Nappy Roots Books, a Bastion and a Haven: A Conversation with Camille Landry, by Alex Crayon

Current Events On a visit to an Oklahoma City bookstore, Alex Crayon finds more than books. When I pulled into the snow-covered parking lot of Nappy Roots Books in northeast Oklahoma City, the first thing I noticed were the posters. Handwritten signs encouraging people to “Come in and Get Warm” and declaring “Masks Are Required Inside” hung taped to the glass-door entrance. In the window beside the door, signs proudly announced Nappy Roots as a Black-owned business supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and flyers gave information about voting rights, clearing warrants, and chess club. Not exactly Barnes & Noble—in the best way possible. Nappy Roots Books is, if I must summarize, an intimate environment—not just a place. To call this bookstore simply a place would be to devalue it, to strip away the life imbued within the walls of this one-room store. Inside, tightly packed bookshelves hold books new and old, fiction and nonfiction, religious texts and travel companions. Two well-worn recliners flank a small table topped with a jar of cookies. A coffee-maker sits on a shelf near the register. And, in the center of the store, a long metal bookshelf holds every kind of Black literature: James Baldwin leans beside local writers, whose self-published books, says owner Camille Landry, are a source of empowerment for their authors. “There are people who said, ‘I did twelve years in the penitentiary, and I came out and wrote... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-02-22 21:59:22 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Nappy Roots Books, a Bastion and a Haven: A Conversation with Camille Landry, by Alex Crayon"


Hodder Faith and St Andrew's Bookshop launch The Big Church Read

Hodder Faith, in partnership with mini-chain St Andrew’s Bookshop, will launch a national church book club this autumn, to be known as The Big Church Read. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 13:00:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this


ABA Relationship with Bookshop Draws Booksellers’ Scrutiny

Bookshop has helped many independents weather the pandemic, but some booksellers say the ABA is not being transparent about its financial relationship with the online retailer and worry that Bookshop poses new competition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Arabic Literature and Antiquarian Bookshops: A Conversation with Richard van Leeuwen, by Alex Crayon

Interviews Richard van Leeuwen is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam. This year, he won the 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arabic Culture in Other Languages category for his book The Thousand and One Nights and... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-08-10 20:32:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Iconic Lower East Side bookstore Bluestockings has found a new home!

Beloved NYC bookstore Bluestockings—long a fixture on the Lower East Side—has found a new home. This will come as a relief to downtown book-lovers who worried the iconic feminist bookstore was closing for good due to both pandemic woes and the threat of increased rent (in a pandemic 😬). After a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-10 15:01:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


What is a bookshop for?

The Zoom call was going well. I liked the technology on show, and I felt bookshops could definitely benefit from using it. It provided a way of alerting the bookshop - ahead of a visit - when someone with a disability (or who needed additional help) would be arriving at the shop. Staff would be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:28:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Bookstore That Shines as ‘a Lighthouse of a Free Society’

A Hong Kong bookseller has recreated his shop in Taipei, and it has become a symbol of Taiwan’s vibrant democracy. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-08-09 07:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


It Takes Many Voices to Find the Truth

Yesterday I stopped in at my local bookstore in London. It’s a small shop, but a good one, and seeing its doors open again was like hearing an ice-cream truck from a block away as a kid. I walked straight into traffic to cross the street to get there. Inside the reality of our time […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-06 08:49:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Waterstones shuts Milton Keynes centre branch

Waterstones has announced the permanent closure of its bookshop in the Centre MK Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes, over “excessive” rent demanded from its landlord. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 18:17:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Penguin Random House Extends Temporary E-book, Digital Audio Terms for Libraries

Terms of sale first enacted in March to help librarians during the Covid-19 crisis will now run through the end of the year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


James Silberman, Editor Who Nurtured Literary Careers, Dies at 93

At Random House and elsewhere, including his own Summit imprint, he worked with James Baldwin, Marilyn French, Hunter S. Thompson and many others. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-08-01 18:32:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amid a virus surge and government repression, Hong Kong’s oldest bookstore is closing.

I know that fingers can’t “plod,” but that is what they are doing now, delivering upsetting news that encapsulates this shitty year. As Hong Kong teeters on the edge of a serious coronavirus outbreak and democratic institutions continue losing a war of attrition with the Chinese government, the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-29 18:53:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


She dreamed of a Black-owned bookstore in Inglewood. Now, she's going to run one

As a child, Asha Grant didn't know where to find books about people who looked like her. Next year she'll open that place, the Salt Eaters, in Inglewood. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-07-23 14:00:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Penguin Random House Extends Open License for Online Readings Through 2020

The program was first announced in March to encourage digital read-aloud sessions for libraries and schools forced to close by the novel coronavirus outbreak. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A third of bookshop customers unsure about returning, Nielsen finds

Around 35% of regular bookshop customers are unsure about returning to bricks and mortar premises now lockdown has eased, according to a survey by Nielsen. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 09:56:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this


This may not destroy you

In Michaela Coel’s excellent BBC TV series “I May Destroy You”, her character Arabella’s journey concludes in a bookshop with the launch of her self-published book. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 06:11:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A former Mueller prosecutor’s upcoming book will cover “mistakes” the team made.

Andrew Weissmann, who served as a prosecutor for Robert Mueller during an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, is releasing a book this fall—and says it will include details on the investigation’s “mistakes.” Random House will publish Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-14 17:26:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Greenlight Bookstore is pledging to improve treatment of Black employees and customers.

The owners of Greenlight Bookstore, which has two Brooklyn locations, came forward this week to take responsibility for “negative experiences of Black customers and employees in our stores” with a commitment to improving. In an open letter published Wednesday, co-owners Rebecca Fitting and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-10 16:24:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


New Shaun Bythell bookshop title for Profile

Profile Books will publish Shaun Bythell's Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops in November.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-08 23:31:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Indie bookshop David's bought by staff

David’s Bookshop in Hertfordshire has been bought by its staff and remodelled as a John Lewis-style employee ownership trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 19:30:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Most Anticipated Debuts of the Second Half of 2020

There’s no doubt COVID-19 has forever changed the world as we know it. A small slice of life that had to shift trajectory is the publishing industry. Debut authors are especially struggling as the books they have worked on for countless years are released into a world without in-person book... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this