A Writer's Guide to Waterloo, Ontario

The Main Library has study carrels and large tables on its upper level, along with lounge areas for reading and writing. With a WPL card you can book a study room for up to six people, for up to three hours a day. It is open daily from mid-October to early May.

John M. Harper has a large quiet zone with plenty of tables. Its three bookable study rooms hold up to seven people in one and up to three in each of the others. Parking is free. The branch is closed Sundays.

Central Library keeps seven study rooms on its upper level. Four are first-come, and three can be booked free with a library card for up to two hours a day. The library also rents meeting rooms and event spaces, and it opens on Sunday afternoons.

Special Collections & Archives keeps its rare books and manuscripts on the first floor of Dana Porter Library. Anyone can use them for research. Contact SCA for an appointment before you go.

The Mennonite Archives of Ontario collect documents and photographs on Mennonite life in the province, from religious and cultural matters to family and personal ones. Genealogy resources are here as well. Ask at the Milton Good Library desk for rare books and periodicals. Research access is on weekdays, and an appointment is recommended for archival materials.

The Laurier Archives keeps the library's primary sources and rare books, and it serves the public as well as the university. Researchers consult materials in the Julia Hendry Archives Reading Room.

Words Worth has been an independent bookstore in Uptown since 1984. It hosts author events, and book clubs get a group discount. The store is a founding partner of the Wild Writers Literary Festival.

Old Goat sells used and rare books from floor-to-ceiling shelves in a building from about 1874. Its strengths are science fiction and fantasy, along with history. It buys books, too, and it is open daily.

The Old Mare Canteen is a self-serve coffee and tea bar inside Old Goat Books, run on the honour system, and the store bills it as a space to read or write. Coffee comes from The Tree Coffee House, and the baking is done in house. It keeps the store's daily hours.

Seven Shores is a community café with an espresso bar and a patio, and it opens early every day. After hours, groups can book its community room for meetings and workshops or use it as a quiet workspace.

Matter of Taste is an espresso bar and café on King Street in Kitchener, open daily. Seating is limited. Plan a shorter solo session here.

The Huether Hotel, at King and Princess, was established in 1855, and its Lion Brewery dates to 1842. The building houses The Barley Works restaurant, the brewery, and The Jazz Room. It is open daily from morning until late.

This café sits in the Central Library's reading lounge, steps from the stacks and the study rooms. It is open daily, Sunday afternoons included.

Wild Writers is a three-day literary weekend held each November in Uptown Waterloo. Readings from recent Canadian books share the program with panels and writing workshops. The New Quarterly founded it with Words Worth Books and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

The New Quarterly is a Waterloo literary magazine devoted to storytelling, and it publishes poetry, short stories, and essays in print and online. It runs writing contests and the Writing on the Land retreat for emerging and established writers. Its X-Page Workshop pairs immigrant and refugee women with artists who mentor them in telling their own stories. The online archive is free.

St. Jerome's has run this free public reading series since 1984. Established and emerging Canadian writers read their work, experimental and traditional, then take questions.

The Waterloo Centre for German Studies is a donor-funded institute for research on the German-speaking world and for publicly oriented scholarship. Its research groups include Austrian Studies and German-Canadian Studies, and it runs an oral history project. It hosts the Grimm Lecture Series and awards the WCGS Book Prize. Visiting researchers work there as well.

The Games Institute is an interdisciplinary centre for research on interactive and immersive technologies, with faculty from English and history working alongside computer science. It has run a seed grant program for members starting new collaborations. Its workshop series and the Palgrave Games in Context publication come out of the same centre.

Wilfrid Laurier University Press has published scholarly monographs and edited collections since 1974. It also publishes textbooks and trade books grounded in scholarship. Indigenous studies and life writing are among its specialties. Poets should look at the Laurier Poetry series.

Social Science and Medicine is an international, interdisciplinary forum for social science research on health. It publishes original research and commentaries meant to inform policy and practice as well as scholarship. The editor-in-chief is in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. Preparing an article for Social Science and Medicine

Writer and literary journalist Edna Staebler established this award in 1991, and Wilfrid Laurier University administers it. It goes to a Canadian writer's first or second published book of literary creative non-fiction with a Canadian locale or significance.

Canadian writers with an established literary reputation in fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, or drama are eligible. Laurier offers the post as a visiting-author opportunity or as a longer residency.

The Region of Waterloo funds individual artists and collectives in Waterloo Region, along with arts organizations. MT Space administers the grants.

Ontario writers with a recent professional publishing history apply to designated publishers and literary organizations, which recommend them to the OAC for grants toward new work.

This grant supports Ontario-resident literary artists with a recent professional publishing history as they create new work for publication.

This page lists scholarships and writing prizes at the University of Waterloo, plus campus writing resources.

Laurier students will find scholarships and writing prizes gathered here.