Even if your local independent bookstore is not open for browsing, you can still support independent bookstores every day and celebrate Independent Bookstore Day this Saturday.
Independent Bookstore Day was rescheduled for this Saturday, August 29, when the original April 25 festivities had to be postponed. Because social distancing measures are still so necessary for health, most Independent Bookstore Day celebrations nationwide will be virtual.
Many bookstores will have exclusive Independent Bookstore Day merchandise available. (Poems of Resistance/ Poems of Hope collection shown at right.) Because of 2020 being what it is, the usual strict regulations about purchases of Independent Bookstore Day exclusive merchandise being in-store only have been relaxed, so you can purchase online or over the phone from your favorite stores and have items shipped to you while supplies last.
Seattle, which usually hosts a passport-stamping super-event, honored the original date with booksellers reading from Ross Gay’s Book of Delights. For the August celebration, booklovers are encouraged to shop online or over the phone with their favorite bookstores and to purchase a special “stay at home edition” Seattle Bookstore Day 2020 t-shirt online. Proceeds from the shirts go towards funding next year’s Seattle Independent Bookstore Day and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.
There are also national Independent Bookstore Day 2020 shirts available online, with the prescient yet always-relevant 2020 tag line: “Not now. I’m reading.” You can order those as tank tops, t-shirts, or sweatshirts.
Events will be streamed throughout the day. (Some events are listed on the Independent Bookstore Day website, but there are even more being hosted and promoted through individual stores.) The Pacific Northwest is particularly proud of the panel of contributors from the fresh-off-the-presses anthology, Alone Together, edited by Seattle’s Jennifer Haupt and featuring many PNW authors among its 90+ authors. (The event will be at 3:00 PT; please register to watch.)
Join co-hosts Jennifer Haupt, editor of ALONE TOGETHER: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19, and Garth Stein, Author Leadership Circle Campaign Chair for Binc, for readings and conversations with ALONE TOGETHER contributing authors Faith Adiele, Gayle Brandeis, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jamie Ford, Major Jackson, Sonora Jha, Scott James, Jessica Keener, Jean Kwok, Roberto Lovato, Ada Limón, Claudia Castro Luna, Kevin Sampsell, and Luis Alberto Urrea.
Please share in the comments about what you’re going to do for Independent Bookstore Day!