The Print Factory

The Print Factory is a volunteer-run, nonprofit independent bookstore and cultural space located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

We are an antiracist, feminist, and queer-inclusive organization that supports the artistic and intellectual life of the local community. Our mission is to create an atmosphere of inclusivity and acceptance.

As its name suggests, The Print Factory foregrounds the life and liveliness of print media in all its forms, from selling books to hosting readings, workshops, and storytelling events. We are an independent, not-for-profit community space that incorporates the process of print media creation and engagement into the brick-and-mortar bookstore environment.

We are living in a moment after the “death of the independent bookstore.” What this means is that new bookstores are opening around the US, but they are also doing so with a renewed sense of value and purpose—aiming toward the creation of new sites for creativity and community engagement. The Print Factory cultivates an atmosphere of inclusivity to counter the exclusivity and isolation of a largely rural, post-industrial region such as Centre County, Pennsylvania. Our aim is the expansion of the sphere of print culture from its increasingly restricted place in schools and libraries, which have faced budget crises and political challenges of their own. Intellectual life is not a luxury, but a common good.

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The bookstore features a combination of used and new books and will focus on poetry; Indigenous, Black, and nonwhite literature, art, and nonfiction; books of LGBTQ interest; experimental art and literature, zines and small press publications, activist and worker-oriented material, and books relating to ecology and the environment.

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The management of the bookshop is dedicated to active programming: author events, literacy programs, speaker series, workshops, residencies, etc.