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Magic City Books Coming to Tulsa

The Tulsa Literary Coalition will open Magic City Books in the Brady Arts District of Tulsa later this year or in early 2017, reported Tulsa World.

“It’s no surprise that downtown Tulsa is experiencing a renaissance,” said Jeff Martin, founder of the bookstore and the literary coalition. “Magic City Books and the ongoing outreach of the Tulsa Literary Coalition will create and foster a new literary tradition in Tulsa, providing a much needed center for the literary arts. We will keep Tulsa reading, thinking, and talking about books and ideas.”

Magic City Books will operate as a for-profit bookstore and will serve as a source of funding for the non-profit literary coalition. The bookstore will feature a meeting room and newsstand, as well as a café serving light food, coffee, tea, beer, and wine.  Magic City Books will host pop-up shops at various events and venues leading up to its opening.

Savoy Bookshop Grand Opening Set for April 16

The grand opening celebration for the new Savoy Bookshop & Café in Westerly, Rhode Island, will take place on April 16, according to co-owner Annie Philbrick.

Philbrick, who also co-owns Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut, with Patience Banister, said the grand opening party, sponsored by property developers Chuck Royce and Dan King, will feature fun events and take place from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. that day. The store will have its soft opening in a few weeks, she said.

The 2,500-square-foot store features a 14-foot coffee bar, a large children’s section, and two floors of books. Located in Westerly’s old Savoy Hotel, the shop features wood furnishings, exposed brick, black-and-white tile floors, and some of the hotel’s original architectural features amid its retro décor.

“It’s pretty exciting; I can’t even tell you about the buzz. People are so excited,” said Philbrick. “It’s going to be an outstanding store.”

Napa Bookmine Opens Second Location

Napa, California’s Napa Bookmine has grown its small pop-up shop at Oxbow Public Market into a full second location, reported the Napa Valley Register.

“Our goals are to get as many books into the hands of Napans as possible, to share the power of the printed word with our community and to make Napa a city of readers,” said owner Naomi Chamblin.

The new location, which will host regular author readings and book signings, sells gifts, greeting cards, and sundries, as well as travel, wine, culinary, art and design, and lifestyle books and magazines. The store also features a children’s section.

Little Shop of Stories to Grow

Children’s bookstore Little Shop of Stories, located in downtown Decatur, Georgia, will expand into the vacant space next door this spring, reported Decaturish.

“Nothing is set in stone yet,” said event coordinator Lindsay Pingel. “There are going to be some walls torn down. We’re going to have to create an opening from our current space into the new space. It’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Diane Capriola, who owns the bookstore with Dave Shallenberger, said she hopes the store will remain open throughout the expansion process.

Grand Reopening to Celebrate Califon Book Shop’s New Owner

Heather Kerner, who became the fourth owner of Califon Book Shop in Califon, New Jersey, just before the holidays, is planning a grand reopening celebration on February 27 to introduce herself to the community, reported MyCentralJersey.

Califon Book Shop has been in business for more than 25 years. When it went on the market in 2012, Kerner’s family wasn’t quite ready for such an undertaking, but when the store went up for sale again last September, Kerner seized the opportunity.

“This shop isn’t just about the books for me. It’s also about the people and the community that I have the privilege of being a part of. I do my best to remember customers’ names and their interests because I want their experience here to be personal,” said Kerner, who will treat customers to a day of author meet-and-greets and signings this Saturday.

Fountainhead Bookstore Seeks New Logo for New Name

Hendersonville, North Carolina’s Fountainhead Bookstore is rebranding, becoming Novels & Novelties Bookstore, and is launching a logo contest to find a design that reflects the spirit of the bookstore and its new name.

The winner of the design contest will receive $100 in cash, a $150 gift certificate to the bookstore, and a reception in their honor at the unveiling of the new logo. The deadline for entries is March 30, and the winner will be announced on April 10, the store’s sixth anniversary. See the full contest rules here.

The bookstore’s previous name celebrates the idea of a fountainhead as an original source for something. “It is a tribute to all the authors who continue to astound with the amazing things that come out of their heads,” the store’s website explains, but that name was “often misunderstood.” The shop’s outgoing mascot, a whale, doubled as a tribute to Moby Dick.

Suzy Staubach Speaks Up for UConn Co-Op

Suzy Staubach, formerly the general books division manager for the UConn Co-Op in Storrs, Connecticut, recently wrote an op-ed for the Hartford Courant, expressing her support for keeping the locally owned and managed bookstore out of the hands of corporate operators.

University of Connecticut administrators are currently accepting proposals for new operators for the campus bookstore, which was founded in 1975 “in response to student and faculty dissatisfaction with Follett, the corporate lease operator then running the bookstore,” wrote Staubach.

“Just because many universities outsource their bookstores to homogenous, for-profit corporate chains, with local managers answering to headquarters in distant cities, does not mean that UConn should follow suit,” she continued.

“The UConn Co-op’s only purpose is to serve the students, faculty and larger UConn community. For-profit corporate bookstore operators serve their shareholders, taking money and control out of the community. Dissolving the Co-op, I believe, would result in a loss of jobs, loss of services, increased costs for students, and the loss of an important cultural resource.”

A petition on Change.org has acquired nearly 6,000 signatures from supporters of the UConn Co-Op.

Hamilton Creator Drives Business to Drama Book Shop

During the night on February 14, a pipe burst on the third floor of the building that houses Times Square’s Drama Book Shop, pouring water down onto the store’s sections on acting, writing, theater management, and producing, reported DNAinfo.

Later that week, Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton, began tweeting to his 269,000 followers requests for support of New York City’s “indispensable” Drama Book Shop. Online orders started coming in, and customers flocked to the store to shop its remaining selection.

“Kanye was saying that he’s more influential than Picasso, but I don’t know… Lin-Manuel is pretty influential right now,” said employee Steven McCasland. “We gained a thousand followers in 24 hours yesterday.”

Profits from the boost in business will go toward replacing lost merchandise. The store will also hold a benefit on March 27 to raise funds for repairs and replacing inventory.

Itinerant Literate Plans Inaugural Author Event

Itinerant Literate Books, a pop-up bookstore and eventual bookmobile, is hosting its first author signing on Saturday, February 27, at Charleston, South Carolina’s Hampton Park gazebo.

Kicking off the Authors in the Park event will be Kwame Alexander, the Newbery Medal–winning author of The Crossover (HMH Books for Young Readers), who will sign copies of his new book picture book, Surf’s Up (NorthSouth). The event will also feature YA author Olivia Cole for The Rooster’s Garden (Fletchero Publishing) and children’s book author Brynne Barnes, author of Colors of Me (Sleeping Bear Press).

“We couldn’t have been more thrilled when Kwame contacted us for the signing,” said co-owner Julia Turner. “One of our goals for this year is to host more author events, so we plan for this to be the first of many events to come.”

Turner and Christen Thompson launched Itinerant Literate Books in April 2015 and have hosted pop-up markets around Charleston County while working toward the purchase of a bookmobile.