A Writer's Guide to Milwaukee

The Central Library holds more than 2.7 million books and other materials in a Renaissance-style landmark building. Researchers can work in the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room and the Krug Rare Books Room, and Archives & Special Collections keeps local history manuscripts and the City of Milwaukee Archives. Free building tours run on Saturdays.

The East Branch has a community room and study rooms that the public can reserve. It is closed Sundays.

Bay View's branch has a 75-person meeting room. Laptops are available to use in the library, and you can print and scan here. It is closed Sundays.

UWM's main library has quiet study zones and a Contemplative Space on the second floor. Archives & Special Collections is open to the general public on weekdays, and the staff suggest making an appointment so materials are ready when you arrive. Collections there cover Milwaukee neighborhood history and LGBTQ history, with many oral history projects.

Raynor holds the J.R.R. Tolkien Collection and the Dorothy Day–Catholic Worker Collection. Archival materials are available by appointment only, so contact an archivist to schedule a visit. For a break from the archive, the library keeps a popular reading collection of fiction and poetry.

Boswell sells new and secondhand books and runs its own book clubs. Check the events calendar before you go.

Lion's Tooth sells small-press books and zines alongside prints and comics, and it calls itself part zine fair, part tiny venue. Book clubs meet on Thursday evenings, one of them devoted to Clarice Lispector. With BearBear and MILK Comic Fest, the shop runs the Dandelion Comics Residency for Greater Milwaukee cartoonists.

Niche Book Bar is a Black-owned bookstore and wine bar whose shelves feature Black authors, from fiction and nonfiction to romance and science fiction. It hosts author talks. Between events, it serves as a third space where people come to read or work.

Voyageur is a used bookstore with a growing collection of antiquarian and rare books, first editions and signed copies among them. New titles can be ordered through its Bookshop.org page. It is open daily.

Downtown Books is a used bookstore packed floor to ceiling in a maze of shelves. Look here for Spanish and other foreign-language books, and for banned books and LGBTQ titles. It also sells comics and vinyl, and it will buy anything from a single book to a whole collection.

Stone Creek's Factory Cafe is in the company's roastery headquarters, a restored Cream City brick building with a wood-burning fireplace. There are tables and booths, and Stone Creek describes the room as a space for meetings and remote work. Factory tours run on Sundays.

Colectivo's Prospect Avenue café is a busy East Side room with plenty of open table space. It has an airy, garage-door feel. It is open daily.

This Colectivo occupies the historic Milwaukee River Flushing Station, with a lake view and a large patio. It is open daily.

Anodyne roasts certified-organic coffee at its Walker's Point café, which also pours beer and wine and hosts live music. Just Write It!, a weekly writing group, meets here on Sunday afternoons.

Rochambo is a Brady Street coffeehouse with colorful walls and an open bookshelf. The Rochambo Writing Club meets here every Monday evening to draft and share new work.

The Milwaukee Art Museum's café looks out on Lake Michigan and has a patio. It serves Valentine Coffee and Wisconsin-inspired lunches, with cocktails and house-made sweets. Entry to the café is free.

County Clare is an Irish inn and pub serving Irish and American comfort food. Tabi Po!, a poetry series rooted in Filipino culture, meets here on the third Sunday of each month and welcomes new and established poets to the mic.

The Café at the Pfister serves breakfast and lunch, with pastries baked in-house. The hotel has an Artist in Residence whose working studio and gallery are open to the public. Its Storyteller in Residence writes about the hotel's history and its people.

Most of Boswell's author events happen in the store, and many pair the author with a conversation partner. Larger talks move to bigger venues around the area.

Ex Fabula builds community through true personal storytelling. If you want help shaping a story, it offers public workshops and one-on-one coaching, and its programs include the Deaf Stories Project.

The Milwaukee Public Library runs the city's poet laureate program with support from the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library. A committee chooses a local poet for a two-year term. The laureate promotes poetry through appearances across the community.

The Wisconsin Writers Association is a statewide nonprofit with a fall conference and a virtual critique series. Its directory of independent writing groups lists many in the Milwaukee area, among them the Milwaukee Writers' Circle and Shut Up & Write! Milwaukee. It also publishes Creative Wisconsin Magazine.

C21 is UWM's interdisciplinary humanities center, and it offers Research Fellowships. In the UWM Authors in Conversation series, campus authors share newly published books with the university and the wider public.

Marquette holds Tolkien's original manuscripts and working drafts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as the original of Mr. Bliss. Researchers can use the Anduin manuscript portal on site and an online descriptive inventory. The curator is available for consultation.

Wisconsin Humanities is the state's humanities council, serving all 72 counties. Its matching grants fund cultural and civic projects that local groups design. It also runs the Wisconsin Poet Laureate program and Odyssey Beyond Bars.

Marquette University Press publishes in philosophy and theology, and its list also covers history and urban life. Its series include the Aquinas Lecture and Mediaeval Philosophical Texts in Translation. The press also publishes the journals Philosophy & Theology and Renascence.

New American Press is based in Grafton, in Ozaukee County north of Milwaukee. It publishes fiction and poetry, along with nonfiction and translation, and runs a New from the Midwest series. The press awards the New American Fiction Prize and the New American Poetry Prize, and it puts out MAYDAY magazine.

Publius publishes research on federalism theory and practice, including intergovernmental relations and comparative federalism. Oxford University Press is the publisher. Both editors, Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco, are at Marquette University, and the editorial office's email is a Marquette address. Preparing an article for Publius: The Journal of Federalism

The Wisconsin Library Association's Literary Awards Committee honors books by Wisconsin authors. Writers born in the state qualify, and so do those who live or have lived there for a significant time. The committee's top honor, the WLA Literary Award, goes to an adult book, and it also names Outstanding Achievement books and Notable Wisconsin Authors. A separate WLA committee gives the Elizabeth Burr Award to children's and young adult books.

The Wisconsin Writers Association's Jade Ring contest takes unpublished poetry and prose from writers 18 and older. Winners are published in Creative Wisconsin magazine and honored at the WWA Fall Conference.

Membership in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets is open to current and former residents of Wisconsin and neighboring states. Its contests include the Muse Prize and the Kay Saunders Emerging Poet Award, and Wisconsin poets can enter both without joining. Each year the Swanson Emerging Poet Fellowship gives one emerging poet an honorarium and a residency, plus a workshop and mentorship. WFOP also publishes Bramble, a literary magazine for Wisconsin poets.

Our sister site's guide for Marquette University students gathers grants and writing resources in one place.

UWM students will find grants and writing resources collected on this page from Editors For Students, our sister site.

Bay View Printing Co. is a historic letterpress shop that does custom printing and design. Book a one-on-one lesson or join a group workshop.

BearBear is a self-publishing Risograph press that prints zines and posters for hire, along with booklets and art books, with a 25-copy minimum. Stapling and coil binding are done in-house. After its RISO BASICS workshop at the Cactus Club, you can book time in the self-serve Riso Open Studio.