A Writer's Guide to Tallahassee: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

LeRoy Collins is Leon County's main library, and it is open daily. With a library card you can reserve one of its three meeting rooms, a gathering or huddle room, or one of six study rooms that seat three or four.

The Perry Branch has a program room, a meeting room, and four study rooms for two people, all booked with a library card. Leon County's branches are closed Sundays and Mondays.

The Northeast Branch has a program room that holds 75, along with a meeting room and a study room. Reserve them up to 90 days ahead.

Florida State's rare books and manuscripts are read in Room 110 of Strozier Library, and the reading room is open to the public. Register online first. You can walk in, or book an appointment of up to four hours at least a week ahead. Some material is stored offsite and needs up to two weeks' notice, and researchers coming from out of town should write three weeks before the visit.

The Pepper Library holds the papers of Congressman Claude Pepper (1900–1989), a source for twentieth-century Florida political history. Visits are by appointment only. Book two weeks ahead.

The State Archives keeps state government records alongside private papers and photographs, and much of it is digitized on Florida Memory. Its research room, on the second floor of the R.A. Gray Building, is open weekdays and closed on state holidays. The State Library shares the building.

Sally Bradshaw's Midtown Reader opened in 2016. The store showcases Florida authors and books on Florida history, and it keeps a Local Authors section. Author events come often. It is open daily.

Love Story Book Co. sells romance novels exclusively. Sarah Babchuck opened it in Mahan Square in 2025, and each month brings book clubs and author signings. The store is closed Mondays.

Common Ground is an LGBT+ and feminist bookstore just around the corner from Cascades Park. Its book clubs read queer stories, and every year it hosts a Pride Arts Market.

Fat Cat Books sells used books and has cats up for adoption in the same building. Michelle Hartsfield, president of Feline Advocates of Leon County, runs the store, which moved from Railroad Square to a two-story building near the corner of Tennessee Street and Magnolia Drive. Book sales go back into rescuing cats.

RedEye roasts its coffee in Tallahassee, and the Midtown café is open daily. Breakfast burritos, pressed sandwiches, and the rest of the food menu are served until 15 minutes before close. A Tallahassee Magazine roundup of cafés for getting work done noted free Wi-Fi and plenty of tables.

Lucky Goat is a Tallahassee roaster, and its Midtown café near Lake Ella has outdoor seating. Tallahassee Magazine's guide to cafés for getting work done mentioned free Wi-Fi, couches, and two- and four-top tables.

The Norwood Reading Room is for quiet study and stays open during Strozier Library hours unless an event has booked it. Special Collections is one floor down.

Card holders can reserve the Main Library's six study rooms and three six-person huddle rooms up to 90 days ahead, for as long as four hours a day. Have your card number and PIN ready.

The Piebrary is Midtown Reader's own café. Its pie comes from TC Bakery, a women-owned local bakery, and the coffee from Bold Bean, with specialty teas besides. The store invites customers to study upstairs. It stays open into the evening Wednesday through Saturday.

Bird's is a downtown bar and restaurant with regular live music, posted on its Facebook page. It is closed Sundays and Mondays and stays open late on Thursdays.

Crumbox is a café built from a real railroad caboose. It shares the Railroad Square Art District with more than 70 galleries and small businesses. On the first Friday of each month the district's Gallery Hop brings open galleries and live music.

The Tallahassee Writers Association is a nonprofit for professional and beginning writers. Its monthly meeting, held on the second Thursday at the Marzuq Shrine Center, pairs networking with a program. Members can join critique groups and list themselves in the directory.

Word of South has paired writers and musicians since 2015. Authors who write about music share the bill with musicians who write books, and some sets put an author and a musician on stage together. The festival is held in Cascades Park each spring, with cookbook authors and programs for kids.

Local and visiting authors come to Midtown Reader for signings and meet-and-greets. Trivia nights and Kidtown storytimes fill out the calendar.

FSU's Department of English hosts this weekly series. Each Tuesday night during the semester a different writer reads at The Bark, sometimes a visiting author and sometimes an FSU graduate or undergraduate.

COCA speaks for the arts and cultural groups of Florida's capital area. Writers can join its artists directory and use the community arts calendar. It also offers professional development and a local grant program.

The Humanities Center awards up to four themed faculty fellowships a year to tenure-track humanities faculty past their first year. Fellows receive a course release and research funding and stay in residence at the center. Dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships come from the center too, and it holds work-in-progress workshops and an annual conference.

Florida State Open Publishing is the Libraries' own publisher of journals, monographs, and open educational resources, and faculty start a project with a proposal. Through Read & Publish agreements the Libraries pay article processing charges for eligible FSU authors. Faculty and students can also apply to the Open Access Publishing Fund.

Florida Humanities is a St. Petersburg nonprofit funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Florida. Its grants support public humanities programs and book festivals. It also runs the Florida Center for the Book and publishes FORUM Magazine.

Anhinga Press is a nonprofit poetry press that has published since 1974. Its list runs from full-length collections to chapbooks, and it keeps two series, the Florida Poetry Series and the Visual Poetry Series.

The Southeast Review began in 1979 as Sundog. Graduate students in Florida State's English department edit it. Each print issue, out twice a year, carries fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and the magazine runs reviews and interviews too.

The Kudzu Review is Florida State's undergraduate journal of literature and art, founded in 1988. Twice a year it publishes work by undergraduates from across the country. Reviews and essays go up on its blog.

The American Educational Research Association's flagship journal publishes peer-reviewed research from every subfield of education. Editor-in-chief Motoko Akiba is at Florida State, as is coeditor Fengfeng Ke. Preparing an article for AERJ

JMFT is the journal of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. It covers research and clinical practice in couple and family therapy. Its editor, Lenore McWey, directs the marriage and family therapy program at Florida State. Preparing an article for JMFT

Justice Quarterly is the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences' journal, published by Routledge. It prints theoretical and empirical work on crime and justice, qualitative and quantitative alike. Co-editor-in-chief Daniel Mears is at Florida State. Preparing an article for Justice Quarterly

Qualitative Inquiry publishes interdisciplinary work on the methodological questions that qualitative research raises in the human sciences. Its editor, Michael Giardina, is at Florida State. Preparing an article for Qualitative Inquiry

Florida State University Libraries coordinates the Florida Book Awards, founded in 2006. The eleven categories run from poetry and general fiction to cooking and Spanish-language books. Authors must live in Florida full time, except in Florida nonfiction, visual arts, and cooking, where the book needs a Florida subject.

The Tallahassee Writers Association runs both contests every year, and members and nonmembers anywhere can enter. Entries must be original, unpublished work in English, in seven categories that stretch from a mystery novel excerpt to haiku.

Anhinga Press gives its Prize for Poetry to a full-length collection and the Rick Campbell Chapbook Award to a chapbook. Both winners are published.

The magazine runs four contests, in poetry, the short-short story, nonfiction, and art. Each winner is published in The Southeast Review.

Editors For Students keeps a guide to research funding and writing support for Florida State students.

LeMoyne Arts runs this letterpress studio with Partners in Print. Its historic presses and wood type were donated. A poster workshop meets on the first Saturday of each month.