Rooted MKE, a children's bookstore with a focus on stories by and about Black people, Indigenous people and people of color, officially opened last week in Milwaukee, Wis. 

"I've always wanted to open a children's bookstore," owner Ashley Valentine told Milwaukee magazine. "At the same time, I wanted it to have additional offerings aside from a traditional bookstore... academic support and literacy training, exploring stories through [visual] art.”

Located at 5312 W. Vliet St., the store carries diverse books for children through young adults and features a studio space where children can make art. Valentine, who holds a master's degree in education, also provides a suite of academic services like tutoring, language classes and test-taking prep.

"Kids come in two to four times a week," Valentine said. "We create academic goals for them after an initial consultation."

Valentine first saw the space that would eventually become Rooted MKE last summer, when she was touring the storefront on behalf of an out-of-town friend. Valentine thought it could make a good bookstore, and after her friend passed on the space she decided to go for it. Securing finances and applying for grants was a "challenging" process, but eventually she was ready to sign the lease.

Looking ahead, Valentine said she wants her store to "still be very busy and activated, with people choosing Rooted as a gathering place. I would like to expand to satellite location to provide tutoring support in different areas of the city so that we can have a wider reach for BIPOC students."

The Radical Cat, a combination feminist bookstore, community space and cat adoption center, has opened in Reno, Nev., This Is Reno reported.

Co-founders Melissa Hafey, Rosie Zuckerman, Ilya Arbatman and Mike Hafey work with the SPCA of Northern Nevada to "host transitioning cats who are available for adoption." The store's event plans include author readings, homework help and workshops with local artists, educators and business owners, as well as "cat-assisted therapy" sessions. The store's mission, continued Zuckerman, is to "nurture a revolution in Reno/Sparks by promoting positive mental health, radical inclusion, a love of great books and meaningful connection."

Radical Cat began as a pop-up called Pussycat NV, and after three "wildly successful pop-up events" the co-founders decided to turn it into a permanent establishment. They were able to raise more than $9,000 with the help of the Reno community, which they put toward building out the space, buying furniture and bringing in inventory.

While the store is currently open, the team has yet to establish regular hours. They plan to be open most days of the week and are looking to host a grand opening celebration in late April or early May.

Bookends & Beginnings, Evanston, Ill., has launched Bookends University, an author event programming initiative that will run independently of the bookstore's general events, offering virtual and in-person workshop-style sessions led by authors.

Designed to engage attendees in an experiential, educational way, Bookends University will include writing workshops, cooking classes, life-skills tutorials, creative accountability groups and more. Each class will compensate its instructor-author with an honorarium, in addition to promoting sales of their book and other shopping at the bookstore.
 
"Bookends University is a concept that dates back to my original plan for the store in 2014," said owner Nina Barrett. "I was always conscious of Evanston as a rich community of authors and writers, and I had a vision of writing classes and writer's groups that would meet in our back room and help anchor the local literary community in our space." 

She added that the store did host workshops in its early days, "but really it was integrating Zoom into our toolbox during the pandemic that made me see that we'd now have wide geographical access to author-instructors and audiences, who could attend these classes from their own kitchens or at home in pajamas if they want to."

Bookends & Beginnings has been piloting the programming over the past few months with offerings that included a two-part sourdough class with Eric Pallant, author of Sourdough Culture; and writing workshops led by Freda Love Smith, a musician and author (Red Velvet Underground), who will serve as Bookends University's programming director. Smith taught "Cozy Rituals for Writers" as part of the store’s February Hygge Month programming and "An Introduction to Memoir Writing" in March. She has booked several upcoming classes with guest authors.

The registration fee for all classes includes either the purchase of a textbook for the class or a gift card that can be used toward the purchase of the instructor's most recent book, toward any other book, or as a gift for someone else the attendee would like to encourage to shop at Bookends.

A Barnes & Noble store in Bismarck, N.Dak., that closed late last month is reopening today in a temporary location in the Kirkwood Mall, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The store has relocated because its previous landlord is redeveloping that shopping center and did not renew the store's lease. The new space is smaller and has no cafe, but the store has retained its staff of 22 full-time and nine part-time employees. While B&N has not announced anything specific, it plans to reopen in a new, permanent location sometime early next year.

B&N has had a location in Bismarck for 25 years, and operates stores in Fargo and Minot.

Bookstore chain WH Smith is teaming up with Deliveroo in a trial of a home delivery service. The Bookseller reported that the trial covers 600 products, including books, stationery, toys, games and home office products. Deliveries are promised in as little as 20 minutes. WH Smith currently offers next-day click-and-collect and home delivery for online orders. The new service is being tested at 10 high street stores beginning this week. 

"We're always exploring new ways to delight our customers, both in-store and online, by providing them with an exceptional shopping experience," said Sean Toal, managing director at WH Smith High Street. "We're really excited to be partnering with Deliveroo for this trial which will complement our existing offer and enable our customers to receive the products they want and need from us as fast as possible from their local store direct to their door, whether that's a greetings card, working-from-home essentials, a last-minute gift, or a newly released book." 

Carlo Mocci, Deliveroo's CBO for the U.K., added: "We are delighted to announce a new partnership with WH Smith, the U.K.'s leading stationery retailer and the top consumer choice for high-quality and popular products for the whole family. This partnership will further increase the choice and selection of on-demand convenience products for our consumers, delivered in as little as 20 minutes, and will create more work for riders across the U.K."

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Manchester City of Literature shared a YouTube video message from "Lviv City of Literature, a city of unbreakable poetry," in which Pavlo Koriaga reads in Ukranian from the start to 4:49, and then Bogdana Brylynska reads the message in English from 4:50. Lviv UNESCO City of Literature was designated in 2015. 

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The Ukrainian Book Institute, supported by the Federation of European Publishers, launched a crowdfunding campaign in Bologna with the support of the Bologna Children's Book Fair (other fairs are invited to join). The UBI hopes to raise enough funds to have hundreds of thousands of children's books printed in Europe (since the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in Ukraine, where the main printing works are located, has been heavily bombed by Russia). FEP noted that these books will allow children to be entertained while keeping the link with their homeland.

In a joint statement, FEP president Peter Kraus vom Cleff and Ricardo Franco Levi, v-p and president of the Italian Publishers Association, said: "It is clear that it is our duty to help our fellow publishers in Ukraine and to make it possible for Ukrainian children to have access to books. It is important for the book world to show solidarity. If you can, please donate, all money will be spent to print books and will be managed by the UBI."

All the money collected will be managed remotely by the UBI, which is responsible for choosing the titles and coordinating with local relays for the printing and distribution of the books to the children. The FEP is the guarantor of the operation.

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The European & International Booksellers Federation has created a database to collate all actions that its members, and the wider book community, have taken to support the Ukrainian people. --Robert Gray

Richard Labonté

Richard Labonté, co-founder of A Different Light bookstores, an editor of gay anthologies, and mentor to many authors, died on March 20 after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 72.

As noted in his obituary, he "was one of the most influential advocates of queer culture and literature in North America," both as a bookseller and author. He co-founded A Different Light, the iconic LGBT bookstore, which at its height had four locations, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first A Different Light opened in 1979 in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. For many years, Labonté managed the store in the Castro in San Francisco. The stores were very successful for a time, but then suffered as chains and Amazon increased their inventory of LBGT titles and discounted them. The last A Different Light store, the Castro location, closed in 2011.

While he was with A Different Light, the AIDS crisis developed, and Labonté took a lead in fighting for recognition of the epidemic affecting gay communities across the world, raising tens of thousands of dollars for victims at a time when the stigma of AIDS was a powerful deterrent to community support.

Starting in the 1990s, Labonté edited more than 40 anthologies, wrote more than 1,000 reviews, and received three Lambda Literary Awards. He also contributed to screenplays and documentaries. Many of his books were published by Cleis Press and Arsenal Pulp Press.

Labtoné began his career in journalism, rising from night copy editor at the Ottawa Citizen to reporter, reviewer and editor. In 1980, he contributed to the newspaper's first extensive study of gay life in Canada's capital and became one of the first Canadian journalists to come out in a large metropolitan newspaper.

In more recent years, he lived with his husband, Asa Liles, on Bowen Island in British Columbia, continuing editing and reviewing while working at a nearby rehab center and volunteering at the public library--true to his lifelong devotion to the stories and lives of others.

Newtonville Books, Newton, Mass., is celebrating a decade since owner Mary Cotton relocated the bookstore to Newton Centre. She purchased Newtonville Books in 2007 from Tim Huggins, who founded it in 1998.

In a Facebook post titled "10 years in Newton Centre, by the numbers," Newtonville Books shared a photo of its chalkboard, which was loaded with stats, and noted: "Books and socks sold: we’ll say half a million. Copies of Being Mortal by @atul.gawande: astronomical. Copies of Rabbit Cake by @annie_hartnett--bonus to the person who picks up the 500th copy. Good Night Gorilla defeats Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Extra local love for @newtonconservators and their handy walking trails of Newton guide. Thanks to @sockittomeinc @blue_q and @consciousstep for keeping our feet stylish."

"POV: ordering like a boss" was the title of a TikTok video posted by Afterwords Books, Edwardsville, Ill., which chronicled "a day in life.... BIG order arrived today; stay tuned for a peek at what’s new on the shelves (and online!) at your little local indie bookstore!"

At Holt:

Caitlin O'Shaughnessy is promoted to v-p, director of marketing and publicity.

Laura Flavin joins as director of marketing.

Catryn Silbersack is promoted to senior publicist.

Sarah Fitts is promoted to publicist.

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, translated by Philip Boehm (Metropolitan Books).

Today:
Fox Business's Mornings with Maria: Mark L. Clifford, author of Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China's Crackdown Reveals About Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere (St. Martin's, $29.99, 9781250279170).

Tomorrow:
Ellen: Brandi Carlile, author of Broken Horses: A Memoir (Crown, $18, 9780593237267).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, April 2
3:55 p.m. Jack Davis, author of The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America's Bird (Liveright, $29.95, 9781631495250). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:55 a.m.)

5 p.m. A discussion of The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz: A Powerful True Story of Hope and Survival by Thomas Geve (Harper, $28.99, 9780063061996). (Re-airs Sunday at 5 a.m.)

Sunday, April 3
8 a.m. Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, authors of The Library: A Fragile History (Basic Books, $35, 9781541600775). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

9 a.m. Vidya Krishnan, author of Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History (‎PublicAffairs, $27, 9781541768468). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m.)

10 a.m. Jason Riley, author of The Black Boom (Templeton Press, $12.95, 9781599475899). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with Noam Chomsky, author, most recently, of The Secrets of Words (The MIT Press, $17.95, 9780262046718). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

4:45 p.m. Jeremy Peters, author of Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted (Crown, $28.99, 9780525576587).

7:30 p.m. Book TV discusses the 150th anniversary of Publishers Weekly with former co-editorial director Michael Coffey.

Finalists have been named for the Plutarch Award, sponsored by Biographers International Organization and the only international literary award for biography judged by biographers. The winner will be announced on May 15 during the 12th annual BIO Conference, which is being held virtually this year.

The finalists:
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner (Little, Brown)
Calhoun: American Heretic by Robert Elder (Basic Books)
Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Fiona Sampson (Norton)
Francis Bacon: Revelations by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan (Knopf)
Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence by Frances Wilson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

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The shortlist for the 2022 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, honoring "the best published literary work in the English language written by an author aged 39 or under," has been selected. The winner of the £20,000 (about $26,200) prize will be announced May 12.

The shortlisted titles are:
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka, novel)
Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe (India, poetry debut)
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (U.S., debut novel)
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (U.S., novel)
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Britain-Ghana, debut novel)
Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor (U.S., short story collection)

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The shortlist for the A$50,000 (about US$37,400) 2022 Stella Prize, honoring the best books by Australian women and non-binary writers, has been announced. The winner will be celebrated on April 28.

The shortlist:
TAKE CARE by Eunice Andrada (Giramondo Publishing)
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen (University of Queensland Press)
No Document by Anwen Crawford (Giramondo Publishing)
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (Text Publishing)
Stone Fruit by Lee Lai (Fantagraphics)
Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki (Magabala Books)

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, April 5:

Sea of Tranquility: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf, $25, 9780593321447) alternates between Vancouver Island in 1912 and a moon colony centuries later.

Animal Person: Stories by Alexander MacLeod (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27, 9780374602222) contain eight short stories, one of which won the O. Henry Prize.

In Praise of Good Bookstores by Jeff Deutsch (Princeton University Press, $19.95, 9780691207766) pays tribute to the importance of bookstores in the culture and to their communities--from the director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, Ill.

The Imposter's War: The Press, Propaganda, and the Battle for the Minds of America by Mark Arsenault (Pegasus Books, $27.99, 9781643139364) explores German attempts to infiltrate U.S. media during World War I.

The Unwritten Book: An Investigation by Samantha Hunt (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28, 9780374604912) is a nonfiction exploration of haunting subjects.

Tea at the Palace: A Cookbook by Carolyn Robb (Weldon Owen, $25, 9781681888248) contains 50 teatime recipes from a former chef to the British royals.

A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser (Clarion, $16.99, 9780544876408) is a middle-grade novel about two sixth graders living in a homeless shelter who bond over classical music.

Great Zapfino by Mac Barnett, illus. by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane, $17.99, 9781534411548) features a circus high diver who is afraid of heights.

Paperbacks:
Minecraft: The Mountain by Max Brooks (Del Rey, $10.99, 9780593159170).

When the Stars Go Dark: A Novel by Paula McLain (Ballantine, $17, 9780593237915).

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are: Essays and Other Stuff by Rachel Bloom (Grand Central, $17.99, 9781538745366).

Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood by Danny Trejo and Donal Logue (Atria, $17.99, 9781982150839).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Girl in Ice: A Novel by Erica Ferencik (Gallery/Scout Press, $27.99, 9781982143022). "I knew little about linguistics or the Arctic until I read Erica Ferencik's fascinating book. Her style is fast, impossible to put down, and the landscape is beautifully written. This is my first Ferencik book; it will not be the last." --Connie L. Eaton, Three Sisters Books & Gifts, Shelbyville, Ind.

The Unsinkable Greta James: A Novel by Jennifer E. Smith (Ballantine, $28, 9780593358276). "Greta James and her father, grieving her mother's sudden death, become unlikely companions on an Alaskan cruise. With a rocky relationship, grief, and Greta's onstage breakdown, can they start fresh? I was hooked from the start!" --Kathy Morrison, Newtown Bookshop, Newtown, Pa.

Paperback
Delilah Green Doesn't Care: A Novel by Ashley Herring Blake (Berkley, $16, 9780593336403). "What a pleasure to enjoy Ashley Herring Blake's layered characters in an adult novel after all her books for kids and teens. Every story beat lands and Claire and Delilah were easy to root for. More romances set in this community, please!" --Cecilia Cackley, East City Bookshop, Washington, D.C.

For Ages 4 to 8
With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez, illus. by André Ceolin (Viking, $17.99, 9780593205006). "With gorgeous illustrations and stunning writing, With Lots of Love is a beautiful intergenerational, trans-continental gift of a book!" --Jessica Walsh, The Brain Lair Bookstore, South Bend, Ind.

For Ages 8 to 11: An Indies Introduce Title
Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms by Jamar J. Perry (Bloomsbury, $16.99, 9781547606948). "I truly enjoyed Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms. The adventure and mystery of Cameron's family and the Chidani people is sure to capture readers. Books steeped in Black history and mythology are much needed on our shelves." --Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, La.

For Teen Readers
Extasia by Claire Legrand (Katherine Tegen, $17.99, 9780062696632). "Margret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale meets M. Night Shyamalan's The Village in Extasia, a sinister story of unchecked religious extremism in a post-apocalyptic world. This book gave me chills on every page. I could not put it down!" --Carissa Mina, The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop, Niwot, Colo.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl has the social graces of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm character. At least that's the idea conveyed by his only child, journalist and author Ada Calhoun (St. Marks Is Dead; Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give; Why We Can't Sleep), in the vexed but deceptively tender and cleverly conceived Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me. Calhoun sees her fascination with O'Hara (1926-1966) as a way to connect with her likewise O'Hara-besotted dad, who has always given her the impression that he finds her less interesting than his work. "I clung to Frank O'Hara as the one thing that was undeniably ours," she writes, "like a religion to which we both adhered, even if we didn't go to church together."

When Calhoun was nine, her dad gave her a copy of O'Hara's Lunch Poems, but the father-daughter O'Hara bond didn't really solidify until 2018, when she stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews that Schjeldahl had conducted for an abandoned biography of the poet. As Schjeldahl tells it, in 1976, he signed a contract to write O'Hara's story, but the biography was canceled after the poet's executor sister withdrew her support. Suspecting that it was her father's crusty personality that doomed the project, Calhoun decides to revive it. She dons her intrepid reporter's cap, brandishes her charm and, just as Schjeldahl did, proceeds to interview relevant parties.

Calhoun intermittently removes her reporter's cap to share recollections of her East Village childhood and to replay some choice exchanges--long-ago and recent--with her dad. Despite this darting about, Also a Poet largely retains its thrill-of-the-chase aspect: Will the daughter redeem the father's efforts while also proving to him her value as a writer?

By the book's three-quarter mark, when Calhoun relays her dad's lung cancer diagnosis, her focus changes from the Calhoun-Schjeldahl-O'Hara triad to the father-daughter dyad, although by this point she's open to the possibility that neither was ever her true subject: "Maybe what I'm figuring out is that the book I was meant to write was never a book about O'Hara--or even really about my father. It was about me." With Also a Poet, Calhoun seems to have created a new nonfiction genre: the biographical profile within a biographical profile within a memoir. As for readers awaiting the definitive Frank O'Hara treatment, they'll find Also a Poet to be an engrossing placeholder. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Shelf Talker: In her vexed but deceptively tender memoir, Ada Calhoun tries to connect with her father, New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, through their mutual enchantment with poet Frank O'Hara.