A Writer's Guide to Ottawa

The Main Branch is the largest in the Ottawa Public Library system. Its Ottawa Room holds an extensive collection of local historical documents, with reference service on hand. For a reading or a workshop, book the 189-seat auditorium or Room B125, which holds 35. Open daily.

Rosemount is Ottawa's only remaining Carnegie library, built in 1918 and renovated in 2021. A small meeting room with a projector seats seven. Closed Sundays.

Sunnyside overlooks the Rideau Canal from Bank Street. Writing groups can book a meeting room for 15 or one of two program rooms for 30, one with a kitchenette, and the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library hold used book sales here. Closed Sundays.

Most of the national collection can be consulted at the Ottawa service point. You need a user card: fill out the registration form, then show government-issued photo ID on your first visit. Order most material in advance. Bring a laptop and pencils to the public rooms, which close on Sundays.

The collections run from archival fonds and rare periodicals to artists' books and pamphlets. Women's archives are a particular strength, with records of people and organizations who worked to improve the status of women in Canada. Nothing circulates. Register with a consultation form and email ahead so staff can prepare your materials; the reading room is open weekdays.

Perfect Books is an independent bookshop on Elgin Street with its own event space. Its calendar fills up with launches and author talks. Open daily.

McGahern is an antiquarian bookseller whose specialty is early books on Canada and the Arctic. The stock also runs to literature and military history, and the shop issues 8 to 10 catalogues a year. It opens Fridays and Saturdays, or by appointment.

Evermore is a locally owned bookstore devoted to romance in all its subgenres. It runs its own events and can be booked for yours. Closed Mondays.

World of Maps has sold maps and travel books since 1994. Come here when a novel needs its setting worked out on paper.

Octopus is an independent bookstore on Third Avenue. Evening book launches are frequent.

Singing Pebble is an independent bookstore on Main Street in Old Ottawa East, and it hosts evening book talks with authors.

Co-owners Cole Davidson and Stephen Crocker opened The Spaniel's Tale on Wellington Street West in 2022.

Equator's café is inside the National Arts Centre. Write here in the afternoon, then stay for an NAC talk or reading. It is open daily, with shorter hours on Sundays.

Happy Goat roasts its beans in Ottawa, and this café has wooden tables in a modern room. A laptop-friendly café guide lists it for fast Wi-Fi and a room quiet enough to study. The sister café at 317 Wilbrod St in Sandy Hill is near uOttawa.

This is the flagship café of a small, independent Ottawa roaster. The same café guide notes Wi-Fi and a room that stays quiet enough for studying. It can get packed.

Jackson is the café inside the Ottawa Art Gallery, where admission is free. It serves breakfast and Maison Oddo pastries in a dining room full of art. Arc Poetry Magazine and Possible Worlds are a short walk away at Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue. Closed Mondays.

The National Arts Centre's restaurant, formerly Le Café, cooks contemporary Canadian food from local seasonal ingredients and the NAC's rooftop garden. Its patio is beside the Rideau Canal. Book dinner before a show.

Nostalgica has been the University of Ottawa's campus pub since 1994. The menu marks vegan and gluten-free options, and there is a large patio. Its regular open mic nights appear on Ottawa's literary calendar.

Happy Goat runs the café inside the National Gallery of Canada. Stop for coffee between galleries.

The Writers Festival is a registered charity with spring and fall editions, and its author talks and readings carry on between them. A patron membership gives free access to most events. Between festivals, try the Writers Festival Radio podcast.

VERSe Ottawa is a not-for-profit that brings together poets and poetry groups in the National Capital Region. Each year it stages VERSeFest, Ottawa's international festival of poetry, which has run since 2011. Shows and workshops continue year-round.

The fair gathers small literary publishers and magazines twice a year, in spring and autumn. rob mclennan and James Spyker founded it in 1994, and mclennan has organized it since. Exhibitors can book a full or half table.

The Arc Poetry Society publishes Arc, an Ottawa poetry magazine of poems, prose on poetry, reviews and spoken word. Its contests include Poem of the Year and the Diana Brebner Prize. The Brebner goes to a National Capital Region poet who has yet to publish a book.

The Ottawa-based Federation runs this SSHRC-funded program, formally the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, for Canadian scholars in the humanities and social sciences. It offers publication grants for scholarly books, open access grants for books and chapters, and translation grants, including translation into an Indigenous language. The Federation also organizes Congress and awards the Canada Prizes.

Library and Archives Canada keeps the federal government's records and Canada's documentary heritage. Before a research trip, work through its research guides and tools. You can also send reference questions and order archival material and copies.

Since 1993, rob mclennan has edited and published poetry chapbooks and broadsides under the above/ground press name. It also puts out the poetry magazines Touch the Donkey and The Peter F. Yacht Club. The Factory Reading Series is its home series.

Éditions David is a French-language literary publisher that gives priority to authors from Ontario and other French-speaking communities outside Quebec. Its list takes in poetry and books for young readers and teens.

This peer-reviewed, non-profit journal pairs writing by prisoners with academic analysis of incarceration. Its editorial office is in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, and print copies are sold through University of Ottawa Press. Preparing an article for Journal of Prisoners on Prisons

This bilingual journal runs double-anonymized peer review on research and policy papers about quality in nursing education, from assessment and standards to program outcomes. The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing publishes it, and its managing editor works at the association's Ottawa office; the co-editors-in-chief are at the Université de Montréal and the University of Victoria. Preparing an article for Quality Advancement in Nursing Education

The City of Ottawa gives these annual awards in English and French, for fiction and for non-fiction. Poetry and children's literature compete as fiction alongside novels and short stories. Memoir and essays enter as non-fiction. Authors who have lived in Ottawa for at least 12 consecutive months are eligible, as are Anishinabe Algonquin authors living within 150 km of the city, and peer juries choose the finalists and winners.

This grant supports Ontario-resident writers working on a new work of fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, comic arts or young adult literature. It can pay for research and dependant care, and for some editorial costs before submission. You need a recent professional publishing history. An established self-publishing practice can count.

Arc gives the Lampman for an outstanding book of English-language poetry by an author living in the National Capital Region.

The national arts council funds Canadian artists at any stage of a project, from first idea to public presentation. Deaf and disabled applicants can get help with the application, as can First Nations, Inuit and Métis applicants facing language or geographic barriers.

This page lists scholarships and writing resources at the University of Ottawa, including the Academic Writing Help Centre.

Carleton's page adds campus poetry prizes to the scholarships and writing help.

Possible Worlds is a DIY art space and print studio in Arts Court. For a zine or a chapbook, it offers risograph and screenprinting workshops along with print and publishing studio services, and its shop stocks artist books and zines. Studio visits are by appointment.

The local chapter of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild teaches Bookbinding I to III over several weekends. Shorter workshops show you how to turn a paperback into a hardcover or repair a cloth-bound book, and a one-day class covers archival boxes.