A Writer's Guide to Salt Lake City: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

The Main Library on Library Square is open daily. Most of its meeting spaces are free to reserve, from four conference rooms to the 300-seat Nancy Tessman Auditorium and a rooftop terrace. One of the system's two Creative Labs is here.

Marmalade houses the library system's second Creative Lab. Reserve its meeting rooms through the City Library; the branch closes Sundays.

Sprague, the Sugar House branch, closes Sundays and has meeting rooms you can reserve through the City Library.

The Marriott Library houses the University of Utah Press and, on its fourth floor, the Book Arts Studio.

The Special Collections reading room opens weekdays by appointment only. Book at least two business days ahead, in two-hour blocks. Every visitor shows a personal ID, and first-time community visitors register an account when they arrive.

Community users can borrow from Giovale with a limited one-year card, which takes a state ID and a piece of official mail and covers up to four items at a time. Westminster archival materials stay in the library. Community users cannot reserve study rooms.

Weller has sold new, used, and rare books since 1929, now on two levels. It is locally owned and belongs to the ABAA. Readings are frequent. The University of Utah Guest Writers Series and the creative writing program both read here.

Ken Sanders, an ABAA dealer, fills three floors of the former Leonardo Museum building with used and rare books. It also sells maps and photographs. The specialties are Utah and the Mormons and Western Americana, the literary West included. It closes Mondays.

The King's English has been matching books to readers since 1977. It hosts author signings.

Golden Braid has sold spiritual books since 1979, along with meditation tools. It runs classes and author events and is open daily.

Under the Umbrella is a queer bookstore and café. All of its books are queer-made.

The Legendarium sells science fiction, fantasy, and horror from a 1900s-era house, with an RPG café inside. It hosts poetry nights and author signings, and several book clubs meet there.

Lovebound Library sells only romance. Its book nook has a hand-painted mural.

Publik's downtown café is open daily. If your writing group needs a table of its own, Publik has a meeting room you can book.

The Avenues café opens daily too.

Salt Lake Roasting Co. serves breakfast and lunch with its own coffee, and it closes Sundays. When every seat is taken, the café asks anyone who has been there more than 90 minutes to think of others.

Kiln sells day passes and month-to-month shared desks. Members get in around the clock. It is on a public transit line.

The museum's café pours Star Mountain Roasters coffee and serves sandwiches, salads, and soup on weekdays. On weekends it sells drinks only. The museum closes Mondays.

Golden Braid Books names Oasis Cafe as its associated restaurant. Besides the dining room it has a patio and a covered breezeway. It is open daily.

Weller Book Works holds its weekly Breakfast Club at Happy Camper on Tuesday mornings.

The Utah Center for the Book runs the state's only statewide book festival: free author events, in person and online, each October with partner libraries and community centers across Utah. It began in 1998 as the Great Salt Lake Book Festival at Westminster College.

The League has served Utah writers since 1935 and calls itself the state's largest and oldest nonprofit writing organization. Chapters meet monthly around the state. It also publishes the Inkpot Literary Journal and runs Utah Novel Writing Month.

The Book Arts Program has run its studio at the Marriott Library since 1995. Classes cover letterpress printing, bookbinding, and artists' books, and studio access follows the foundation courses. The library's Red Butte Press prints fine-press limited editions of western essays and contemporary fiction and poetry.

Utah Humanities, an independent nonprofit founded in 1975, gives research fellowships and program grants. It also houses the Utah Center for the Book, the state affiliate of the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

University of Utah faculty can apply to the Tanner Humanities Center for the Virgil C. Aldrich Faculty Fellowship or the Career-line Faculty Fellowship. Scholars from other institutions can apply for its Visiting Fellowship at any career stage. The center also supports graduate and public humanities fellows and hosts research interest groups.

The library's Scholarly Communication & Copyright Librarian meets with University of Utah authors about copyright, using others' work, and the terms of a publishing agreement. Authors can self-archive journal articles in the USpace repository.

Torrey House is a nonprofit press working where the literary arts meet environmental advocacy. Its contemporary literature takes up the American West, along with environmental and social justice. Staff work from Salt Lake City and Torrey. Preparing a manuscript for Torrey House Press

The University of Utah Press publishes scholarly and regional books on Utah, Mormon, and American Indian history and in Western American studies. It also publishes in anthropology and archaeology and in Middle Eastern studies. Its offices are in the Marriott Library.

Signature Books publishes books that engage Mormonism and Latter-day Saint experience, from biography and diaries to fiction and drama. It also has a podcast and an events program.

The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education publishes empirical, multidisciplinary research on diversity, equity, and inclusion in postsecondary education, including access and institutional change. Its editor, Chris Linder, is at the University of Utah. APA publishes it with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Preparing an article for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

Utah Arts & Museums has run this competition every year since 1958 for Utah residents 18 and older. It takes unpublished book manuscripts and shorter work, from novels and poetry to short stories and essays. Out-of-state judges read the entries blind. There is no entry fee.

The Utah Center for the Book gives these awards, with the League of Utah Writers as partner, to recently published books by permanent Utah residents. Self-published books qualify. The categories run from fiction and poetry to memoir, romance, and picture books.

The League runs four contests a year: Quills for published work, Olive Woolley Burt for unpublished work, Typewriter for published short work, and Palette for book covers. Every entry gets feedback from the judges.

The University of Utah Press and the Department of English sponsor this annual prize for an unpublished poetry collection in English. Poets with or without a prior book can enter. The winner gets a cash prize and publication by the press, then reads in the Guest Writers Series.

University of Utah students can find grants and writing resources on this page.

Westminster University students have their own version of the guide.

The fourth-floor studio is equipped for type, letterpress, photo engraving, and bookbinding. Anyone 18 or older can register for its community workshops. A writer planning a chapbook can start with one.

Saltgrass is a nonprofit printmaking studio and gallery. Its classes give students self-directed time at the presses.