A Writer's Guide to Tucson

The Main Library holds the Cele Peterson Arizona Collection and the Steinheimer Collection. Its meeting rooms range from a 148-seat room on the lower level to small rooms, and study rooms can be booked. It is open weekdays only.

Murphy-Wilmot is an east-side branch with a 132-seat meeting room and public computers. Its study rooms can be used for two hours a day. It closes on Sundays.

The Poetry Center's library holds books and broadsides along with recordings and photographs of poets. Voca, its audiovisual archive, has recordings from the Reading Series. Anyone can visit. Researchers can request a visit by form, and the library is closed Sundays and Mondays.

The Main Library keeps quiet study rooms on the third floor, and its fourth and fifth floors are quiet as well. Check its hours page for public and CatCard access before you go. Parking is in the Cherry Avenue Garage.

Special Collections is open to everyone, scholars and the public alike. Its collecting areas include Arizona and the Southwest and the Borderlands, and it holds the Arizona Queer Archives. Literature is another. The reading room is open weekdays.

Antigone, on Fourth Avenue, hosts author readings and book launches. Authors can ask about its consignment program. It closes on Mondays.

Desierto sells new, used, and rare books, along with vinyl. Art and photography are strengths. The store hosts readings, poetry nights, and book releases, and it is open Wednesday through Sunday.

Homeward is a worker-owned cooperative. It sells new and used books along with comics and games, and its larger store hosts community events. It closes on Tuesdays.

The Book Stop has been in business since 1967. It sells used and out-of-print books, including rare and scholarly titles.

Littlest Bookshop sells children's books. Picture-book and middle-grade writers can see what is on the shelf now.

Bookmans started in Tucson in 1976 and still has its headquarters here. Its stores buy and sell used books and comics along with music, and they host community groups. The second Tucson store is at 4841 N. Stone Ave. Both are open daily.

Mostly Books has sold new and used books since 1988, and it takes used books in trade. The women-owned store hosts author talks and signings and runs book clubs, including one for horror readers. It is open daily.

EXO's 6th Avenue café is a short walk from Antigone Books and The Book Stop. It is open every day from early morning to late afternoon.

Presta has served Tucson for more than ten years. Its 9th Street café, a block off Fourth Avenue, has some seats inside and many more outdoors.

This is Presta's original café, with bar and patio seating inside Mercado San Agustín, an open-air market of local vendors and restaurants. Desierto Books is steps away.

Sonoran House is a coffee shop, market, bar, and restaurant in one. It opens early and stays open into the evening every day, so a draft can run from breakfast to dinner. There are plenty of tables and charging stations, and the Wi-Fi is fast.

Yellow Brick is a local roaster's café with a quiet, brightly lit room. It suits focused work. It is open daily from morning into early afternoon, and parking is free but tight.

Hotel Congress was built in 1919 for travelers coming off the Southern Pacific line. Cup Café is its restaurant, and Club Congress books live music.

Monterey Court began as a 1938 motor court. Since 2011 it has housed a restaurant and bar with a courtyard music stage, and a dozen artisan businesses fill the old rooms. There is live music Tuesday through Sunday.

The Arizona Inn dates to 1930. Its Library lounge has live music on Thursday and Friday evenings, and there is afternoon tea on Sundays.

The Poetry Center runs community writing workshops, with scholarships available, and hosts discussion groups. Its Reading & Lecture Series streams live.

The Tucson Festival of Books began on the University of Arizona campus in 2009. Each spring more than 300 authors take part across the University of Arizona Mall. Independent authors can apply to its Indie Author Experience, and writers can nominate themselves as presenters. All proceeds go toward literacy in Southern Arizona.

The library's writer in residence meets with writers of any age, experience, or genre for 30-minute consultations. You can book with a finished manuscript or with nothing written yet. The resident also leads public workshops.

Confluencenter is the University of Arizona's interdisciplinary center for the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Scholars and artists share new work at its Show & Tell events, which are free and open to the public.

The center supports digital humanities research and teaching, from data visualization and digital mapping to virtual and augmented reality. It especially encourages projects involving voices from the margins. Scholars can contact it to propose a collaboration.

Arizona Humanities, the state's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has supported public programs since 1974. It funds humanities projects by organizations, and its programs include AZ Speaks and the NEA Big Read. Its office is in Phoenix.

The University of Arizona Press publishes academic, regional, and literary books from offices on the fifth floor of the Main Library. Its list includes books on tribal sovereignty and the Sonoran Desert, along with poetry and memoir.

Chax publishes poetry and hybrid work that crosses essay and prose poem. Its limited editions appear under chax ltd.

Health Psychology is the American Psychological Association's monthly journal of research linking psychology and health, including biobehavioral mechanisms and the social determinants of health. Its editor-in-chief is in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. Preparing an article for Health Psychology

The state arts agency gives these grants to individual artists in any discipline, writers among them, at any stage of a career. Applicants must be Arizona residents 18 or older.

The festival runs a yearly competition in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for writers 18 and older with unpublished or self-published work. Winners receive cash awards and scholarships to the festival's Masters Workshop.

The Arts Foundation gives stART Grants to individual artists and nonprofits in Southern Arizona and in Tribal Nations south of the Gila River. Its Artist Development track funds professional development or a resource an artist's practice needs.

Start here for grants and writing resources at the University of Arizona.

Chax Press runs PRESS ROOM, a letterpress and book arts studio at the south end of downtown. Its classes cover letterpress printing and papermaking as well as bookbinding.