A Writer's Guide to Winnipeg

The Millennium Library is the main branch of Winnipeg Public Library and home to the ideaMILL makerspace. The library's writer-in-residence keeps an office here.

The department collects Canadian Prairie literary manuscripts along with University of Manitoba records. Its holdings include the Winnipeg Tribune archive and about 30,000 rare books, and by its own count the Icelandic collection is the largest in Canada. Send your box requests ahead so staff can have them ready. It is open weekdays.

The provincial archives hold government and private records along with the Hudson's Bay Company Archives. Search the Keystone database first, because records in offsite storage have to be ordered ahead. The Research Room also opens on selected Saturdays.

The Legislative Library shares a building with the Archives of Manitoba. Its holdings include the Published in Manitoba collection and a Rare Book Collection, and each month it posts a list of new and notable titles. Check its contact page for hours and borrowing terms.

Plume Winnipeg has held in-person editions of Speaking Crow, its monthly poetry open mic with a featured reader, in this branch's upstairs room. The room is reached by elevator. The branch has free Wi-Fi.

McNally Robinson is an independent Winnipeg bookseller. Its Forks store puts the emphasis on Indigenous and local writers and on children's books. You will find it inside The Forks Market.

This McNally Robinson store is in Grant Park Shopping Centre. The bookseller picks its books to reflect the interests of Canadians and works closely with authors and publishers. Prairie Ink, the restaurant inside, hosts its author events.

Bison Books sells antiquarian and used books, from first editions and fine bindings to Indigenous studies and literature. It buys books and does appraisals. The shop is open Monday through Saturday.

Prairie Sky has sold books in Wolseley since 1978, most of them on spirituality and world religions. Buddhism has its own section, as do Yoga and Vedanta. It is open daily.

Librairie à la page is St. Boniface's French-language bookstore, and it has been under the same management for more than 40 years. Its website is in French. The store is closed Sundays.

Book Fair is a family-owned used bookstore that also sells new and collectors' comics. Look for it on the south side of Portage Avenue, one block west of the downtown arena.

Harrison's roasts specialty coffee in an atelier in the same building as this Johnston Terminal café, which is open daily into the evening. A second café is on Waterfront Drive in the Exchange District.

Fools & Horses pours Pilot Coffee and rotating feature roasters from a full espresso menu inside The Forks Market. McNally Robinson is in the same building.

Thom Bargen is a local roaster with minimalist cafés. Besides this one on Sherbrook, it has a café at 250 Kennedy Street downtown and two on Corydon Avenue. You can buy beans to take home.

Colosimo began by supplying beans to offices and cafés around Manitoba, and this Exchange District café came later. The coffee is Direct Trade. Three more Colosimo stores are spread across the city.

Prairie Ink opened in 1996 as part of McNally Robinson Booksellers. Writers from Winnipeg and much farther away have appeared at its more than 5,000 author events. Desserts are baked in-house every day, vegan and celiac-friendly ones among them.

Thyme is a plant-based café in Old St. Boniface that also sells used books. The reading nook has eclectic lamps and a portable fireplace. The kitchen makes soups and sandwiches, and the café is open Tuesday through Saturday.

Local vendors fill the main floor of this former railway-era stable and hayloft, and makers' shops take the floor above. It is open daily.

The Manitoba Writers' Guild welcomes writers of every style and level. Bring pages to its Critique Circle or try the Beta Reader service. The Guild also holds book launches and writing challenges. Writing, Rants & Rambling, its free monthly chat, meets on Zoom.

The Winnipeg Book Festival, formerly THIN AIR, spends four days at The Forks each fall, and nearly all of its more than 25 events are free. Plume Winnipeg, the non-profit behind it, also runs Speaking Crow, a monthly poetry open mic. Each April its Writes of Spring program publishes poems in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Prairie Fire is a quarterly of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, founded in 1978 as Writers News Manitoba. Its pages run from memoir and excerpts of works in progress to literary humour and experimental work. McNally Robinson sponsors its annual contests.

Winnipeg Public Library has hosted a writer-in-residence since 1985. From October through April, new and emerging Manitoba writers can book free one-on-one consultations, in person or remotely. The writer also leads a writing circle and gives workshops in branches and online.

The Institute for the Humanities has supported humanities research in the Faculty of Arts since 1990. Post-docs and independent scholars can apply to be Research Affiliates, which comes with a private office and library privileges. Its public programs include lectures and the Arts of Conversation Series.

The Oral History Centre helps with oral history research projects through consultation and training. Anyone can sign up for its public workshops in oral history methods and in audio and video tools, held at its lab on Portage Avenue. Members can use the facilities and equipment.

University of Manitoba Press calls itself a leading publisher of books on Indigenous history, Indigenous studies, and Canadian history, and it also publishes on the culture and history of the Canadian prairies. Its series include Critical Studies in Native History and First Voices, First Texts.

Turnstone is an independent literary publisher of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Its Ravenstone imprint publishes genre fiction, including mysteries and thrillers.

ARP Books publishes with an emphasis on leftist political analysis of contemporary issues. Its list also takes in poetry and Indigenous studies.

Child Abuse & Neglect is an international, interdisciplinary journal whose subjects run from child welfare and health to justice. It publishes empirical reports and theoretical and methodological papers, along with invited reviews. Its editor-in-chief is at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Preparing an article for Child Abuse & Neglect

The province's book awards include the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. First books have their own prize, the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award. The Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award goes to the book that best evokes the city's character.

Create grants from the Manitoba Arts Council support research and creation of new work and the development of works in progress, and they can fund a creation-based residency. The maximum grant rises with career stage, from emerging to established. For travel and professional development, look at its Learn grants.

The Winnipeg Arts Council's Individual Artist Grant supports the creation of new work in any art form by Winnipeg artists. Its Professional Development Grant gives partial funding for short-term study and mentorship.

Each year this program pairs an emerging writer with an established, professional writer for five months of one-on-one work. The mentor advises on manuscript evaluation and on markets and grants.

The Guild's national contest takes previously unpublished stories in any fiction genre from Canadian citizens and permanent or academic residents. Winners appear in the Beyond Boundaries anthology.

This page gathers University of Manitoba research awards and graduate fellowships, along with campus writing support.

Martha Street Studio is the Manitoba Printmakers Association's studio and gallery. Its courses have included letterpress and bookbinding for artist's books, and every course requires a membership. The studio is open Tuesday through Saturday and is fully wheelchair accessible.

Hignell prints short and medium runs of books for customers across North America, and it says it has printed books for over 100 years. It is FSC certified. Its site gives minimum runs of 25 copies in one place and 100 in another, so ask when you request a quote.