A Writer's Guide to Manchester
Carcanet Press works from the University of Manchester's Main Library, and Comma Press publishes short fiction from Hope Mill on Pollard Street. On Deansgate, the John Rylands Library holds rare books and manuscripts, while the Portico Library on Mosley Street is free to enter. Poets can borrow from the Manchester Poetry Library on Cavendish Street. Novelists and poets work in the same reading rooms and cafés as the faculty preparing articles for the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Libraries · Bookstores · Places to Write · Places to Eat · Writing Community · Presses · Journals · Awards and Grants · Printing and Binding · When the Manuscript Is Ready
Libraries
Book ahead for Chetham's and for the Rylands research room. The Portico and the Poetry Library take walk-in visitors.
Manchester Central Library is the city's main public library, and it holds Manchester's archives and special collections. The Henry Watson Music Library is here too. Bring your work to the circular reading room. The library opens Monday to Saturday, with late opening Monday to Thursday, and closes on bank holidays.
The John Rylands Library houses the University of Manchester's special collections, manuscripts among them. Researchers book appointments for the Special Collections Research Room, which opens Monday to Saturday. The public building opens Wednesday to Saturday. Anyone can walk in free of charge.
Chetham's Library shares its site with Chetham's School of Music, so visitors come in on pre-booked guided tours and events. Readers who want to see collection material book an appointment at least one full working day ahead. Archival enquiries are handled Monday to Wednesday.
The Portico is a subscription library and charity with more than 25,000 books. Entry is free. Its exhibitions pair the collection with new artworks and archive items, and visitors can join for deeper access to the books. It closes Sundays.
Manchester Metropolitan University runs the Manchester Poetry Library, and anyone curious about poetry can use it. Membership is free, and members can borrow. Its learning programme includes advice to poets and poetry workshops. The library is on the ground floor with step-free access, and it closes Sundays.
Independent Bookstores
House of Books & Friends and Queer Lit both host author events, so look at their calendars before you go.
House of Books & Friends is an independent bookshop and café whose profits fund work against loneliness. Its book clubs meet online. Readings and creative events take place in the wood-panelled events space at the back. It opens daily.
Queer Lit is an independent LGBTQ+ bookshop on Great Ancoats Street, with more than 4,500 titles in store. It hosts author conversations and spoken-word nights.
UNITOM is an independent bookshop and magazine store that specialises in the visual arts, and zines have their own section. It runs exhibitions and book launches. The shop opens daily. A second kiosk is at 21-23 Quay Street.
Chorlton Bookshop is a family-owned general bookshop that also sells cards and gifts. It will order in books it doesn't stock, often by the next day, and click-and-collect is free. It opens Monday to Saturday.
Impiety Hour is a bar and bookshop run by the people behind The White Hotel. Feminist classics share its shelves with art books, and the Impiety Reading Hour book group meets here. It closes Mondays and Tuesdays.
Jot Bookshop is an independent pop-up that sells new and secondhand books, with poetry and essays among them. It trades at Station South every other Sunday. Writing supplies are on sale too, and its book club meets there.
Places to Write
Book the Burgess Foundation's Reading Room before you go.
The Burgess Foundation's Reading Room opens by pre-booked appointment, alongside the Anthony Burgess archive. The café-bar has a handful of seats among piles of books. It opens for events such as the Poets & Players readings.
Bold Street Coffee's campus café on University Green has long bench tables and plenty of charging points. The Mancunion's study guide says the wifi is strongest near the front. It opens daily. Other branches are on Cross Street and Hardman Street.
200 Degrees sits just off St Peter's Square, and its comfortable seating faces floor-to-ceiling windows. The Mancunion found the room studious and relaxed, with people working on laptops through the day. It opens daily.
Ezra & Gil is a neighbourhood café in the Northern Quarter that serves coffee and brunch. Creative Tourist includes it in its guide to places to work in Manchester.
Places to Eat
Volunteers run the tea room on the lower ground floor of the novelist's former home, where they serve snacks and drinks. Entry to the house is by timed slot. The house also runs an online book group.
The Royal Exchange has a bar and café inside the theatre. Playwrights can look into the Bruntwood Prize for North West Playwriting, which the theatre runs, and its Studio programme for new work.
HOME is an arts centre for film and theatre. Its three food and drink spaces run from morning coffee to pre-theatre dinner. Creative Tourist suggests the light, airy downstairs bar as a place to work.
Writing Community
Literary Organizations
Sign up for Manchester City of Literature's newsletter to hear about readings across the city.
Manchester Literature Festival is a charity that runs the city's annual literature festival. Its Creative Learning programme supports new readers and writers all year, and the charity commissions new writing and films. Look out for its writing workshops.
Manchester City of Literature is the charity behind the city's designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Literature. Its For Writers in Manchester section gathers resources and writing courses. The charity runs Manchester City Poets and the Manchester Literature Map, and its listings cover literature events across the city.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation is an educational charity devoted to Burgess's life and work. It puts on literature events and concerts. The foundation publishes new writing and podcasts as well.
For Faculty and Researchers
Researchers at any career stage can look into the funding the University of Manchester Library offers for work in its special collections.
Researchers consult the University of Manchester Library's special collections at the John Rylands Library and two other reading rooms, one of them in the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre. Curators offer support, and there is a heritage imaging lab. The library publishes the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the John Rylands Library.
The Manchester Writing School belongs to Manchester Metropolitan University's School of English, and it teaches the MA in Creative Writing. Its public events include alumni showcases.
Manchester Open Hive is where Manchester University Press puts all of its open access books and journals. Everything there is free to read under Creative Commons licences.
Presses in Manchester
Read a few recent titles from a press before you send it anything.
Carcanet Press is an independent literary publisher of modern and classic poetry, in English and in translation. Its list also takes in inventive fiction and critical writing. Carcanet publishes the poetry magazine PN Review. The press is based at the University of Manchester's Main Library on Oxford Road.
Comma Press publishes short fiction from the UK and beyond, with a focus on translation and marginalised voices. Reading the City is its anthology series. Comma also runs courses and mentoring for writers and translators.
Journals Edited in Manchester
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We will ensure that the final draft you receive from us is completely ready to publish or submit. We work with you until it is ready or refund your payment in full.
Read each journal's author guidelines and a recent issue before you shape an article for it.
The Journal of Global Security Studies is an International Studies Association journal published by Oxford University Press. It publishes original research on global security. Co-editor-in-chief James Pattison is at the University of Manchester. Preparing an article for the Journal of Global Security Studies
The Journal of Clinical Nursing is a Wiley journal for developments in every sphere of nursing practice, and it encourages the exchange of ideas across cultures. Editor-in-Chief Mark Hayter is an Emeritus Professor in Manchester Metropolitan University's School of Nursing and Public Health. Preparing an article for the Journal of Clinical Nursing
International Business Review publishes conceptual, empirical, and review papers on the theory and practice of international business, including firms' internationalization strategies, cross-border management of operations, and comparative studies of business environments. It is edited at The University of Manchester and Monash University and published by Elsevier as the official journal of the European International Business Academy. Preparing an article for International Business Review
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For English Writers
Two of these prizes are run from Manchester, by the Anthony Burgess Foundation and by Comma Press.
Developing Your Creative Practice is Arts Council England's funding for individual creative and cultural practitioners. It supports time to learn and take creative risks, aimed at a meaningful shift in your practice.
New Writing North runs the Northern Writers' Awards with Northumbria University and other partners to support writers in the North of England. The focus is work in progress. Awards include cash for time to write and mentoring.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation runs this prize with The Observer to support new journalistic talent. New writers enter a review of any artistic work in any art form. The winning review is published in The Observer.
Comma Press runs this annual themed short story prize with the University of Lancashire. Published and unpublished writers based in the UK can enter if they are 18 or over. Shortlisted stories appear in a Comma Press eBook anthology.
For Students and Researchers
Students can find scholarships and campus writing prizes on our sister site, Editors For Students.
This page gathers grants and writing resources for University of Manchester students.
Printing and Binding
Off the Grid Editing offers book printing and binding at competitive rates. We handle layout, cover design, and print-ready files once your manuscript is edited. See our book publishing and printing services. Local printers and binders in Manchester, England are listed below.
Hot Bed Press is an open-membership printmaking studio in Salford. Its facilities run from etching to letterpress. Weekend and evening courses for all abilities qualify newcomers for membership, and the studio runs the Hot Bed Print Fair.
The University of Manchester Library names MuPrint for thesis binding. It binds theses and dissertations in hardback, with gold or silver lettering on the spine and cover. Softback binding and print-on-demand are available too.
When the Manuscript Is Ready
Off the Grid Editing has edited books and scholarship since 2002.
Publishing Scholarship
For a monograph, an edited collection, or a revised dissertation headed to a university press: dissertation to book editing, our guides to academic press requirements, English language editing for researchers, and journal article editing.
Publishing Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry
For a novel, a story collection, a memoir, or a book of poems: fiction and creative nonfiction editing, memoir and biography editing, developmental editing, and our guides to trade and literary publishers.
Every manuscript can also go through copy editing, line editing, or proofreading. The book editing services page compares all four levels.
- Writing for the Peer Reviewer: Anticipating and Addressing Methodological Criticisms
- Presenting Outcomes Data in DNP Manuscripts
- Crafting a Book Proposal That Academic Publishers Cannot Ignore
- Tracking Source Material: Best Practices for Archival Citations in History and Humanities
- Condensing 200 Pages Into 25: Strategies for Extracting a Journal Article from a Dissertation
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Off the Grid Editing. Places and links checked November 2026.
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