The event is on Tuesday, October 19 at 7 pm at BookCourt. You can find full details, and directions to the store, at www.bookcourt.org. Hope to see some of you there!

Better yet, Women and Children First (located at 5223 N. Clark St) is one of our favorite bookstores in the country–an institution that’s hosted such luminaries as Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Annie Leibovitz, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The store has also helped foster the early careers of such writers as Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, Julia Alvarez, Margot Livesey, and Jane Hamilton.

• For more on Sharon Pomerantz and her new novel, visit her author page on Twelve Publishers.
• You can read more about Women and Children First–including the wonderful work they’ve done for authors and the Chicago literary community over the last thirty years–in Jeremiah Chamberlin’s Poets & Writers interview with bookstore co-founders Linda Bubon and Ann Christophersen.

“Living Writers” airs every Wednesday at 4:30pm on WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. Each week, host T Hetzel talks with writers who read from their work and talk about their passions and preoccupations. Recent guests include poet Dean Young, author and comedian John Hodgman, fiction writer Yiyun Li, and Granta Editor John Freeman.

You can listen to the show at 88.3FM in Ann Arbor, or hear it streamed live at wcbn.org. Archives of the past episodes are free to download through iTunes or to stream through iTunes preview.

Archives of the show are available as free podcasts on iTunes. Find them here on the “Living Writers” preview page.

The good news is that Goldin’s plan seems to be working–in April the store celebrated their one-year anniversary. And with the support of their community and loyal readers we hope it will continue to thrive. Like many of the best independent shops, Boswell hosts many wonderful events. Goldin also writes one of our favorite bookseller blogs: Boswell and Books. Follow his daily posts about all things literary–conversations with editors, musings on cover art, favorite book recommendations, and updates on the store. You can also read the book blog of the staff of Boswell Book Company: The Boswellians.

In their interview, Goldin discusses numerous aspects of the book business. In particular, he talks about why Schwartz wasn’t able to keep their doors open after 82 years of business, how booksellers communicate with one other to promote the books they love, and how digital books will and won’t affect the future of publishing.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation:

What is the most exciting part of bookselling for you?
I have to say, focusing on a book you really love and think that other people will love is really cool. My favorite book of 2008 was Wrack and Ruin by Don Lee. I loved the book, but it was so hard to sell in hardcover. It’s still a slightly difficult book to sell in paperback, but I’m thrilled every time we do. I want to take the books I really love—that are offbeat—and make a difference with them. It’s a little harder now because I have too few booksellers on my staff to be reading broadly. But I love discovering a book that two or three people liked, especially when, say, this person reads this way [points to the left] and that person reads that way [points to the right].

Yet they both liked the same book.
Exactly. In the Woods by Tana French is a great example. We were one of its top sellers. It was on the best-seller list for about a year in paperback, but in hardcover there were only about five stores selling it. And the thing that was so cool was that mystery people liked it and fiction people liked it. I always look for things that are “high” and “middle.”

Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company

You can read the extended version of Jeremiah’s interview with Daniel Goldin on the Poets & Writers website, as well as watch a slideshow of photographs from the store. Each of the previous installments of his Inside Indie Bookstore series are also available at the P & W website.

In addition to this profile of Boswell Book Company, the current issue features an interview with legendary poet C.K. Williams, the tenth-annual debut-fiction roundup published by independent presses, a special segment on agents, and the second installment of Steve Almond’s odyssey into self-publishing. We’re also happy to report that the Poets & Writers‘ special subscription offer to Fiction Writers Review readers (only $12 for a year-long subscription) is still up for grabs. If you order through this page before July 15, you’ll get the current issue featuring Boswell Book Company. Regardless of when you order, a subscription will show support for writers and independent bookstores everywhere.

Idlewild is located at 12 W. 19th street (near 5th Avenue).

The online version (along with a slideshow of images from the store) is available at no cost on P&W’s website…but if you want a print copy, Poets & Writers‘ special offer to Fiction Writers Review readers (only $12 for a year-long subscription) is still up for grabs; if you order through this page before May 15, you’ll get the current issue featuring Women & Children First. Regardless of when you order, a subscription will show support for independent bookstores everywhere.

Here’s an excerpt from Jeremiah’s Women & Children First profile:

photo by Jeremiah Chamberlin

When I walked into Women & Children First, the feminist bookstore that Linda Bubon and her business partner, Ann Christophersen, founded more than thirty years ago, the overriding feeling I experienced was one of warmth. And it wasn’t because Chicago was having a late-winter snowstorm that afternoon. From the eclectic array of books stacked on tables, to the casualness of the blond wood bookcases, to the handwritten recommendations from staff below favorite books on the shelves, everything feels personalized; an atmosphere of welcome permeates the place.

In the back of the store, a painted sign showing an open book with a child peering over the top hangs from the ceiling, indicating the children’s section. Not far away, a similar sign, this one of a rainbow with an arrow below it, points toward the GLBTQ section. Despite these signs—not to mention the name of the store itself—Women & Children First carries more than books for women and, well, children.

And here’s Linda Bubon, on her (and the bookstore’s) future:

Linda Bubon / photo by Jeremiah Chamberlin

I’m a bookseller, but I’m a feminist bookseller. Would I be a bookseller if I were going to run a general bookstore? I’m not sure. Sometimes I think, “What will I do if the store is no longer viable?” And I think that rather than going into publishing or going to work for a general bookstore, I would rather try to figure out how to have a feminist reading series and run a feminist not-for-profit. Because the real purpose of my life is getting women’s voices out, and getting women to tell the truth about their lives, and selling literature that reflects the truths of girls’ and women’s lives. Sometimes we’re abused; we have to talk about that. Sometimes we take the bad road in relationships; we have to talk about that. Sometimes we’re discriminated against in the workplace; we have to talk about these things. Violence against women in the United States and worldwide has not stopped. We don’t have a feminist army to go rescue women in Afghanistan—would that we did.

The goal of my life has been to get the word out, to understand women’s lives. We have to continue to evolve and change if we’re to have a full share, and if our daughters are to have a full share of the world.

Next Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore continues their Blogger/Author Pairings series, wherein lit bloggers host and talk with authors whose books they love, and the authors read from their work. Next up is Brooklyn’s own blogger/critic Maud Newton (of MaudNewton.com, one of the finest lit blogs, exclamation point) and award-winning author Victor LaValle, whose work has drawn comparisons to the likes of Ralph Ellison, Shirley Jackson, and Thomas Pyncheon, and whose novel (of the same title) inspired Mos Def’s The Ecstatic. LaValle will read from and discuss his new novel Big Machine, which Greenlight’s newsletter describes as “the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators.” New York-based readers can RSVP on Facebook or just show up. Greenlight is located at 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn.

I love this idea of organizing blogger/author pairings at a local indie bookstore; inviting a respected blogger who loves a particular book to join that book’s author offline, in a face-to-face dialogue with readers, affords a rare opportunity for publicity and community: a chance to support books, bookstores, and lit blogs all at once. Is this kind of event happening throughout the country? Because it should be!

If you could host and talk with any author, at any bookstore, who would you introduce, and where would it be?

To order a copy of Microchondria, visit the Harvard Book Store website.

Also be sure to read Mary Stewart Atwell’s review of J. Robert Lennon’s Pieces for the Left Hand, which we published earlier today. Lennon’s collection is comprised of 100 linked short short stories–linked by their location, a small upstate New York town that resembles Lennon’s hometown of Ithaca; and by their narrator, described in the introduction as “unemployed, and satisfied to be unemployed.”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that book tours don’t really sell books. Or at least they don’t sell a lot of books in comparison to the amount of time and expense involved. So then why do authors continue to go on them? Well, book tours have ancillary benefits, otherwise publishers wouldn’t still send authors on them. Meeting booksellers makes them more likely to recommend your work, or to look forward to your next book. It gives local media an excuse to talk about you. It gives you a chance to travel the country, catch up with old friends, and show your exes what they missed when they dumped you.

But what if your publisher is an independent press with little to no budget for touring? What if your big name publisher doesn’t think it’s worth sending you out? Plan your own tour.

When my collection of short stories THINGS THAT PASS FOR LOVE was published by OV/Dzanc Books in 2008, they offered me $1000 toward book promotion. I took it on the road (and ended up spending a bit more than that, but I did visit over 17 cities). Here are some helpful tips as you plan your own DIY book tour:

To see Amend’s suggestions–which range from practical to philosophical to humorous–you can read the rest of her essay here.

In addition to Amend’s work, this issue features essays by Stephanie Soileau and Josh Henkin, as well as announcements about the most recent Glimmer Train Prize Winners and upcoming contests. The Bulletin is a free monthly subscription. No adds, no solicitations–just writers on writing. Sign up here.