A Writer's Guide to St. Louis: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

Central is the St. Louis Public Library's downtown library. Special Collections fills the third floor, with the Genealogy Department, the St. Louis Room for local history, and Rare Books and Manuscripts, a controlled-access room you enter by intercom. Meeting rooms can be booked through the library.

Schlafly is the Central West End's branch, with meeting rooms and computers you can reserve. Book discussion groups meet here. It stays open into the evening Monday through Thursday.

University City runs its own library, a few blocks from the Loop and Washington University. Authors give talks in its auditorium. It also has meeting rooms.

The Modern Literature Collection here covers more than 175 authors, presses, and journals, with manuscript material for over 125 of them. Look for the Russell Edson papers and a Tennessee Williams collection. Fill out a Patron Information Form and send a paging request before your visit. The West Campus space sees researchers only by confirmed appointment.

The Mercantile collects on western expansion and the growth of the St. Louis region. Its Pott and Barriger libraries cover American river and rail transportation, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat archive is here too. It is open weekdays; request a research appointment through the form on its site.

Left Bank Books sells new and used books, signed copies among them. Author events happen in the store and at partner venues such as the Ethical Society of St. Louis and High Low; some stream online. The book clubs include LGBTQ+ reading groups. It is open daily.

Subterranean sells new books on the Loop near Washington University. Its small-press and banned-books lists are worth a look, and it stocks WashU coursebooks. The store is open daily.

Dunaway sells fine used and rare books on three levels, with modern first editions and Black History on the mezzanine. New poetry and art titles are stocked too. Poets can read at the Spellbound Poetry Open Mic on the first and third Sundays, and the store hosts release readings.

James Crossley co-owns Leviathan, which started in 2024 as a pop-up inside Dunaway Books and opened its own shop on South Grand in 2025. It is closed Mondays.

Gold Shoe is a neighborhood bookshop at Pershing and Jackson, with literary and popular fiction, nonfiction, and books for children and teens. Notebooks and pens are on the shelves too.

The Book House has sold new, used, and rare books since 1986. It moved to downtown Maplewood in 2013, and its used and rare titles are also sold through a separate site. It is open daily, into the evening most days.

High Low is the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's literary arts café, with tables inside and on the patio. Its Blueprint Coffee bar is open daily.

Blueprint roasts its own coffee and runs this café in a former garage, with lots of seating and a back patio. St. Louis Magazine recommends it for laptop work. It is open daily.

Protagonist is a library-themed café. More than 5,000 secondhand books fill a 27-foot bookcase, shelved by category and Dewey number, and every one is for sale. It is open daily, with seating inside and out.

Kaldi's roasts its coffee in St. Louis, and the DeMun café has a vegetarian menu. It opens early every day.

Blueberry Hill has been a restaurant, bar, and music club since 1972, and pop-culture memorabilia covers its walls. Chuck Berry duck-walked across the Duck Room stage more than 200 times. The room still books live shows.

Panorama, the museum's full-service restaurant, looks over Art Hill through floor-to-ceiling windows, and its dishes take inspiration from the collection. The Cafe serves quick lunches and espresso and stays open late on Fridays. Museum admission is free every day; both are closed Mondays.

The St. Louis Writers Guild was founded in 1920. Its free monthly Workshops for Writers meet on the first Saturday and take up both craft and publishing. The Guild also hosts open mics and publishes the 1764 literary journal and member anthologies.

High Low's 150-seat Listening Room hosts poetry readings and book signings, and Left Bank Books holds author events there. A 600-square-foot gallery shares the building.

The Jewish Community Center of St. Louis has run this festival of Jewish authors and books for nearly five decades. Festival week comes each November, and literary events continue through the year.

SLU's Center for Literary and Creative Arts hosts the St. Louis Literary Award and brings writers to campus each year. Campus Read, its shared-reading program, links classes across departments with the wider community.

WashU's Center for the Humanities awards Center Fellowships and Center Grants for research. It also runs public humanities programs and Humanities@Work. Watch its calendar for lectures.

The Center for the Literary Arts is WashU's hub for creative writing and translation. Fellows in its Creative Practice Workshop get a semester away from classroom teaching for a creative project, with feedback from center staff aimed at publication.

WashU Libraries helps members of the university community publish. Janeway runs open online journals from submission to publication, and Pressbooks handles openly licensed books and textbooks. For digital scholarship and Omeka exhibits, the library offers Reclaim Hosting web space with training.

Missouri Humanities is the state's humanities nonprofit, with an office in Midtown St. Louis. It gives major grants and mini grants to Missouri organizations for public humanities projects. Its literature programs include a Center for the Book and veterans writing workshops.

Concordia is the publishing arm of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, and it began in St. Louis in 1869 as a small printery. Its list runs from Bibles and the Arch Books children's series to commentaries and Luther's Works. It also publishes adult fiction and nonfiction.

Danielle Dutton and Martin Riker founded Dorothy in 2009. It publishes fiction, near fiction, and writing about fiction, mostly by women. Two new books come out together each fall, paired to draw on different aesthetic traditions.

Health Care Management Review publishes theory-driven research on managing and leading health care organizations, with implications for administrators. Co-editor-in-chief Cheryl Rathert is Professor of Health Management and Policy in Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice. Preparing an article for Health Care Management Review

The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented since 1967, and SLU calls it one of the longest-running literary awards in the country. Each year's honoree comes to St. Louis for lectures, a craft talk, and a Q&A.

The Regional Arts Commission funds individual artists in St. Louis City and County. Artist Investment Grants go to mid-career and established artists, and Project Grants support public work by artists and artist collectives.

The Missouri Arts Council presents the state's arts awards each year, with honorees chosen by an independent statewide panel. The Individual Artist category includes literary artists, and nominees can put themselves forward.

The Guild runs at least three contests a year, among them a Short Story Contest and the Deane Wagner Poetry Contest. It also gives Young Writers Awards.

Missouri Humanities funds this annual anthology of poetry, fiction, essays, and photography, first published in 2012. Veterans, service members, and military-connected family members submit with no entry fee, and a judging panel awards prizes in four categories. Missouri Humanities also runs free Veterans Writing Workshops.

This guide covers SLU's undergraduate research grants and graduate fellowships, along with thesis formatting and submission.

This guide covers WashU's undergraduate research awards and English department writing prizes, plus the Writing Center.

Central Print is a nonprofit letterpress shop. It teaches typesetting and letterpress classes, and members book time in the studio. The Printery Book Arts Lab residency is based here, and the Print Lounge meets on fourth Fridays. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Eric Woods founded Firecracker in 2002. The studio prints posters from hand-carved woodcuts and sets antique wood and metal type, on presses as old as the 1890s. It takes custom work such as stationery and sketchbooks.