Congratulations! Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., does
it again: the store has won the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award for a
general bookstore. (It is also winner this year of
Publishers Weekly's
Bookseller of the Year.) A Likely Story Children's Bookstore in
Alexandria, Va., has won the Pannell award in the children's category. In
addition, the jury gave Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., an
honorable mention in the general store category.
The awards, sponsored by the Women's National Book Association, will be
presented at the Children's Book & Author Breakfast at BEA on
Friday, May 19.
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The last A Clean-Well Lighted Place for Books, on Van Ness in Opera Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., is for sale, the
San Francisco Chronicle
reported. Citing, in part, low foot traffic and expensive parking on
Van Ness, owner Neal Sofman told the paper that sales have been
declining for years. "My long-term partners want out, and I don't have
the capital to buy them out."
Sofman founded the original store in 1975 and opened the Opera Plaza
location in 1982. The company's stores in Cupertino and Larkspur closed
in the 1990s. Last month, Sofman sold the store's domain name, the very
attractive www.bookstore.com.
Sofman is far from leaving bookselling, however: the paper said he will open a
new "small neighborhood store" called Bookstore West Portal at 80 West
Portal in the . . . West Portal section of San Francisco. The new
venture has different financial backing from A Clean Well-Lighted Place
for Books.
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Borders has signed a lease for a two-level, 24,000-sq.-ft. store in the
Eastside development in the East Liberty district of Pittsburgh, Pa.,
the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The new store will join Whole Foods Market and Walgreens and should open this fall
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Charlene Tollett, who began selling books in Shreveport, La., from a
mobile bookstore, then opened Nubian Express Books in a storefront in
2001, is profiled in the
Shreveport Times in
a story about the growth of black-owned businesses. (The Census Bureau
said the number of black-owned businesses grew by 45% between 1997 and
2002, more than four times the rate for all businesses nationwide.)
Tollet told the paper the absence of any bookstores specializing in
African-American interests was her motivation for starting the store.
"There was a need for culture and information about black
history--correct information," she said. "I love history."
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The
Green Bay Press-Gazette
has a short profile of Virginia Kress, owner of the Reader's Loft,
which late last year moved from De Pere, Wis., into Green Bay's
London Alley shopping center, which Kress owns.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison Business School,
Kress spent seven years in corporate finance.
"I then decided to turn my love of books from an avocation to a
vocation," Kress told the paper. "So I created a bookstore with 'old
world charm' that is comfortable and cozy where I can sell books and
promote the arts."
Besides books, the store sells cards, gifts and art work by local
artists. Kress aims, she said, to make the Reader's Loft a "thinking
person's bookstore."
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Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) will receive a Bridge Builder Award from
the Lambda Literary Foundation at the Lambda Literary Awards Gala at
BEA on Thursday, May 18, in Washington, D.C. The award honors
"individuals who have furthered the dialogue and created understanding
between the LGBT community and the world." Previous recipients include
Judy Shepard, Betty DeGeneres, Eve Ensler and E. Lynn Harris. For more
information about the Awards evening, go to Lambda's
Web site.
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It sounds like a Quaker institution, but the Friends Bookstore in
Kalamazoo, Mich., is run by the Friends of the Kalamazoo Public Library
and celebrated its 10th anniversary on Saturday, the
Kalamazoo Gazette
reported. As part of the festivities, the paper said, the Cabtown
Checkers, a nine-piece band, played jazz; a clown performed a
skit titled "Clowning Around With Books" for young children; and the
Pen Dragons Calligraphy Guild signed bookmarks for customers.
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As the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer puts it, "Hip Mama Gore does it herrr way, even on a book tour." For her latest,
The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show (HarperSanFrancisco,
$13.95, 0060854286), Ariel Gore is visiting stores accompanied appropriately by
a band, a puppeteer, and at the University Book Store in Seattle
at least, several fire-eaters. (See "May We Recommend" below for an enthusiastic report on the book.)