A Writer's Guide to Peoria

The Main Library is the downtown home of Peoria Public Library and its Local History and Genealogy Department. Groups can reserve its meeting rooms online. It hosts author events, too.

The North Branch has meeting rooms you can request through the library's online booking system. Read the meeting room policy first.

Lincoln Branch is the library's South Side location, and its meeting rooms book online as well.

Cullom-Davis is Bradley University's main library. Since 1980 its Special Collections Center has held the Peoria Historical Society's library on deposit, with city directories going back to 1844, newspaper abstracts, and Sanborn atlases. Searches of the society's holdings go through the society. Call or email ahead for an appointment.

Chuck Levesque opened River City Reading Room in April 2026. The shelves hold mostly new titles with some used, and the focus is books about Illinois and by Illinois writers. Regional artists hang work on a gallery wall.

Lit. on Fire is a women- and LGBTQ-owned bookshop that opened in 2015 and sells cards and games alongside books. Its events are free. Author visits and open mic nights share the calendar with book clubs.

Leaves 'n Beans roasts its own coffee and runs a full-service café in a renovated house on Prospect Road. There are plenty of tables and couches. It is open daily.

Keller Station is the flagship café and roastery of CxT, a small-batch specialty roaster. Inside are study space and couches; outside, more seating. Every other week the free Shut Up & Write! Peoria session meets here.

Intuition pours specialty coffee and cold-pressed juice in the historic Kickapoo Building downtown. The menu adds acai bowls and toasts. One local coffee guide calls it a laid-back place to study.

Rhythm Kitchen serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday, with live music on Tuesday evenings. The decor is eclectic. It shares a building with the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, where Whisper & Shout holds its poetry open mic.

One World Café has served Peoria since 1993. It is open daily with the full menu served all day, and local artists show work on its gallery wall. Groups of more than twelve can book the private room.

The Peoria Poetry Club has met since 1941 under the motto "mutual help for writers." It gathers on the second Saturday of each month at the library's Germantown Hills building, northeast of Peoria, for a social half hour and a program by a visiting poet or writer. At roll call, anyone may read a poem or simply listen. The club is free and open to all.

Whisper & Shout meets at the Contemporary Art Center on the first and third Thursday of each month. Some nights feature a nationally known poet.

Twice a year, Bradley's English Department brings a visiting writer to campus for a public reading. The events are free and open to the Peoria community. Broadside, the student-run literary arts journal, hosts public readings as well.

Peoria Reads! is the library's community reading program, and it brings the year's selected author to the Main Library. The library also runs book and film clubs.

This free session belongs to the nonprofit Shut Up & Write! network and meets every other week at CxT's Keller Station café. After brief introductions, everyone writes quietly on a timer, then talks about progress. Writers at every level are welcome.

Bradley's special collections hold about 2,500 Lincoln and Civil War items, the Martin L. Houser Collection among them, and some 2,600 letters of Philander Chase, Illinois's first Episcopal bishop. Literary researchers can use the Henry Miller, Alfred Perlès, and Irma Stein Collection, which is also on JSTOR. The Jack Bradley Photojournalism Collection covers 1955 to 1977. Use is by appointment through specialcollections@bradley.edu or 309-677-2822.

The Dirksen Center in Pekin, south of Peoria, keeps the papers, photographs, and memorabilia of Everett M. Dirksen and Robert H. Michel. Collections from Ray LaHood, Harold H. Velde, and Neil MacNeil are here too. Its Congressional Research Grants have been awarded since 1978.

Illinois Humanities, based in Chicago, runs free public programs and grants across the state. Its Road Scholars Speakers Bureau brings free talks on culture, history, and social issues to Illinois communities. Envisioning Justice Grants go to individuals as well as organizations.

Health and Social Work is the National Association of Social Workers' journal on social work in health care, with articles on aging, oncology, long-term care, and policy. Its editor-in-chief is at Bradley University in Peoria. Preparing an article for Health and Social Work

The Creative Accelerator Fund helps Illinois artists with an active, sustained practice, literature included, invest in their work and professional growth. Each Arts Council region selects recipients from its eligible applicants by random draw.

This grant funds an arts project that ends in a public release or presentation of the work. Individual artists must have lived in Illinois for at least a year. Nonprofits and local government bodies such as libraries can apply too.

Individuals who live and work in Illinois can apply for Solo Project Grants. Literary works and zines qualify, as do oral history and local history programs.

ArtsPartners of Central Illinois makes Arts Dollars grants to individual artists and nonprofits whose projects serve Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford counties. Project grants favor work built around community engagement and access to the arts.

The Society of Midland Authors, based in Chicago, has given juried book awards every year since 1915. Categories cover fiction, nonfiction, poetry, history, biography and memoir, and children's books. Authors who live in Illinois, were born here, or have strong ties to the state can enter, as can writers from eleven other Midwest states.

This page gathers grants and writing resources for Bradley University students.

The Peoria Art Guild has offered letterpress classes in its downtown print studio. Working printmakers who hold an active Guild membership can register for free open-studio sessions.