A Writer's Guide to State College: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

Schlow is the region's public library, a block off College Avenue downtown. The Nittany Valley Writers' Network meets in its Community Room. The library has hosted poetry open mics, too.

Pattee and Paterno make up Penn State's main library complex, with subject libraries that run from the arts and humanities to music and media. The first floor has a Starbucks and a study lounge. Foster Auditorium, where the Creative Writing Program holds its readings, is inside.

Eberly holds Penn State's rare and unique materials, including manuscripts and the University Archives. Its collecting areas run from utopian literature and science fiction to Centre County history. Walk-in researchers are welcome, affiliated or not, once they register in Aeon. Bring a pencil and leave pens at home. Bags go in lockers.

The county library system has its headquarters in Bellefonte, the county seat, about ten miles northeast of State College. Writers tracing family or local history can work in its Pennsylvania Room. The library also has a Memory Lab, and its meeting rooms are available by request.

The Squirrel and Acorn opened downtown in 2022 and tries to stock stories from as many voices as it can find. Hold a title for local pickup, or buy ebooks through the shop's Bookshop.org page. The shop says it supports people who come in to create their own stories.

Webster's is an independent used bookstore with thousands of titles and a rare books section. Its café is fully vegan and serves organic fair-trade coffee, and the Sunday brunch comes with live music. Stax of Trax sells vintage vinyl inside the store. There is a vintage clothing shop, too.

The Print Factory is a nonprofit bookstore and cultural space that opened in downtown Bellefonte in 2024, selling new and used books. A writing group meets every Sunday. The calendar also carries a youth writing group and a monthly open mic.

Elixr is a Philadelphia roaster, and its downtown café opened in 2022. Faculty work and hold meetings here, and baristas say people stay for hours. It is open daily.

Rothrock Coffee roasts its beans in State College, and the Creekside Café is its shop on South Atherton Street.

Pump Station is a coffee shop in a converted Texaco gas station in Boalsburg, about four miles east of State College. It serves locally roasted coffee with baked goods and sandwiches. The café opens daily and stays open into mid-afternoon.

The Tavern has served State College since 1948. It takes reservations and closes Mondays.

Zeno's keeps a long craft beer list and a calendar of live music. It also serves pub food and opens in the late afternoon.

Penn State's Creative Writing Program brings visiting writers to the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series, usually on Thursday evenings in Foster Auditorium. The program also presents the annual Emily Dickinson Lectureship in American Poetry and readings by its Fisher Family Writer-in-Residence. Rolling readings are free and open to the public.

Hometown Voices gives local writers and performers a monthly stage in the Woskob Gallery of the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center. Readings are free, with refreshments.

The Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association has sponsored Out Loud in Bellefonte since it began in 2013. Professional and community writers read poetry and prose, and storytellers take the stage through the Bellefonte Moth. Readings are on first Fridays at The Print Factory. Poet Julia Spicher Kasdorf coordinates the series.

Penn State University Libraries hosts the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, which promotes reading and literacy across the state. It publishes the Literary & Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania, with author biographies and feature articles. New and debut Pennsylvania authors get a spotlight on its site, and its book awards include the Baker's Dozen.

The Nittany Valley Writers' Network is a free community for local writers in every genre and at every level of experience. It meets in the Community Room at Schlow Library, where its open reading nights let you read a short piece or just listen.

Centre County Reads chooses a book for readers across the county to share, and past picks stay listed on its site. Its author events are free. Penn State's Center for American Literary Studies counts the program among its own.

The Humanities Institute works out of Ihlseng Cottage and supports faculty and graduate students through resident fellowships and faculty scholar residencies. In its Reading New Books series, faculty authors discuss their recent books. Humanities Works connects the institute with Penn State's Commonwealth Campuses.

CALS, part of Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts, was established in 2006 to advance the study, teaching, and reading of American literature. Its First Book Institute is a week-long summer workshop on campus for eight PhD holders writing a first book in American literary studies, with no publishing agreement yet; they revise toward a contract with a university press, and stipends cover travel and lodging. CALS also holds a spring symposium.

Open Publishing is the open access imprint of Penn State University Libraries. It publishes electronic scholarly journals and monographs, among other formats, all free to read and download. Authors keep their copyright. Almost every publication carries a Creative Commons license.

PA Humanities is Pennsylvania's state humanities council, and it offers grants through an online portal. Its PA Cultural Exchange is an 18-month statewide fellowship for cultural practitioners. Poets can look at Rain Poetry, a community poetry project with a toolkit for starting a local program.

Penn State University Press publishes academic and general-interest books in the humanities and social sciences, among them art history and religious studies. Graphic Mundi, its graphic novel imprint, and Eisenbrauns also publish under the press. It has a journals program as well.

The Journal of Gerontological Nursing is a monthly peer-reviewed journal of original work, from many disciplines, on gerontological and age-friendly nursing practice across care settings. Its editor since 2011, Donna M. Fick, is the Elouise Ross Eberly Endowed Professor at Penn State's Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing. Preparing an article for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts gives these grants to people running an established for-profit creative micro-business in the state. Its Publishing field includes editors and writers. Applications go through the Keystone Creatives website.

Penn State University Libraries sponsors this prize in honor of the artist Lynd Ward, whose daughters donated his collection to Penn State. Each spring it goes to the best graphic novel of the previous year, fiction or nonfiction, by a living U.S. or Canadian citizen or resident.

Since 1993 the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and Penn State University Libraries have given this award each year to the most outstanding new book of poetry for children by an American poet or anthologist. A panel that includes authors and librarians chooses it.

Each spring the Center chooses one adult book and one children's book with a Pennsylvania connection for the Library of Congress's Great Reads from Great Places program. Books must be no more than two years old and professionally reviewed.

Editors For Students keeps a guide to grants and writing resources for Penn State students.

The Multimedia and Print Center copies and binds theses and dissertations in custom Penn State or standard hardcover, and it also does coil and tape binding. Orders take about four weeks, and you can pick them up or have them shipped. The service is set up for Penn State thesis writers, so writers from elsewhere should ask before ordering.