A Writer's Guide to Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Central is the main library of the Forsyth County system. Start local and regional research in its North Carolina Collection. Meeting rooms can be reserved, and the building also has a sound production studio. It is open daily.

Reynolda Manor, in a former movie theater, is the largest branch in the county system. Its services include book clubs and meeting rooms.

Guests can use Z. Smith Reynolds during regular hours, with public computers and guest wifi, and the collections are open to the public for research and scanning. Unaffiliated borrowers can buy an annual borrowing card. Special Collections & Archives holds manuscripts and the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection, and its reading room is open weekdays. Book a research visit through its Requests & Appointments page.

The Moravian Archives is the official repository of the Moravian Church in America, Southern Province. It holds church and agency records along with memoirs and a rare book collection, and its finding aids are searchable online. The doors are locked outside scheduled programs, so request a research visit first. Staff also offer remote research help and genealogical assistance.

The Gray Library is in MESDA's Frank L. Horton Museum Center. It collects on southern decorative arts and material culture, antebellum Southern social history, and Moravian history, and its Thomas A. Gray Rare Book Collection covers early North Carolina and the Southeast from 1590 to 1865. Make an appointment. The library is open Wednesday through Friday, and Saturdays by appointment.

Bookmarks is a nonprofit independent bookstore and literary arts organization. It grew out of a book festival first held in 2004, and it still runs the annual Festival of Books & Authors. It also hosts author events and conversations.

The Bookhouse is an independent bookstore that also serves coffee, wine, and beer. Its calendar includes author talks and open mic nights.

The Eclectible Shop began in 1999 as an antiques business and now sells used books beside vinyl records and furniture. Look for its local history and religious studies shelves. New arrivals go up on the site each week.

Camino Bakery's downtown café opens early every day and stays open into the evening Thursday through Sunday. A second Camino, in Brookstown, is open all week.

Krankies, founded in 2003, roasts small-batch coffee and runs a restaurant downtown. It is open daily until mid-afternoon. It closes on the first Monday of each month.

Ardmore Coffee is a neighborhood coffee shop in the heart of Ardmore, open every day from early morning.

Footnote is Foothills Brewing's coffee-and-cocktails room. Pastries go with the house-roasted coffee, and the food comes from the brewpub kitchen. On Monday evenings the Siren Series brings free jazz. It is closed Sundays.

Muddy Creek serves sandwiches and soups with beer and wine. Its 60-seat listening room books acoustic folk, bluegrass, and old-time acts. Weekend shows often sell out, so buy tickets online.

The North Carolina Writers' Network is a statewide writers' organization based in Winston-Salem. Membership is open to writers of every genre and experience level, in North Carolina and beyond. It runs conferences, online classes, and a critique and editing service. The NC Literary Hall of Fame and a Prison Writers Outreach Program are Network programs too.

Salem College founded the Center for Women Writers in 1996 to support the writing of women, trans women, and non-binary writers. It brings authors and poets to campus for readings and holds poetry slams and writing workshops. Its narrative-medicine program links writing and health. Community members can take part.

MESDA's Research Center supports research on the decorative arts of the early South. Its Object, Craftsman, and Subject databases are online, and so is the MESDA Journal. Research help is by appointment, onsite or virtual. MESDA also runs a Summer Institute.

North Carolina Humanities is the state's nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, founded in 1972 and based in Charlotte. It offers grants and fellowships for humanities work that serves North Carolina communities. North Carolina Reads is one of its programs.

Wake Forest University Press has published Irish poetry since 1975, along with essays on Irish poets. The press calls itself the premier publisher of Irish poetry in North America.

Press 53 is an independent literary press, founded in 2005, that publishes poetry and short fiction. Its imprints cover essays (Opine Press) and mystery and suspense (Plot Hound Books), and Carolina Classics Editions brings back older titles. The press also publishes the online journal Prime Number Magazine.

Students at Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem edit the Wake Forest Law Review, which publishes articles, notes, comments, and empirical legal studies in five issues a year. One issue each year comes from its symposium. Wake Forest Law Review Online runs shorter pieces for practitioners. Preparing an article for Wake Forest Law Review

The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal of evidence-based public health practice and research, from emergency preparedness to chronic disease prevention. Its editor-in-chief, Justin B. Moore, is a professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem. Preparing an article for the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice

The North Carolina Arts Council funds these project grants, and regional consortia of local arts councils award them to professional artists in any discipline and at any career stage. Forsyth County shares a consortium with Davidson, Davie, Guilford, and Randolph Counties, and the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County is part of it. A grant can pay for new work or for travel to a professional opportunity.

Press 53 gives two book awards each year, one for a poetry collection and one for a short fiction collection. The press publishes the winners.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Creative Writing Program administers this Writers' Network prize for writing on the lives of Black North Carolinians. The winning entry may be published in the North Carolina Literary Review.

This Writers' Network competition takes creative nonfiction on subjects relevant to North Carolinians, outside conventional journalism. Ecotone considers the winning entry for publication.

Up to ten finalists in this Writers' Network fiction prize are considered for publication in the North Carolina Literary Review.

The Greensboro Review publishes the winner of this Writers' Network poetry competition.

Our sister site gathers grants and writing resources for Wake Forest students on one page.

Winston-Salem State University students have their own page there.

A third page covers High Point University, in the city of High Point.

Sawtooth, a community art school founded in 1945, has three etching presses and a Vandercook letterpress in its printmaking studio. The school counts itself among the few community art schools in North Carolina with letterpress open studio. Take a letterpress or bookmaking class, or bring your own project to a Community Print Night.

Sir Speedy prints booklets and manuals and binds them several ways, from saddle-stitch to perfect binding. It suits a short run of chapbooks or a bound draft. Ask about heavier cover stock or laminated covers.