Fri 10/2 @ noon
Anyone remember during the pandemic when the death knell was being sounded for independent bookstores. Already under pressure from big chains and Amazon, many felt that business closures, stay-home orders and social distancing amounted to a landscape that small bookstores, hives of interaction and sociability, with their author events, readings and book clubs, the small stores could not survive.
But something astonishing happened: bookstores not only survived, they’ve thrived. “The Resurgence of Local Bookstores” is the timely topic of a City Club forum on Friday October 2.
Local indie bookstores grown in number across the country, and two of Cleveland’s most prominent bookstores have expanded or are about to. Visible Voice Books moved from its Tremont location to a huge Ohio City space with a full café, a theater space and an upstairs balcony for studying, reading and hanging out. And later this year, one of the area’s oldest indie bookstores, Mac’s Backs on Coventry, will vacate its crowded three-decker space next to Tommy’s and move across the street to a much larger and more accessible one-story space with a more user-friendly layout. There’s no reason to order a book online when you can go browse and make discoveries!
Speakers include Dave Ferrante, owner of Visible Voice Books; Elisabeth Plumlee-Watson of Loganberry Books on Larchmere Boulevard; Anthony Craig Senatore of Parallel Universe Books (horror, fantasy, and sci-fi) representing another growth area: stores specializing in specific genres; and Mordecai Cargill, co-owner of ThirdSpace Action Lab/ThirdSpace Reading Room, who focus is racial equity.
Bill Kelly, adult programming manager at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, moderates. Go HERE for tickets.
the-resurgence-of-local-independent-bookstores