916 Ink

916 Ink is Sacramento’s arts-based creative writing and literacy nonprofit that provides workshops and tutoring to transform Sacramento youth into strong readers, confident communicators, and published authors. Our programs increase literacy skills, improve vocabulary, teach empathy, positively impact social and emotional learning, and expand communication skills. We envision a Sacramento region where every child and teen is given access to a culturally relevant creative writing program that leads them to believe in themselves and to understand the power of the written word.

Friends of the Sacramento Public Library – Book Den

Friends of the Sacramento Public Library is a volunteer helpmate to the award-winning Sacramento Public Library system. As a membership-supported nonprofit, the Friends advocate, raise funds, and provide crucial support to the system’s 28 libraries. There is a Branch Friends Group at each of the 28 branch libraries of Sacramento Public Library. Friends of the Sacramento Public Library is proud to serve as a community ambassador for the Library. Our volunteer activities help the Library expand the materials and programs serving our diverse community beyond those normally included in the Library’s operating budget. We also advocate on behalf of increased funding for the Library through our public relations initiatives and publications.

About the Book Den: The Book Den is a brick and mortar, non-profit, used bookstore run by the Friends. We average about 80,000 used books, media, magazines, games, puzzles, records, DVDs, and CDs between our store and warehouse. We also sell on Amazon and Ebay in addition to special sales throughout the year along with donating to many other non-profits, schools, etc.. Everything is donated and we are all volunteers. The Book Den is located at 8250 Belvedere Ave E, Sacramento, CA 95826. We’re open for sales on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9am to 3pm. Donations are taken on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9am to noon.

Mustard Seed School

Mustard Seed School is a free, private, emergency school serving children experiencing homelessness, ages 3 to 15. While families work with our Outreach Team to seek a stable living situation, community resources and more, eachstudent is welcomed into a classroom environment lovingly prepared with their academic and social-emotional needs in mind.

Students receive healthy snacks and meals, school supplies, clothing, survival supplies, counseling, health screenings, and access to various other community resources.

Mustard Seed’s main goal is to provide a safe, structured, nurturing environment as we prepare students to enroll in public school. 

Sacramento Literacy Foundation

In Sacramento, the most diverse city in America, reading is the most critical equity skill that can be taught to children. Reading is agency. Reading and not reading are correlated with nearly every positive and negative outcome, respectively. Reading is the Civil Rights Issue of our time. 

The Sacramento Literacy Foundation (SLF) is dedicated to ensuring all children can read at grade level, with a key focus on achieving 3rd-grade reading proficiency. Our work centers around three core program areas: providing access to diverse, high-quality books for under-resourced children, supporting summer reading initiatives to combat learning loss, and advocating for structured literacy through curriculum enhancement, teacher training, and after-school programs.

Our efforts span Sacramento County, with a spotlight on our flagship project, the Promise Zone Literacy Initiative. This initiative focuses on kindergarten through 2nd-grade students in the Sacramento Promise Zone, a federally designated area with high unemployment and low literacy rates. To support these children, we intentionally provide each child with a bag of five high-quality, culturally relevant books to take home. Research shows that having books in the home can be as impactful on a child’s future as their parents’ education level or income. Five books are significant because that’s the number needed to help children retain their reading skills over the summer. By addressing literacy gaps early, SLF is helping lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning and opportunity.

Amatoria Fine Art Books

Amatoria Fine Art Books is the Sacramento region’s only bookstore specializing in the arts. We are a woman-artist-owned brick & mortar in the heart of Midtown, with over 10,000 high-quality fine art books, prints, ephemera, and original art. curated to ignite your imagination.

The Avid Reader

The Avid Reader on Broadway has promoted independent thinking through reading for 38 years. Our literature section has a broad selection of classic and new titles, and we have genre sections for mystery/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy books. We have a variety of carefully curated nonfiction sections, including history, politics, travel, biography, and the sciences. Our large section of new and bestselling hardcover books covers a wide range of fiction and nonfiction subjects. We’re proud of our huge children’s and young readers sections, including graphic novels, educational materials, activity kits, and traditional toys. Our magazine selection is the largest in Sacramento and many customers visit us daily for our selection of major newspapers. We also have the largest selection of jigsaw puzzles and single and boxed greeting cards, as well as a variety of games and reading accessories.

Capital Books

Capital Books owners Ross and Heidi Rojek started a book review business in 2008, when most of the arts sections in local newspapers were either scaling back or closing altogether. We expanded our book business over the last 15 years, rather than shrink. It is our love of — first and foremost — the Sacramento community, as well as books and the acknowledgment no new bookstore in downtown that called to us.

Since opening Capital Books just before a global pandemic, political unrest, and riots from 2019 to 2021, we have become a beacon in a downtown that has been shrinking instead of growing. We didn’t close our doors during the pandemic, instead offering curbside pickup and book delivery (still in place today) to a community sheltering in place. Since 2021, we doubled down by expanding onto two more floors of our building and hosted several successful author events — from local authors at our bookstore to best-selling authors who commanded a larger audience at The Crest Theater or larger nearby venues, such as the Crocker Museum. We believe that, together, we rise, and employ that mindset with partnering with businesses around us to bring our community literary events that rival those found in the Bay Area.

Capital Books occupies the main floor of the building, Another Universe, our Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror bookstore is in the basement, along with Toys, board and card games, and role-playing games. Our second floor is now Knotty Novels, a dedicated space for all forms of romance books.

As we say, Capital Books is three floors and a million stories.

Capitol Crimes

Capitol Crimes is the Sacramento, California chapter of Sisters in Crime, an international mystery writers organization dedicated to enhancing visibility and representation of diverse voices in the genre and across the marketplace. We welcome both readers and writers.

Elk Grove Writers Guild, Inc.

Elk Grove Writer’s Guild, Inc – In early 2018 a woman saw a need for an all-genre, one-day, writers conference in Elk Grove that wouldn’t cost $2000 – $3000 to attend plus airfare and lodging. How hard could it be? She found three like-minded writers, and they went to work. The first Elk Grove Writers Conference of October, 2018 was a surprising success. Encouraged by that success, they filed the required State and Federal documents and by early 2020, they were a legal nonprofit doing business as the Elk Grove Writers Guild, Inc. Their mission statement says they will, “Help Writers Be the Best They Can Be Through Education and Networking.”  

To carry out their Mission Statement, they provide full-day biennial conferences,  and shorter events called seminars. The event planning includes searching for new, popular speakers with fresh material. They frequently ask their members for suggestions and feedback on topics for speaker presentations. Planning, marketing, and implementing an event is a challenge but the reward is the positive responses that come back to them on the Event Evaluation sheet each attendee receives at Check-In. These evaluations will remain a report card, telling  them what they did right, and providing them with lessons learned for next time.   

In addition to providing writers events, they  do a  monthly newsletter,  and  hold monthly member meetings where members can talk freely with other members about their works in progress. On occasion, they have a speaker who has fresh material to share.  We also have a critique program in which members can post a chapter of their work on Google Docs, and request a critique. 

 They are currently looking for volunteers with marketing skills. If you have marketing skills or you just want to find out more about them, log onto their website at https://egweg.org, contact the Elk Grove Writers Guild, Inc by phone at (916) 747-6898 or email loyholder77@gmail.com. They would love to hear from you.

Loy Holder, President

Lavender Library

The Lavender Library is a volunteer-run LGBTQ+ library, archive, and community space in Sacramento with queer books, films, archives, zines, and more.

We host book clubs, support groups, open mic nights, craft markets, and other community events year-round.

Northern California Publishers & Authors

Northern California Publishers & Authors (NCPA) is an alliance of independent publishers, authors, and publishing professionals in Northern California. Formed in 1991, our purpose is to foster, encourage, and educate authors, small publishers, and those interested in becoming authors and publishers.

Northern California Romance Writers

Northern California Romance Writers is located in the Sacramento area of Northern California. Our goal is to educate and encourage all those interested in pursuing romance writing. We also welcome all fiction writers to join us for our monthly meetings, as many of the topics presented are of general interest to anyone interested in the craft and business of writing.

Paper Lantern Writers

The Paper Lantern Writers are an author collective focused on historical fiction of all eras. From the medieval world to WWII (and beyond), in locales around the world, from romantic to tragic, and back again, our books will take you on the journeys of a lifetime. There’s a story to be told everywhere you look and we’d love to be your tour guides.

Queer Sacramento Authors Collective

The Queer Sacramento Authors Collective is a group of Sacramento Area authors who are queer and/or write queer fiction. We hold four readings a year at the Lavender Library and four at the Avid Reader on Broadway, in addition to other bookstores in the area. We also have a booth at Davis Pride, Placer Pride, Sac Pride, SacAnime, and Sac Comicon, among others. See our upcoming events here. We are also working on a series of writer workshops.

A Seat at the Table

A Seat at the Table is Sacramento’s only bookstore, cafe, and third space just off 99 in Elk Grove.

Underground Books

Underground Books opened in the summer of 2003 under the direction of St. HOPE (Nonprofit 501c3) and is part of the 40 Acres Cultural Center in Oak Park.

Sacramento Public Library

Sacramento Public Library is the fourth largest library system in California with 28 locations serving 1.4M urban, suburban and rural residents. In addition to lending books, Sacramento Public Library offers services and programming focused on early learning, technology and creation and is committed to providing Sacramento communities with welcoming community spaces.