A Writer's Guide to Rochester, Michigan

Rochester Hills Public Library is open seven days a week. Writers can reserve a room, or spend an afternoon in the Local History & Genealogy and Special Collections holdings. The makerspace takes appointments.

Kresge Library is Oakland University's library, and people from outside the university can borrow from it with an annual guest card or as MeLCat Visiting Patrons. OU alumni can borrow too. Bring the ID card itself, such as a government photo ID.

Oakland University's Archives & Special Collections serves the general public. Request a research visit through its contact page and staff will set a time. The collections are strong in English women's literature of the 17th through 19th centuries and in Irish literature, with local history of Oakland County and Southeast Michigan alongside LGBTQ history. Anyone can browse the digitized collections without an OU login.

Orion Township Public Library is in Lake Orion. Groups can reserve its rooms for study sessions and collaborative work, and book clubs can borrow its book-discussion kits. There is a History and Genealogy section.

Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham takes submissions from local and indie authors for its collection through a form on its website. It has study rooms and rooms to rent. Book clubs meet here.

Cranbrook Archives, in the Collections Wing of Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, welcomes outside researchers and asks them to book an archivist before they come. Papers of the Booth, Scripps, and Saarinen families are here, and so are architectural records. The Reading Room is open Tuesday through Friday. Saturdays are by appointment, on the second Saturday of most months.

Novel sells new releases and classics for children and adults, and it serves hot panini-style sandwiches. A ticket to one of its monthly book clubs covers the book and a sandwich. The shop is closed Sundays and Mondays.

An Inkwell Spent sells new and used books with a fantasy bent, along with board games and curios. It is in Canterbury Village in Lake Orion and opens Fridays through Sundays.

Calliope Bookshelf is a woman-owned bookstore in Washington, in northern Macomb County, with books for every age and gifts made locally. It hosts author signings and book clubs. Hour Detroit mentions open mics too.

Read My Lips, in downtown Birmingham, bills itself as Michigan's first romance-only bookshop. It holds book signings and author meet-and-greets and is open daily.

Sidetrack Bookshop is an independent bookstore in downtown Royal Oak, run by co-owners Jenny and Jen Carney. Children's books have a sister shop of their own, The Caboose: Sidetrack Bookshop for Kids.

Whistler's Daughter is a family-owned bookstore in Ferndale, and Hour Detroit singles out its cookbook selection. Events include author talks and a cookbook club. Planning a launch? The store takes event requests through its site.

Mayflower Bookshop in Berkley sells rare books on spirituality and philosophy. Its owner, Robert Thibodeau, gives talks there on Theosophy and astrology. It opens Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons, or by appointment.

Love & Other Books is a romance bookstore in Ferndale with reading nooks.

Bean & Leaf roasts its beans in the café and keeps a large selection of loose teas. Pastries are baked on-site each day, and the bagel breakfast sandwich is served all day. It opens early every morning and closes in the evening.

Dessert Oasis roasts its own coffee and runs its own bakery. The Main Street café is open daily, late into the evening.

Rehla, in downtown Royal Oak, is a Yemeni coffeehouse whose menu centers on coffee grown in Yemen, with Adeni tea and honeycomb desserts on the side. One review on its site calls it a good place to study or get work done. A writing group can book a room through the contact page.

FIKA is Cranbrook Art Museum's own café in Bloomfield Hills, and it is open daily, even on Mondays and Tuesdays when the galleries are closed. Plan lunch here around a session in the Cranbrook Archives Reading Room, which is in the museum's Collections Wing.

Rochester Writers serves local authors and freelance writers. Its annual one-day conference at Oakland University's Oakland Center brings in speakers and literary agents. The rest of the year there are craft master classes in downtown Rochester, and a Freelance Marketplace Writers' Group meets monthly on Zoom to talk about the business side. With Rochester Hills Public Library it also holds an annual author fair and book sale.

Oakland University's Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film presents this reading every year in memory of Maurice Brown, an OU English professor. It is free and open to the public. The department also brings visiting poets and authors to campus.

The Authors Guild's Detroit chapter runs a Monthly Writing Ritual for Guild members, a works-in-progress social that has met at the Barnes & Noble in Rochester Hills. Sign up on the chapter page to hear about events.

Michigan Humanities is the state's humanities council, founded in 1974 and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It gives Touring Grants and Gathering Grants. The Great Michigan Read and Poetry Out Loud are its programs too.

College English is NCTE's professional journal for the college scholar-teacher. It publishes articles on literature, rhetoric and composition, and the teaching of English, along with review essays. The editorial office is in Oakland University's Department of Writing and Rhetoric. Lori Ostergaard is the editor. Preparing an article for College English

Kresge Arts in Detroit gives these fellowships to emerging and established artists 18 and older who live in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb county. The awards alternate on a two-year cycle, and Literary Arts shares its year with Visual Arts. Fiction and poetry qualify, and so do playwriting and zines. Each fellow also gets a short film about their work.

Kresge Arts in Detroit also gives the Gilda Awards, named for artist Gilda Snowden, to metro Detroit artists early in their careers. Literary Arts Gildas come in the same years as the literary fellowships, under the same residency rules.

Each year the Library of Michigan honors twenty books written by a Michigan author or about Michigan or the Great Lakes. The books are celebrated the year after their copyright date at the Night for Notables.

Kent District Library has run this short story contest every year since 2012. It is open to Michigan writers of any age, with Judges' Choice and Readers' Choice prizes. Winning stories are published.

Our sister site's guide gathers grants and writing resources for Oakland University students.

Our sister site's guide gathers grants and writing resources for students at University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit.

FedEx Office is on South Main Street downtown. It binds reports and prints large-format posters. To print on your own, send the file by email or from cloud storage and enter the retrieval code at a self-service printer.

The UPS Store on South Rochester Road copies documents up to 11 x 17 and coil-binds them. Bring a manuscript here for a bound review copy. It also prints posters and blueprints.