A Writer's Guide to York, England

York Explore is the flagship of the city's library service and the home of the city archive. Its first-floor study desks can be booked online, and the quiet Local History Room holds more than 60,000 items on York, trade directories and maps among them. Visits to the Archives Reading Room should be pre-booked. That room is closed Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, while the library is open daily.

Tang Hall Explore has nine rooms for hire, more than any other library in the Explore network. It has a reading cafe and a free book club. The library is open daily.

Acomb Explore is a branch library in west York, with a cafe and three rooms you can hire through Explore York's booking service. It closes Sundays.

Members of the public can use the University of York Library for reference. Without a University Card, ask at reception beside the turnstiles for a temporary day card. For Walk-in Access to e-resources, bring proof of identity, such as a passport or driving licence, to the JB Morrell Library during full service hours. York residents may be eligible for York Community Membership, which lets them borrow.

The Borthwick Institute, the University of York's archive, collects archives, rare books and artworks and makes them available for research to all. The Archbishops' Registers and the Cause Papers are among its holdings. The Searchroom opens Monday to Thursday by appointment, booked by email or phone. Some material needs 24 hours' notice. Pre-order through the online catalogue, Borthcat, and at the Library entrance tell staff you have a Borthwick appointment.

Topping & Company opened its York branch in June 2026. The shop fills a large, maze-like 19th-century building with views of the Minster, and it stocks small-press titles and backlist alongside new books. It is open daily.

The Little Apple Bookshop is a small independent on High Petergate. It has York and Yorkshire sections for both fiction and non-fiction, and it keeps poetry and a range of signed copies. The shop is open daily.

The Minster Gate Bookshop, established in 1970, sells antiquarian and secondhand books. Literature and history have their own sections, as do religion and philosophy, and folklore and the occult share one. Prints are sold too. The shop is open daily.

James Hallgate founded Lucius Books in 1993, starting with crime-fiction first editions. The firm is an ABA member and specialises in first editions, including signed and inscribed copies, and in manuscripts. In May 2026 it opened a new shop in the 15th-century Micklegate premises that once housed Ken Spelman Books.

Janette Ray deals in rare and out-of-print books on architecture and landscape design, mainly from 1800 to 1950. Photography and fine art are among the shop's other subjects. The door is open Wednesday to Friday, and other days are by appointment.

Isla Coole founded Criminally Good Books, a shop for crime fiction and true crime near the Shambles. It stocks signed copies and special editions and hosts literary events.

The Portal Bookshop opened in 2019 as an independent science fiction, fantasy and LGBTQIA+ bookshop. It takes pre-orders and imports US titles. Upstairs is the Over the Rainbow Cafe, and the space can be hired for events.

Rowntree Park Reading Cafe sits in the park lodge, south of the city centre, and runs a full library service. Breakfast and home-cooked food are served daily, with views over the park.

The Reading Cafe inside York Explore is spacious. It serves sandwiches and cakes, and the bookable study desks and the Local History Room are upstairs when you need quiet. It is open daily.

City Screen is a riverside cinema with a café-bar, and its kitchen serves food daily. Downstairs, The Basement is a 100-capacity events room licensed for spoken word and theatre as well as live music and comedy.

Sketch is the café at York Art Gallery, run by the founders of Origin. Its seasonal, locally sourced food is made fresh each day, and the outdoor seats overlook the fountain, with views of the Theatre Royal and the Minster. The café opens Wednesday to Sunday.

York Theatre Royal has welcomed audiences since 1744. Its café is open Monday to Saturday. The theatre's listings have included York Literature Festival events.

York Literature Festival is a charity run by trustees and volunteers. Its programme covers fiction, non-fiction and poetry through talks and workshops, among other formats, with a small children's programme. Through the year it lists regular events such as The York Howlers poetry open mic at the Blue Boar and a folk horror reading group at the Black Swan Inn. The festival began in 2007 under York City Council, and volunteers took it over after funding cuts.

The York Centre for Writing is York St John University's hub for writing events and publications. It runs The York Literary Review, an international creative writing journal published by Valley Press, and it manages the Northern Independent Press Collection, an archive of work from independent presses in the north of England. Margaret Atwood and Kathleen Jamie are among its past visiting authors.

Say Owt is a spoken word, music and performance collective in Yorkshire that runs poetry slams and open mics across the county and beyond. It has performed at York Theatre Royal. At a Say Owt Slam the audience judges, and one poet is crowned champion of the night. Poets sign up by contacting the group, and its monthly newsletter, Mail Owt, lists gigs and events.

Explore York runs the city's 15 public libraries and its archives. Reading groups and events take place across the network, and the service lends e-books and e-audiobooks. It also runs a mobile library and a home library service.

The University of York leads the York Festival of Ideas, two weeks each June of more than 200 events, most of them free. Talks and performances run in person and online, on subjects from history and archaeology to politics. Many past events can be watched again on the festival's website and YouTube channel.

The Humanities Research Centre is the University of York's hub for interdisciplinary research across its eight arts and humanities departments. It helps staff develop grant applications and build partnerships with arts and heritage organisations, among others. Postgraduates get training and study space here. The centre also offers fellowships.

The Centre for Medieval Studies works from Heslington Hall, with research that runs from the Vikings to Islamic art. Its seminar series include a Medieval Literatures Seminar, and it holds the annual Riddy Lecture. The centre hosts York Medieval Press.

White Rose University Press is a non-profit open access publisher run jointly by the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. It publishes peer-reviewed monographs and journals across the arts, humanities and sciences, with professional copy editing and typesetting. Authors keep their copyright under a Creative Commons licence.

Stairwell Books is a small York publisher, founded by Rose Drew with Alan Gillott. It began with poets from York and Yorkshire and now publishes writers from around the world. Its list runs from poetry collections and anthologies to novels in genres such as crime and historical fiction, with memoir and children's books too. Since 2009 it has published the writing journal Dream Catcher.

York Medieval Press is a Boydell & Brewer imprint hosted by the University of York's Centre for Medieval Studies, where its editorial board works under General Editor Professor Peter Biller. It publishes monographs, editions and essay collections in all fields of medieval studies.

The British Journal for the History of Science publishes scholarly papers and review articles on the history of science, read broadly to take in medicine and technology, with a substantial book review section. Its first-listed editor, Dr Amanda Rees, is at the University of York, and co-editor Dr Adam Mosley is at Swansea University. Preparing an article for The British Journal for the History of Science

Arts Council England's Developing Your Creative Practice fund supports individual creative practitioners with time to learn and take creative risks.

National Lottery Project Grants is Arts Council England's open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. It is open to individual practitioners as well as organisations.

New Writing North's Northern Writers' Awards support unpublished writing and work in progress by writers in the North of England, often before they have an agent or publisher. Awards cover fiction and poetry among other forms.

The Royal Literary Fund makes grants to professional writers facing financial difficulty through sickness or changed circumstances. Its paid Fellowships place writers in UK universities to help students with academic writing.

Editors For Students gathers grants and writing support for University of York students on one page.

Thin Ice Press, the York Centre for Print, keeps historic printing presses in the Old School House on Peasholme Green. Its workshops cover letterpress and bookbinding, among other crafts, and memberships and studio passes give access to the press room. The studio is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.