A Writer's Guide to Toronto

Toronto Public Library runs this building as its research and reference library. Its special collections include the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and the Baldwin Collection of Canadiana. It opens daily, with evening hours on weekdays.

Lillian H. Smith is home to the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy and the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. On the lower level are a 30-seat meeting room and a 70-seat auditorium. It is open daily.

Robarts is U of T's main humanities and social sciences library, with bookable study spaces and research consultations. Access is geared to the U of T community. Alumni and affiliated researchers can arrange it through Library Membership Services.

The Fisher's rare books and special collections are open to the public as well as to U of T users. Canadian literary and personal papers are here, with more than 1,000 bound manuscripts. Request materials through the library's online request system.

The Research Hall is free, and it holds the city's records and photographs. Register on arrival with ID showing your name and address. If you want materials waiting, book them through the online database at least 24 hours ahead. Bring a pencil for notes; a phone or camera works for copying. The hall is open weekdays and closes over the lunch hour.

TYPE Books carries a general list with a strong kids' section, and it takes special orders. Its sister shops are in the Junction, at 2887 Dundas St W, and in Forest Hill, at 427 Spadina Rd. Watch the events page.

Another Story is an independent bookshop committed to equality and diversity. It has a wide selection for kids and adults.

BMV sells discounted and used books from three Toronto stores, and the Annex shop sits at Bloor and Brunswick. Publishers' bargain stock shares the shelves with used books. The shop buys books and comics too, and it stays open late on Friday and Saturday.

A Different Booklist is a Black-owned multicultural bookstore specializing in books from the African and Caribbean diaspora and the Global South. Indigenous writers and progressive politics have shelf space too. It hosts readings and panels.

Bakka-Phoenix specializes in science fiction and fantasy, close to the U of T campus. Writers in those genres can pair a visit with the Merril Collection at the Lillian H. Smith branch.

Little Ghosts is a queer-owned horror bookstore and café that also publishes. It sells monthly and quarterly book subscriptions and hosts regular community events.

Spacing magazine's shop stocks books on Toronto and urbanism next to local prints and design goods. It also helps with book launches and pop-up shops. The store is closed Mondays.

The Reference Library sets aside the Writers' Suite and the Jack Rabinovitch Reading Room for writing and study, and it has a Quiet Study Space besides. Balzac's Café is in the building.

The Centre for Social Innovation sells a Lounge Pass and unlimited hot-desk memberships. If you want a fixed seat, rent a dedicated desk. Community events are posted on its public calendar.

Jimmy's Gerrard café spreads study space across three floors near the hospitals and universities, and its third floor can be rented as a boardroom. The Kensington Market shop at 191 Baldwin St has plenty of indoor seating and a large back patio. Arrive early.

The Arbor Room is Hart House's social space for a meal or a drink, open Monday to Saturday. Hart House also runs arts programs and a playwriting competition.

The Arts & Letters Club is a social club for writers and other artists, with its home in St. George's Hall. Most Tuesdays its Literary Committee hosts an author talk over lunch. A Monday Club Night presentation comes about once a month, and some of those evenings are public events. Members can bring guests to lunches and dinners in the Great Hall.

The Drake hangs a rotating art collection through its dining spaces and hallways. Downstairs, Drake Underground puts on shows.

AGO Bistro is on Level 1 of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and you can walk in from Dundas Street West. It serves brunch on weekends. Private events there are hung with art from AGO Art Rental & Sales. The gallery is closed Mondays.

Gallery Grill serves weekday lunch in a second-floor room of Hart House, from a seasonal menu built on local ingredients. Six museum-quality viols stand in a glass case there, and they are tuned and played regularly. Reserve by phone.

The Toronto International Festival of Authors presents Canadian and international writers. Besides its main festival it runs MOTIVE, a crime and mystery festival, and it holds events through the year, some of them for aspiring writers. Before you send out a manuscript, look through its Small Press Explorer map.

The Writers' Union is the national organization of professionally published writers. Members get staff help with contracts and grievances, and they can earn income through its public and school reading programs. It also runs a manuscript evaluation service. Its awards include the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers.

The League of Canadian Poets supports poets across Canada with mentorship programs and microgrants. It runs open mics and publishes the LCP Chapbook Series. Its prizes include the Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest and the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto Foundation Poetry Award.

Toronto Public Library hosts a paid residency for an established Canadian writer. Members of the public can submit manuscripts for review, with priority given to intermediate and advanced writers. The resident also meets writers for feedback appointments.

CBBAG is a Toronto-based charity for the book arts in Canada, bookbinding and letterpress among them. It publishes the magazine Book Arts | arts du livre Canada twice a year.

Instructors can book classes at the Fisher to teach with its collections, and librarians help with reference and research questions. The Fisher Workshops series runs here. Online finding aids help you plan a research visit.

Journal Production Services, built on Open Journal Systems, lets U of T faculty and students publish open access journals. TSpace, the institutional repository, gives faculty and graduate research persistent URLs and helps researchers meet Tri-Agency open access requirements. For copyright questions, book a consultation with the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office.

York's Robarts Centre supports critical, interdisciplinary study of Canada through research clusters such as Black Canada and CIVIS, on urban governance. Faculty Associates can get office space. Its funding includes a Small Grants Program and a Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies, and the Barbara Godard Prize goes to the best York dissertation in Canadian Studies.

University of Toronto Press publishes more than 250 new books a year, scholarly and general-interest titles among them, along with more than 80 journals. Its subjects run from history to the health sciences. The press also runs the University of Toronto Bookstores.

House of Anansi publishes literary fiction and poetry, and its list also takes in nonfiction and mysteries. Groundwood Books is its imprint for children and young adults. The press is home to the Munk Debates series as well.

Book*hug Press publishes fiction and poetry, and it keeps a list of literature in translation. Its nonfiction includes the Salon and Essais series. The press shares the 401 Richmond building with Open Studio and the Spacing Store.

The Journal of Indian Philosophy, published by Springer, covers Indian thought, classical and modern, from close analysis of single texts to annotated translations. Co-editor-in-chief Nilanjan Das is in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Preparing an article for Journal of Indian Philosophy

Language in Society is an international sociolinguistics journal from Cambridge University Press, concerned with language and discourse as social phenomena. All of its research content is open access. Co-editor Susan Ehrlich is at York University. Preparing an article for Language in Society

Science as Culture publishes accessible writing on how science, technology, and medicine shape the values that compete for influence in society, treating the culture of science as an object of critical study. It is co-edited at York University and the Open University and published by Taylor & Francis with Process Press. Preparing an article for Science as Culture

Founded in 1912, Isis publishes articles, research notes, commentary, review essays, and book reviews on the history of science, medicine, and technology and their cultural influences. It is edited at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and at Ashoka University, and it is published by the University of Chicago Press as the official journal of the History of Science Society. Preparing an article for Isis

The Ontario Arts Council funds Ontario writers with a professional publishing history to create new work for print or online publication, comics and young adult literature included. The grant can cover artist fees and research costs. Editorial costs can count too, if they come before the manuscript goes to an agent or publisher.

Toronto Arts Council's Writers Program funds professionally published Toronto writers working on new prose or poetry, and it covers oral traditions such as spoken word and storytelling. One level is for early-career writers. The other is for established writers.

The City of Toronto gives this award to books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. Every genre is judged together in one category, graphic novels and photographic collections included.

Ontario Creates runs the Trillium Book Award for books by Ontario writers in any genre, with separate English and French awards. A Trillium Book Award for Poetry goes to new and emerging poets.

The Writers' Trust gives prizes for single books and for whole careers, among them the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. Its programs include the Woodcock Fund Grant and a mentorship.

This page collects scholarships and writing prizes at the University of Toronto, along with campus writing resources.

York students can find their scholarships and writing prizes here.

The same guide, for students at Toronto Metropolitan University.

OCAD University students will find scholarships and project grants listed on this page.

Open Studio is an artist-run, non-profit printmaking centre with screenprinting and intaglio facilities. It teaches print courses and offers risograph access. Approved Studio Members can work around the clock, and the galleries and shop are open Tuesday to Saturday.

Colour Code is a risograph and screenprinting studio that also handles offset and digital jobs, and it publishes small runs of artist books and comics. A two-colour riso workshop runs on the last Thursday of each month, and Print-with-Me appointments fall on the last Friday. Call ahead.

The U of T Bookstore prints theses and binds them in hardcover, including the Jones binding some engineering programs require. Softcover options include coil and Cerlox. Standard binding takes about 10 business days after the printed thesis arrives. The thesis request form gives you an estimate.

CBBAG teaches online workshops on boxes and bindings, and it runs in-person Bookbinding 1 courses at workshop centres, Scarborough among them. If travel is hard, its guided home-study stream teaches bookbinding from home. Each year a scholarship covers tuition for one core course.