A Writer's Guide to Sacramento, California

The Central Library is the largest of the Sacramento Public Library's 28 libraries. For quiet, go to the fourth floor. Study rooms and rentable meeting rooms are on hand, and local historians will want the newspaper archives and the genealogy collection that comes courtesy of the Genealogical Association of Sacramento.

The California History Section keeps rare books and maps in its vaults, along with newspapers, periodicals, and one-of-a-kind photographs and letters. The reading room is open Tuesday through Thursday. Rare and restricted items need an appointment at least three business days ahead.

The city and county archive keeps government and court records back to 1849. Its largest photo collections come from the Sacramento Bee, and its KCRA and KOVR news film runs from 1957 to 1982. Oral histories and maps are here too. Research appointments are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Researchers come to the State Archives for legislative and governors' records, and for court records. The collections also take in architectural drawings and audio and video. The Research Room is open to the public on weekdays.

Archives and Special Collections at UC Davis, about 15 miles west of downtown Sacramento, welcomes the general public as well as visiting scholars. Its holdings run from rare books and pamphlets to manuscript collections and the University Archives. First-time users register in the Aeon system to request materials.

Capital Books is a downtown independent with an all-romance floor and a basement science-fiction section stocked with games and graphic novels. Its fiction and horror book clubs meet in the Flamingo Lounge. No RSVP is needed.

Beers Books calls itself Sacramento's oldest and largest independent new and used bookstore, and it dates to 1936. The Naify family has owned it since 1984.

Underground Books is a nonprofit bookstore under St. HOPE, part of the 40 Acres Cultural Center. Its reading lists include race relations and healing from trauma, and the children's section is extensive. Author talks and a speaker series run here. It is open daily.

Time Tested Books sells new and used books and vinyl, and it will search for out-of-print and rare titles. It buys and trades, too. Author signings and readings share the calendar with lectures and live music.

The Avid Reader is an independent bookstore near the Tower Theatre. Along with books, it sells magazines and papers, toys and games. It is open daily.

Crawford's sells new and used books and is strong in mysteries, westerns, and military history, as well as science and classics. Two book clubs meet here: Mysteries & More, once a month, and the Hollywood Park Book Club. There is a children's storytime as well. The store is open daily.

East Village Bookshop began in East Sacramento, near McKinley Park. Its main store is now on J Street in Midtown.

Sisters Claire Bone and Noelle Baganz own Wild Sisters. The store sells new and used books for all ages, across a wide range of genres.

Temple's K Street café is open daily until late in the evening. Temple also has a café on G Street in Davis.

Old Soul Co. roasts coffee and runs a kitchen and catering business in Sacramento. This café on 21st Street is open daily into the evening, and another Old Soul café sits in the alley behind 1716 L St.

Pachamama is a coffee cooperative owned by smallholder farmers in Latin America and Africa. Study groups can rent its cafés. The Midtown café is open daily and holds coffee classes in its Quality Lab, and there are sister cafés on J Street in East Sacramento and G Street in Davis.

Mishkas, in downtown Davis, calls itself a quiet place to relax, study, and converse. Each month it shows and sells work by local artists. It is open daily.

The Crocker Café is on the museum's first floor, in Friedman Court. The Crocker also keeps the Gerald Hansen Library of art-historical archives. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

The Fox & Goose has been an English pub and music venue since 1975, and it serves breakfast every day. There is a music open mic every Monday and a pub quiz every Thursday.

Old Soul's café and kitchen share the 40 Acres complex with Underground Books, which sells a Mother Rose coffee blend made with Old Soul. It is open daily.

The Sacramento Branch was the first branch of the California Writers Club. Members meet twice a month, on the First Friday and the Third Saturday, for speakers and networking. The branch also holds open readings and runs critique groups with published guidelines. Its site also has a page for writers looking for beta readers.

The California Writers Club Sacramento Branch founded this free one-day festival and still runs it. Writers in every genre take tables beside local bookstores, and well-known local authors sit on panels. Authors and publishers request tables on the festival site.

Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime, supports the professional development of crime writers. Members meet monthly to get to know the chapter's authors. The chapter publishes anthologies.

CapLit is a Sacramento reading series and writing hub that brings literature and theater together: actors read work by local and nationally known authors at live events in Midtown. It also runs writing workshops.

I Street Press, at the Central Library, is the library's base for writing and publishing. Its writing and publishing classes are on the library's events calendar.

The State Library calls its documents from and about California history the state's premier collection. Researchers also use its law collection and government publications. Genealogists get databases and research guides, and the California Research Bureau's reports are online. Questions can go to Ask a Librarian.

The Davis Humanities Institute is UC Davis's humanities research center. Its DHI Encounters series is open to the public, and each event looks at one work of art or culture from several disciplines.

California Humanities is a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, with offices in Oakland and Los Angeles. It funds public humanities work through its Connecting California grants and the California Documentary Project.

Research in Gerontological Nursing is a peer-reviewed journal, indexed in MEDLINE, that publishes nursing research on older adults, including an annual State of the Science review. Its editor is the founding dean of the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing in Sacramento. Preparing an article for Research in Gerontological Nursing

Geriatric Nursing, an Elsevier journal and the official journal of the American Assisted Living Nurses Association, publishes evidence-based work on the care of older adults for every member of the interdisciplinary team. Its editor-in-chief, Deb Bakerjian, is at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing in Sacramento. Preparing an article for Geriatric Nursing

UC Davis Law Review publishes legal scholarship by academics, practitioners, and student editors in five issues each volume and hosts a yearly symposium on legal issues. It is the law school's scholarly journal, run by student editors at the UC Davis School of Law. Preparing an article for UC Davis Law Review

The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics publishes research on the connections between politics and race, ethnicity, immigration, and indigeneity, across all subfields of political science and a range of methods. It is edited at California State University, Sacramento, and San Diego State University, and published by Cambridge University Press as the official journal of the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics section of the American Political Science Association. Preparing an article for Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics

Contemporary School Psychology publishes original research, research-practice partnership studies, systematic reviews, and policy analyses that guide effective policies, programs, and practices across school psychology. It is edited at California State University, Sacramento and published by Springer as the official journal of the California Association of School Psychologists. Preparing an article for Contemporary School Psychology

The California Arts Council's fellowship recognizes California artists practicing any art form, in Emerging, Established, and Legacy tiers. Apply through the organization that administers your region. For the Capital region, which takes in Sacramento, Yolo, and three other counties, that is Teatro Nagual.

The Commonwealth Club gives these annual awards to books by authors living in California. Fiction, first fiction, nonfiction, and poetry each have a category, and so do books for young readers and Californiana. Self-published books are not eligible.

Northern California Book Reviewers present these awards with Poetry Flash and the San Francisco Public Library, usually in the fall. They honor books by Northern California authors and translations by California translators. The Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award goes each year to a Northern California literary figure.

The guide gathers grants and fellowships for UC Davis students and researchers, along with campus writing support.

Sacramento State student writers and researchers get the same kind of guide to funding and prizes. It also explains how theses are published.

At I Street Press, library staff help you produce a print-on-demand paperback on an Espresso Book Machine. It prints a black-and-white interior and a color cover, then binds and trims the book. Appointments run Tuesday through Saturday.

Experienced users can rent Verge's risograph by appointment for zines and posters; it runs pink, blue, black, and yellow inks. Myrtle Press, the center's printmaking studio, teaches techniques from relief and intaglio to stone lithography and offers memberships. The galleries are closed Monday through Wednesday.