Black Dog & Leventhal Celebrates Authors’ Favorite Bookstores

On November 13, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers will release My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop. Edited by Ronald Rice with illustrations by Leif Parsons and an introduction by Richard Russo, the book features essays from more than 75 authors who pay tribute to their favorite bookstores and booksellers.

“We are delighted to be able to work with so many bookstores and the wonderful authors who love those bookstores,” said Publisher JP Leventhal. “We are further honored to be part of a project that pays tribute to the values, virtues, and pleasures of a bricks-and-mortar experience.”

To bring attention to My Bookstore at BookExpo America, the Black Dog & Leventhal booth (#4158) will be constructed and decorated to resemble a bookstore, and staff will be giving away a 40-page reader featuring eight author essays. Visitors to the booth will also be encouraged to provide video comments to the American Booksellers Association’s new “Why Indies Matter” campaign.

A portion of My Bookstore authors’ fees is being donated to a fund set up by the publisher to support bookseller scholarships to ABA’s Winter Institute, and a portion of the publisher’s revenue is being given to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship.

Black Dog and Leventhal is currently working on a series of events in bookstores across the country to coincide with the book’s fall release.

Here is the complete list of contributing authors and their favorite bookstores:

• Fannie Flagg—Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
• Rick Bragg—Alabama Booksmith, Homewood, AL
• John Grisham—That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville, AR
• Ron Carlson—Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ
• Ann Packer—Capitola Book Café, Capitola, CA
• Isabel Allende—Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
• Mahbod Seraji—Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, CA
• Lisa See—Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
• Meg Waite Clayton—Books Inc., San Francisco, CA
• Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown—The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA
• Dave Eggers—Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA
• Pico Iyer—Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara, CA
• Laurie R. King—Bookshop Santa Cruz, CA
• Scott Lasser—Explore Booksellers, Aspen, CO
• Stephen White—Tattered Cover Book Store, Devner, CO
• Kate Niles—Maria’s Bookshop, Durango, CO
• Ann Haywood Leal—Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT
• Florence and Wendell Minor—The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT
• Rick Atkinson—Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
• Les Standiford—Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL
• Robert Macomber—The Muse Book Shop, Deland, FL
• David Fulmer—Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, GA
• Abraham Verghese—Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA
• Luis Alberto Urrea—Anderson’s Bookshops, Naperville, IL
• Mike Leonard—The Book Stall Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL
• Albert Goldbarth—Watermark Books, Wichita, KS
• Wendell Berry—Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, KY
• Edith Pearlman—Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA
• Mameve Medwed—Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr.—Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
• Simon Winchester—The Bookloft, Great Barrington, MA
• Nancy Thayer—Mitchell’s Book Corner, Nantucket, MA
• Elin Hilderbrand—Nantucket Bookworks, Nantucket, MA
• Jeanne Birdsall—Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, MA
• Martha Ackmann—Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA
• Ward Just—Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, MA
• Ron Currie, Jr.—Longfellow Books, Portland, ME
• Nancy Shaw—Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI
• Katrina Kittle—Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI
• Ann Patchett—Mclean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI
• Kathleen Finneran—Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO
• Barry Moser—Lemuria Books, Jackson, MS
• Jack Pendarvis—Square Books, Oxford, MS
• Jill McCorkle—Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC
• Carrie Ryan—Park Road Books, Charlotte NC
• Laurent Dubois—The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, NC
• Lee Smith—Purple Crow Books, Hillsborough, NC
• Angela Davis-Gardner—Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, NC
• Ron Rash—City Lights Bookstore, Sylva, NC
• Ian Frazier—Watchung Booksellers, Montclair, NJ
• Joan Wickersham—The Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH
• Carmela Ciuraru—Community Bookstore, Brooklyn NY
• Matt Weiland—Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY
• Kate Christensen—Word, Brooklyn, NY
• Mick Cochrane—Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, NY
• Caroline Leavitt—McNally Jackson Books, New York, NY
• Arthur Nersesian—St. Mark’s Bookshop, New York, NY
• Francine Prose & Pete Hamill—Strand Bookstore, New York, NY
• Chuck Palahniuk—Powell’s Books, Portland, OR
• Larry Kane—Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, PA
• Ann Hood—Island Books, Middletown, RI
• Mindy Friddle—Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC
• Adam Ross—Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN
• Douglas Brinkley—BookPeople, Austin, TX
• Terry Tempest Williams—The King’s English Book Shop, Salt Lake City, UT
• Robert Goolrick—Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA
• Howard Frank Mosher—Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT
• Jon Clinch—Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, VT
• Jonathan Evison—Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, WA
• Tom Robbins—Village Books, Bellingham, WA
• Sherman Alexie—Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA
• Garth Stein—Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA
• Ivan Doig—University Book Store, Seattle, WA
• Lesley Kagen—Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI
• Liam Callanan—Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI