"If you're short on hope or in need of a mood lift--and, oh boy, who's not?--I offer a suggestion: Go to an independent bookstore. If you think we live in a society where people don't talk with their neighbors or no one puts their phone down to read an actual book, I beg of you: Go to an independent bookstore....

"The strength of a community is about the strength of its connections and the power of its ideas; both are in ample supply at indie bookstores. Visiting one may not save the world, but it can help you feel connected to your little corner of it."

M. Judson in Greenville, S.C.

M. Judson Booksellers, which was launched 11 years ago in downtown Greenville, S.C., by writer Ashley Warlick and communications expert June Wilcox, is opening a second store on June 1 at 109 North Main St. in Fountain Inn, S.C., the State reported. Fountain Inn is about 20 miles away from the Greenville store.

Last week, M. Judson posted on Instagram: The secret's out! We're thrilled to announce M. Judson Booksellers opens in beautiful downtown Fountain Inn this June. We're thrilled to become a part of this vibrant community. A bookstore reflecting its place and its people."

"Fountain Inn became a focus a couple of years ago. Located in the southern tip of Greenville County and northern Laurens County, the city of about 11,000 is growing rapidly, especially with young families," the State wrote. "Its tree-lined main street features brick storefronts, filled with meeting spaces and restaurants, including a coffee shop and one with a rooftop bar."

M. Judson's new location in Fountain Inn, S.C.

Warlick noted that there is a food hall behind the bookstore and a splash pad, run by the city's recreation department, recently opened. The kids' section of M. Judson Fountain Inn will be a highlight. She added that there are a lot of original details in the building, including a pressed-tin ceiling and polished concrete floor. 

At 2,200 square feet, it's slightly less than half the size of the Greenville store. The art installation created from discarded books at the Greenville store will be replicated in Fountain Inn.

"Staff picks are essential to what we do," said Warlick, author of four novels including, most recently, The Arrangement. She said she learned her biggest lesson on day two of M. Judson, and she remembers it every day: "How important flexibility is. Pay attention to your people and your community. This is a business that should be joyous. I've learned to be excited about the opportunities to grow." 

Warlick told WYFF: "For years and years, we have talked about the possibility of expanding what we do here in downtown Greenville to other communities that we love, and recently, we decided that we would like to open a shop in Fountain Inn. It's a community that, that is ready for its own bookstore and its own reflection of how wonderful it is."

TBR Books opened in early April at 987 W. Foothill Blvd., Suite 104, in Claremont, Calif., posting on Instagram: "We couldn't have asked for a more perfect Grand Opening! 500 of you showed up to celebrate our dream of owning an indie book store with us! Thank you doesn’t even feel good enough, we appreciate you all so so much!!"

Co-owners and sisters Lolli Rigor and Liana Colon "are living every bookworm's dream: transforming their vision for a bookstore from fantasy to nonfiction," the Courier reported. The shop's primary focus is romance novels, and it also sells science fiction and general fiction, children's books, biographies, coloring books, and queer and YA titles. The 600-square-foot space offers seating and a children's reading area. The owners plan to host community book clubs and family reading sessions.

"There will be something here for everyone no matter what you read," said Colon. "The only thing we don't have is cookbooks."

A 2023 trip to Book Bonanza in Grapevine, Tex., served as the sisters' initial inspiration, the Courier noted, adding that with no experience running a business, they were hesitant until another local entrepreneur encouraged them. "We were talking to Claudia [Martinez] at Black Penny Thrift and we were telling her about our idea, we've always wanted to open our own business, and she was just like, 'Do it. Just do it,' " Colon said. Now TBR Books is located near the thrift shop. "I love it," Martinez said. "I'm not a competitor. I just want people to succeed."
 
Rigor and Colon signed a five-year lease in February and opened two months later. "We know the value of a good, curated bookstore," Colon noted. "I mean, we would go to Culver City, we would drive to Temecula" to visit other bookstores "and that never even fazed us. We know the value of curating and getting the word out there to people not just in Claremont, but within the surrounding cities, probably within an hour drive, and they will drive. Like the grand opening, we had people from the high desert from Long Beach, and Santa Ana."

Rigor is an administrative assistant for alumni engagement at Pomona College, while Colon is an accountant for Planned Parenthood. "This is something we know, it's something we're passionate about," Colon said. "We still have our W-2 jobs. If we're going to do something that's going to be extra, we want to do something that we're passionate about and that we enjoy and that we're enthusiastic to do the work for free."

Karen Torres

Karen Torres, who worked at Hachette Book Group and its predecessor companies for more than 36 years before launching K T Consulting in 2024, has joined the American Booksellers Association membership team as a member relations manager. Torres graduated from NYU's School of Journalism and Cooper Union's Publishing program before she began her career in publishing.

"Her love for independent bookstores drew her to sales," the ABA said. "Working in sales and concentrating her efforts in the indie marketplace, Torres realized she could greatly help independent bookstores from her position inside the publishing house. Now, as a member relations manager at ABA, she is looking forward to meeting new bookstore owners and continuing to help indies succeed."

The ABA also announced some changes to the member relations managers' assigned regions, which will now be:

Kaitlynn Cassady: MIBA, GLIBA, and CALIBA
Kamilah Clarke: SIBA and NAIBA
Jennifer Foley: NEIBA, MPIBA, and PNBA
Karen Torres: Associate members

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John Cavalier

In other ABA news, this year's board of directors election results were released. John Cavalier of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs and Lafayette, La., is the newest board member, joining returning members Diane Capriola of Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, Ga.; Donya Craddock of the Dock Bookshop, Fort Worth, Tex.; Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Lisa Swayze of Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, N.Y.; and Holly Weinkauf of Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn.

W.W. Norton & Co. has entered into a publisher partnership with Batch for Books, which offers an intuitive, paperless platform that helps independent bookstores streamline invoice management and payment processes. W.W. Norton expects to be fully integrated with Batch during 2026. The service currently is used by more than 575 bookstores across the U.S. On the publisher side, Batch also includes the Big Five, Arcadia Publishing, Blackstone Publishing, Gardner's US, Independent Publishers Group, and Microcosm Publishing.

Julia Reidhead, chairman and president of W.W. Norton, said, "We are thrilled finally to be live on Batch for Books. Our independent bookseller partners have requested a simple, online process to track and manage their invoices, and Batch for Books is our answer to that request."

Batch for Books CEO Fraser Tanner commented: "We're excited to welcome W.W. Norton & Company to Batch. Each new publisher partnership strengthens the overall network, creating greater efficiency and value for bookstores and publishers alike. Norton's participation reflects a shared commitment to improving workflows and supporting a healthier and sustainable bookselling ecosystem, and we know our indie bookstore partners will be thrilled to see them join the Batch network."

"Our publisher partnerships are central to Batch's continued growth," said Nathan Halter, U.S. operations manager. "By bringing more trading partners onto a shared platform, we're helping create a more efficient, transparent, and sustainable process for everyone involved."

American Booksellers Association CEO Allison K. Hill added: "We're thrilled to have Norton's participation in Batch. Norton's leadership in the industry, embodiment of the independent spirit, and ongoing support of independent bookstores make them an obvious partner for this invaluable tool that frees booksellers up to sell more books."

Amazon subsidiary Audible is opening Audible Story House to the public today, May 1, at 260 Bowery in New York City. The more than 6,000-square-foot space, which the company described as "the first-ever bookless bookstore--a listening lounge and community hub where audio storytelling comes to life, offering a physical way to experience audio content beyond digital listening," will be in operation only until May 31.

Audible Story House "guests" can browse using physical "Story Tiles"--tactile representations of audiobooks, "just like browsing in a bookstore," Audible said. Story Tiles can be taken to six distinct listening spaces across three floors for out-loud playback or tapped on a smartphone to stream directly through the Audible app, with the full catalogue accessible digitally. "Story Tenders" at the "Listening Bar" will guide "attendees in finding the perfect audiobook." Live programming from creator panels to fan meetups to hands-on crafting activities and live music concerts, a café, and more will also be available this month.

Without irony, James Finn, Audible's global head of brand & content marketing, said, "We developed Audible Story House by asking a simple question: what does a bookstore look like without any books? The answer became a place where audio storytelling comes alive, and where people connect, celebrate what they love, and find communities that matter to them. We're giving customers a new way to experience Audible, in a place built for the way listening moves people today."

At WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., Ian Hunt recently did a storytime reading for his new book, Climate Action for Kids: An Introduction to Climate Change (Adventure Publications), a field guide and activity book to help young readers from 3rd through 5th grade learn about the world around them and take action so they can help keep it healthy for generations to come.

Hunt called the reading "great," adding, "The young readers present not only absorbed the message of the book, but were excited to offer up what they already knew and loved about the world around them. As long as we have curious readers like them, the future looks bright!"

"This is just the coolest little thing we've ever seen (bookmark for scale)," Square Books in Oxford, Miss., posted on Facebook. "Lee Harper @leeharperoxford absolutely blew us away with this absolutely perfect tiny model of Square Books! Thank you so much to everyone who braved the rain and storms yesterday to have a little fun with us and be a part of art history in Oxford."

From My Shelf Books & Gifts in Wellsboro, Pa., shared a pic on Facebook of "Coal & Finn on a Sunday morning. They are working today 10 a.m. to 3 p.m." 

Let the debate begin. Conde Nast Traveler shared its picks for "the best independent bookstores in America," noting: "If you're ever feeling lost in a new city, walking into a local bookstore will help anchor you. Far more than just a place of transaction, a good bookstore can serve as a sanctuary, a community space, and a portal into the town it calls home--all thanks to the dedicated owners and staffers who stock the shelves, scribble down recommendations, and welcome in readers, both young and old, through their doors."

Ingram's Two Rivers Distribution will sell and distribute Z2, effective today, May 1.

Z2, with headquarters in New York, has published more than 75graphic novels in partnership with a range of artists, musicians, and pop-culture icons in rock, hip‑hop, pop, and metal.

Josh Bernstein, president of Z2, said, "We've always believed in meeting fans where they are--whether that's in comic shops, record stores, or bookstores--and this deal truly cranks that philosophy up to eleven. Ingram's global reach and Two Rivers' expertise allow our books to show up in more places than ever. It means bigger shelves, broader reach, and fewer barriers between our work and fans. This isn't just growth for Z2--it's a game changer for how music, pop-culture and graphic storytelling can live side by side in the marketplace."

Ingram Publisher Services v-p Nick Parker added, "If you love music, you'll love Z2. They have produced an astonishing portfolio of graphic novels and art books that will resonate with every fan. We're extremely happy to welcome them to the Two Rivers and we look forward to expanding their global reach across all formats."

Our article yesterday about iconic children's book editor Neal Porter's retirement celebration misspelled his name; we regret the error.

AMC Studios has opened a writers room for Bannerman, a series for AMC and AMC+ based on the popular Bannerman spy novels by John Maxim. Deadline reported that the studio had previously announced it had acquired the rights to Maxim's books to develop for TV with Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) and Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead Universe) attached to executive produce, and Brian Witten co-executive producing. Black is also set to direct. Craig Silverstein will be creator and showrunner and is overseeing the writers room. 

The Bannerman series, "which spans five books, centers on charismatic ex-spy John Bannerman. Retired from that gritty and suspenseful world, Bannerman finds himself living in a quiet suburban town but soon is pulled back into the life he's trying to escape," Deadline wrote.

Winners have been named for the ECPA's 2026 Christian Book Awards: 

Christian Book of the Year: The Bible Recap for Kids: A 365-Day Guide through the Bible for Young Readers by Tara-Leigh Cobble (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group)
Audio: The Girl on the Bathroom Floor: Held Together When Everything Is Falling Apart by Amber Emily Smith, narrated by Amber Emily Smith and Granger Smith, produced by Sydney Mathieu (HarperAudio, book published by Thomas Nelson)
Bibles: NIV Application Bible (Zondervan)
Bible Reference Works: Our Daily Bread Bible Atlas by John A. Beck (Our Daily Bread Publishing)
Bible Study: God of the Ordinary: A Study in the Book of Ruth by Alistair Begg (Lifeway Christian Resources)
Biography & Memoir: Here Be Dragons: Navigating Mean Girls, Motherhood, and Other Mysteries of Life by Melanie Shankle (WaterBrook/Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group)
Children: Hello! My Name Is Emmanuel by Emmanuel Jean Russell, illustrated by Martina Stuhlberger (Tyndale House Publishers)
Christian Living: You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful by Karen Swallow Prior (Brazos Press/Baker Publishing Group)
Devotion & Gift: Spurgeon and the Gospels: The Gospels with Devotions from Charles Spurgeon by Charles Spurgeon (Thomas Nelson)
Faith & Culture: The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones by Clare Morell (Forum Books/Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group)
Ministry Resources: Pastoral Confessions: The Healing Path to Faithful Ministry by Jamin Goggin (Baker Books/Baker Publishing Group)
New Author: He Always Hears: A Story of Loss and the Hope of Things Made New by Alyson Punzi, illustrated by Tyler Charlton (Crossway)
Young People's Literature: The Story of Corrie ten Boom: The Watchmaker Who Forgave Her Enemies by Jennifer T. Kelley (Crossway)

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Commonwealth Foundation Creatives has announced finalists for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This year's shortlist of 25 writers, representing 14 Commonwealth countries, was chosen by the international judging panel from a pool of 7,806 submissions. A Maltese writer appears on the shortlist for the first time, and "the recognition of stories written in Bengali and Malay further reflects the prize's role in bringing contemporary voices from across the Commonwealth to the fore," the organizers noted. See the complete list of finalists here.

Regional winners will be revealed on May 13, with the overall £5,000 (about $6,735) winner named in late June. All shortlisted stories will be published and available to read in the foundation's online literary magazine, adda, with the five regional winners also published in Granta.

Chair of judges Louise Doughty said: "Ultimately, our choices for the shortlist came down to authors who were not only excellent writers but, we felt, also had a grasp on the unique pleasures of the short story form, how it is a miniature carved in words that holds all the potential of a full-length novel in a few dense brushstrokes. We believe the writers in this shortlist have achieved all that and more, and we are immensely proud of our selection."

photo: Jennifer Buhl

Laura B. McGrath is a literary critic and an English professor at Temple University. She lives in Philadelphia. Her research has been published in the Atlantic, the Nation, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as many academic outlets. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institute of American History, the Mellon Foundation, the New York Public Library, and the Big Ten. She is a frequent commentator on books, publishing, and culture, and writes the popular Substack TextCrunch. Her first book is Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction (Princeton University Press, April 28, 2026), an account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to today.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Middlemen explains how the decisions made by literary agents (sometimes over martinis) have created the literary canon--for better and for worse.

On your nightstand now:

Discipline by Larissa Pham, a debut novel about a writer who is confronted by the real-life inspiration for one of her characters. Spare, haunting, taut. Nothing Random by Gayle Feldman, a giant publishing biography about a publishing giant. Detailed, expansive, indulgent. Feed by M.T. Anderson, which I'll be teaching next week in my young adult literature course. Weird, prescient, urgent.

Favorite book when you were a child:

My fifth-grade teacher gave me a copy of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, in hopes of curing me of my budding feminism. I became obsessed. The novel--about an aristocratic girl who crosses the Atlantic solo, chops off her hair, joins the crew, and leads a mutiny before becoming the captain herself--did not have the intended effect.

Your top five authors:

My favorite authors who are currently living are Lauren Groff for her sentences, Katie Kitamura for her precision, Jhumpa Lahiri for her characters, Tana French for her plots, Jesmyn Ward for her lyricism.

Book you've faked reading:

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. I tried to assign it in my course on the bestseller but couldn't subject my students to more than two chapters of Clancy's wooden prose. We watched the adaptation instead.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. A masterpiece.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I threw down my credit card and bought Jen Beagin's Big Swiss the second I saw that upside-down milkmaid, mouth thrown open in agony and ecstasy. (And, not or, I learned once I read the novel.)

Book you hid from your parents:

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. I was a theater kid who wanted to read the source material from her favorite new musical. The bookseller told my parents it wasn't appropriate (a real bait-and-switch of an adaptation, it turned out), so I waited a few months before taking it out from the library.

Book that changed your life:

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, assigned to me in Miss McGarrity's 10th-grade English class, made me want to be a literary scholar.

Favorite line from a book:

"External realities of a frustrating nature she obliterated by refusing to believe in them, and when one resisted her disbelief she raged at it." John Steinbeck on Olive Hamilton (written for his mother) in East of Eden.

Five books you'll never part with:

East of Eden by John Steinbeck is my favorite novel. Lauren Groff's Matrix has become an annual reread, as fall creeps to winter. Each time I teach it, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping subtly reorients the way that I experience nature. If I must choose an Edith Wharton novel, I suppose that it should be The Age of Innocence. And, in anticipation of the ways that it will continue to move me, Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, for the slow-dawning realization of Kinbote's delusion.

The best publishing novels:

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe, set in the golden age of publishing, when taste and style and ruthlessness are as necessary for making books as for making love. The Information by Martin Amis: prizes, prestige, penis envy. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, proving that before there was MFA discourse, there was more MFA discourse. Erasure by Percival Everett is far more interesting as a family drama than a publishing satire, yet it is certainly the best of the latter I've yet read. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer simmers with pent-up rage and ambition and potential. 10:04 by Ben Lerner takes the occasion of a New Yorker short story to meditate on speculation and ephemerality and legacy. Severance by Ling Ma, about nostalgia and burnout and the making of coffee-table books (also, zombies).

Scrap Book, the lustrous debut collection by Nick Martino, arose from a Midwestern upbringing in a broken family. In particular, his father's incarceration--from before the poet was born--casts a long shadow.

These 40 poems draw inspiration from Martino's mother's journal and family photographs. The imagery spotlights the surrounding Midwest farm country. "I was raised inside the meadow of my parents'/ broken marriage. Even as a child, I understood. How often I was called to mend/ their love." The poet felt, by turns, protected or abandoned. "From her, I inherit the soft armor/ absence makes"--an oxymoron that contrasts with the realism of the paternal legacy: "From my father, I inherit silence/ and bad timing." Closer to the present, the speaker escapes loneliness through recreational drug use and fondly watching a lover sleeping. Love and meaning are salvaged from family wreckage in the same way one might "look/ for fugitive beauty in the bulldozed" orchard.

One series of poems brilliantly transforms photographs into hidden-message text. Eight are titled "Polaroid: Prison Visit," followed by a 1989 date stamp. A prose description of his mother's visit to his incarcerated father on that day appears within a photo-sized frame. Selective use of bold type creates, across several pages, one or two erasure poems that reveal the emotional reality beneath appearances (such as four sentences being reduced to "My mother turning to the/ prison/ He/ lied."). Partial scenes assemble, just like on the book's collage cover. Handwritten passages from his mother's journal are interspersed with the text and sometimes complete lines of poetry. Meanwhile, her observations of the colors of Lake Michigan provide a calm counterpoint to traumatic memories.

Free verse alternates with forms: an unrhymed sonnet, an aubade, and a "duplex"--invented by Jericho Brown. "QVC" presents a grid of words and phrases (e.g. "basketball tickets," "dementia," and "set of copper pans") and instructs the reader to "cut along the dotted line" to fill in the blanks of a Mad Libs-type story on the facing page. Alliteration and assonance ("the plummet/ and the tumult/ of an earth-bound body") sparkle, and two poems employ anaphora. Throughout, the metaphorical language impresses with its originality and precision: "moonlight/ waterfalls the plastic blinds"; "stoned as the gargoyles in heaven"; and "I slide back/ into the knife block of silence."

Pairing novelty of form and expression with psychological insight, Scrap Book is a triumph. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: Nick Martino's formally inventive debut poetry collection draws on his mother's journals and 1980s Polaroids to capture a family dynamic overshadowed by divorce and incarceration.