Mystery to Me specializes in mysteries and thrillers, and it also carries general fiction and nonfiction and has a children's section. Two longtime staff members bought it from its founding owner. The store runs book clubs and a book subscription service.

A mother and daughter run Ink & Ivy, which sells books alongside art and gifts. Young readers have their own section. The shop hosts themed book clubs.

The Book Deal has sold discounted used books since 2018. It gives free children's books to local kids.

Madison Paperbacks is a tiny used-paperback shop whose slogan is "Old books. Weird books. Good books." Poetry and horror share the shelves with speculative fiction and vintage pulp. It is open Wednesdays and Saturdays only.

ALL's Library and Writing Center is upstairs on the Ellen Kort Mezzanine, open Tuesday through Saturday. Come to a Write-In for set writing time in quiet company. ALL also runs creative writing classes and workshops with local and visiting authors.

Mother Fool's, a coffeehouse on Willy Street, hangs a new featured artist's work each month and hosts the Mad City Story Slam. It opens every day.

Johnson Public House is a small family-owned café with locally roasted coffee and fresh-baked goods. The café invites you to unwind "and maybe do a little work." It is open daily and stays open into the evening on most nights.

Colectivo's Monroe Street café fills a reinvented 1920s mercantile building with large skylights and garage doors that open. There is a fireplace, too. It is open daily, and Mystery to Me is on the same street.

Der Rathskeller is the Wisconsin Union's take on a German beer hall, with brats and cheese curds on the menu. Memorial Union also hosts an open mic for spoken word and poetry, and several of its lounges look out on Lake Mendota. The Rathskeller closes over winter break.

Chef Elena Terry leads Tall Grass, the museum's restaurant. Its menu draws on local flavors, and it is open Thursday through Saturday.

The Chazen Café, in the lobby of the university's art museum, is set up for studying or meeting friends. It serves Peet's coffee and toasted sandwiches, with local beer and wine. During the semester it is open daily.

The Wisconsin Book Festival is free. Since 2001 it has brought more than 3,500 authors to Madison, with events year-round and a four-day Fall Celebration. It runs in partnership with the Madison Public Library Foundation.

ALL hosts the Watershed Reading Series, which it calls Madison's longest-running monthly reading series; poets and writers read new work and works in progress. Its smALL Press Library holds more than 3,000 titles, mostly poetry, plus a chapbook collection that stays in the building. Members can borrow, and anyone can browse during open hours.

A Room of One's Own hosts a Poetry Salon and, on the last Wednesday of each month, a Queer & Trans Open Mic. Bookmaking workshops meet in the Reading Room, its event space next door at 2713 Atwood Ave. The store takes books on consignment.

Madison's Poet Laureate is an honorary city post, formally created by the Common Council in 2008. The Poet Laureate runs the Poetry in Common Council and Bus Lines programs. Madison poets ages 13 to 19 can apply to be Youth Poet Laureate, part of the National Youth Poet Laureate program.

The Wisconsin Writers Association has served writers across the state since 1948. Its fall conference includes one-on-one sessions with industry professionals, and members can take virtual critique classes. The association's directory of writing groups lists SAMI Madison, a fiction critique group, and a free Saturday Shut Up and Write session at Central Library.

The IRH awards about 40 to 45 fellowships a year, some with stipends and some without. Internal and external applicants at every rank can apply, independent scholars among them, if the project matters to the humanities. Fellows attend the weekly Monday Seminar.

The Center for the Humanities supports cross-disciplinary and public humanities work at UW–Madison and beyond. Its First Book Workshop brings outside reviewers in to discuss manuscripts by the university's tenure-track junior faculty. Friday Lunches and the Nellie Y. McKay and Tejumola Olaniyan lectures are free and open to the public.

Wisconsin Humanities was founded in 1972 as an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and it works in all 72 Wisconsin counties. It gives matching grants for community-designed cultural and civic projects. It also runs the Wisconsin Poet Laureate program.

The University of Wisconsin Press was founded in 1936. Fiction and memoir sit on its general list beside the Wisconsin Poetry Series, and its scholarly list runs from African studies and classics to film and media studies. It also publishes regional books on Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, along with 13 peer-reviewed journals, Contemporary Literature and Monatshefte among them.

The Wisconsin Historical Society Press has published since 1855. Its books for readers of all ages cover Wisconsin's history and people, from sports history and biography to food. It also publishes the quarterly Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Contemporary Literature publishes scholarly essays on contemporary writing in English, along with author interviews and reviews of recent critical books. Executive Editor Timothy Yu is at UW–Madison, and the journal's editorial office is in the university's English Department. The University of Wisconsin Press publishes it. Preparing an article for Contemporary Literature

American Literary History publishes essays on US literature from its origins to the present, plus essay-reviews and an annual special issue. Co-Editor Russ Castronovo is at UW–Madison, and Co-Editor Yogita Goyal is at UCLA. Oxford University Press publishes it. Preparing an article for American Literary History

The Madison Arts Commission gives Individual Artist Fellowships to professional artists who live in Madison and produce original work. Authors qualify. A fellowship can fund a new project or help finish one, and fellows share the result with the public.

The Wisconsin Writers Awards honor fiction, nonfiction, and poetry each year, with separate categories for books and short-form work. The Council for Wisconsin Writers began the awards in 1964, and Arts + Literature Laboratory has run them since 2022.

Since 1986 these nine-month fellowships have gone to poets and fiction writers working on a first book. Applicants need an MFA or PhD in creative writing, finished or nearly so, and no more than one published full-length book. Fellows live in the Madison area. Each teaches one undergraduate course a semester and gives a public reading.

The Wisconsin Poetry Series awards these two prizes each year to full-length poetry collections chosen from a nationwide pool. An outside judge picks the winners, and the University of Wisconsin Press publishes them. Three or four finalists are also offered contracts in the series.

The Wisconsin Library Association honors books by Wisconsin-born authors and by writers who live in the state or lived there for a substantial time. The Elizabeth Burr Award goes to a children's or young adult book.

Our sister site's guide for UW–Madison students gathers grants and writing resources in one place.

Wheelhouse Studios is the Wisconsin Union's open art studio, on the lower level of Memorial Union. Its classes, printmaking among them, are for enthusiasts and first-time artists alike. Community members can buy a studio pass by the day, the month, or the year.

The university's print shop also takes outside orders through an external-account ordering site. It prints course packets and custom textbooks, either perfect-bound or saddle-stitched.