A Writer's Guide to Richmond, Virginia

The Richmond Room on the first floor leads into Special Collections, home to a Richmond Authors Collection and a zine collection. Local papers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Richmond Free Press among them, are kept in print and on microfilm. Make an appointment. The library also books free public meeting rooms.

The East End branch has a meeting room for up to 48 people, with a projector and a whiteboard. Book it between two weeks and two months ahead. The branch is open Monday through Saturday.

The Library of Virginia is the state library and archives, with manuscripts and newspapers, maps and photographs. You need a Library of Virginia card for the Archives Research Room and Special Collections. Research areas open Tuesday through Friday and on select Saturdays. The book scanners are free.

VCU's main library is open to the public. Guests can use the VCU Guest wireless network, and joining the Friends of VCU Libraries lets you borrow books. VCU Libraries co-sponsors the annual Cabell First Novelist Award.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts keeps its art library in the museum atrium, open to the public on weekdays. Its archives include papers of Virginia artists and collectors. Checking a citation? The public computers carry the Chicago Manual of Style Online, along with Oxford Art Online. Book ahead for archives and rare books.

The reading room is free and open to everyone on weekdays and select Saturdays. Holdings run from manuscripts and broadsides to business records and maps. Appointments are optional for library items and required for museum objects.

Shelf Life Books opened in 2002 as Chop Suey Books. New books are on the lower level, with five rooms of used books upstairs. Chris and Berkley McDaniel own the store, which hosts signings and poetry classes.

Fountain Bookstore has been an independent general bookstore since 1978, and Kelly Justice has owned it since 2008. Richmond Magazine notes that its author events are popular.

Jill Stefanovich founded and owns bbgb, Richmond's bookstore for children and young adults. Writers of picture books and YA can see what is on the shelf, and the store holds readings and signings regularly.

Small Friend is a woman-owned shop of used books and records, with a focus on the radical, weird, and obscure. It sits downstairs in an 1870s stone building at Lombardy and Main. Ask about special orders. Book clubs get a bulk discount.

Abi's is a bookstore and coffee shop a block from VCU, with specialty coffee and a banned-book lending library. Writers can drop in to its free RVA Readers & Writers co-working sessions.

VisArts is a community arts center, and James River Writers holds its Writing Show here. The Carole Weinstein Writing Studio is a quiet room for writing classes and open studio time, open to writing students and paid access users, with paper and dictionaries on hand. Bring your own laptop. VisArts calls its letterpress studio the only public studio of its kind in the area; it has Vandercook and Challenge proof presses and a treadle-powered platen press, and open-studio users bring their own paper.

Richmond Hill, an urban monastery in the Benedictine tradition, offers full- and half-day personal retreats Tuesday through Friday. A full day includes lunch, and you can use the library and the gardens. Request your day at least two weeks ahead. The garden is open to the public year-round.

Mudhouse is open daily on West Broad Street. Several times a year James River Writers holds its Readings by Writers open mic here; members read, and anyone can come and listen for free.

Axios's guide to Richmond coffee shops lists the Scott's Addition Grit under coworking and says that even when it is packed, you don't have to yell to be heard. It closes in the late afternoon. Come early.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has three places to eat. Amuse has a terrace, and Floris serves tea in the Pauley Center across the sculpture garden. Best Café & Espresso Bar takes walk-ins only. The museum is open every day of the year.

The Camel is a live-music venue with a late-night kitchen and weekend brunch. On the first and third Thursdays of the month, Poems for People Virginia runs a literary open mic in the early-evening slot, where readers share a poem, flash fiction, or an excerpt.

Addis makes its own injera and is open daily. The Writer's Den RVA holds a poetry slam here on the first Sunday of each month.

James River Writers is a Richmond nonprofit that serves as a regional hub for literary activity. It runs the annual James River Writers Conference and the Writing Show, a panel series held at VisArts. Master classes and the Nuts & Bolts workshop series cover craft, and there is a SPRINGBOARD! mini retreat.

VCU's MFA in Creative Writing brings poets and prose writers to campus for this free public reading series. Winners of the Levis Reading Prize and the Cabell First Novelist Award read here, and so do MFA alumni.

The Poetry Society of Virginia is a statewide organization based in Richmond and active for more than a century. It runs an annual contest and the North American Poetry Book Award. Virginia Voices readings meet monthly on Zoom.

Richmond Writers is the local chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. It serves the city and six surrounding counties and meets in person. Members can enter the club's Golden Nib contest and attend its statewide symposium.

Academic researchers and doctoral candidates from outside the Richmond area can apply for the museum's short-term Andrew W. Mellon and Conrad M. Hall Fellowships. The Emily Winfree Fellowship for African and African American History in Virginia is a residency at the museum's research library.

The Library of Virginia offers research help and a virtual reading room. Its public programs include author talks and the Weinstein Lecture Series, and readers can join the Literary Virginia Book Group.

Scholars Compass is VCU Libraries' digital publishing platform. Search it for VCU theses and dissertations, faculty work by department, and the journals and peer-reviewed series it hosts.

The University of Richmond Law Review publishes an Annual Survey of Virginia law, a symposium issue, and general issues of scholarly articles and student comments, with shorter pieces in Law Review Online. Students at the University of Richmond School of Law run it, and it has published since 1958. Preparing an article for the University of Richmond Law Review

The Journal of Women's Health publishes research and clinical-care work on conditions unique to women and on sex as a biological variable in health and disease. Its coeditor-in-chief, Susan G. Kornstein, is at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Preparing an article for the Journal of Women's Health

Each year the Library of Virginia gives awards for books by Virginia authors in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; nonfiction about a Virginia subject qualifies too. Separate awards cover children's books and art in literature. Readers vote on the People's Choice Awards.

VCU gives this national award to a debut novel published in the preceding calendar year. Agents, editors, and authors submit the novels. The winner reads in Richmond.

The Levis Reading Prize is a national prize for a poet's first or second book, published in the previous calendar year, and it comes with a reading in Richmond.

Each cycle, the VisArts residency invites one writer to spend the year making new work alongside visual artists. Applicants at any career stage can apply, and priority goes to emerging artists and to groups historically underrepresented in the arts. Residents get 24/7 private studio access and an honorarium, and their work is shown in a group exhibition and reading midway through. There is no application fee.

Virginia's state humanities council gives these fellowships to writers and independent scholars, community historians and college faculty, for work on Virginia's history and culture. The Rosel Schewel Fellowships support projects on Virginia women.

VCCA gives each writer a private bedroom and a private studio at Mt. San Angelo, with shared meals. Fellows are chosen by peer review, in genres from poetry and fiction to playwriting and children's literature. Fully funded fellowships and financial assistance are offered.

This page lists grants and writing resources for VCU students and researchers.

Studio Two Three is a nonprofit community arts space with print shops. Its classes run from risograph and letterpress to bookmaking, and none of them require experience. Members get 24/7 access to the print shops. Watch for its free community print days.

The print bureau, in the Pollak Building, is open to anyone, with priority for VCU School of the Arts coursework. It prints posters and booklets. Trained users can book its risograph machines, and scanning and bookbinding tools are self-service. It is open weekdays and Saturdays during the term.