Fiction Addiction, Greenville, S.C., which Jill Hendrix founded in 2001, is closing. In an announcement in the store's newsletter, Hendrix called it a "bittersweet decision" that she has given "considerable thought. Our lease expires at the end of May and I began considering in 2024 whether to renew it or not."

Hendrix noted that in the past few years, "I've become less involved in day-to-day store operations as I accepted new challenges such as leading bookseller mastermind groups during COVID and becoming a founding dean for the Professional Bookseller School." She has now been offered a full-time job with MVB US, which owns Pubnet and Pubeasy and whose parent company is a subsidiary of the Börsenverein, the German book industry association. Hendrix added that her husband, Lee, who has been store manager for some time, "is nearing retirement and looking to reduce his hours over the next year or two as he eases into a well-deserved life of leisure (excluding the many more walks our dog will now expect). Although we will miss our customers terribly and we know you will miss the store, we have decided that closing is the right decision for us personally, no matter how bittersweet."

The store has begun a closing sale, with all books discounted 20% and gift items 25%. Hendrix anticipates closing to the public after May 17, in order to clear out the space by May 31.

Nook & Cranny Books in Seattle, Wash., has found a new space in the city's University Heights neighborhood, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported.

The bookstore is moving from 324 15th Ave. E. in Capitol Hill to 5637 University Way NE. Store owner Maren Comendant expects to have the new location open soon, and she has an official grand opening celebration scheduled for April 26, Independent Bookstore Day.

In January, Comendant announced that her bookstore's lease was not being renewed and she would have to move out by March 31. She also launched an Indiegogo campaign to help with the move, which raised $6,835.

Comendant purchased the bookstore Oh Hello Again, which resided at 324 15th Ave. E., in 2022. After taking over the lease, she changed the name to Nook & Cranny Books and put her own spin on the store. She was informed last November that her lease would not be renewed.

The Vine Books, a Christian book and gift store, will open this spring in Baton Rouge, La., the Advocate reported.

The bookstore, which will offer Christian books, Bibles, candles, jewelry, and more, will reside in a 1,000-square-foot space at 18303 Perkins Rd. E. Owner Tessa Mahler will have free coffee for patrons, and she plans to host events like Bible studies at the bookstore.

Mahler signed the lease for the bookstore in January and plans to host a grand opening celebration on May 9. The event will include coffee, music, giveaways, and more.

Biddeford Book Co. will open early this summer at 380 Elm St. in Biddeford, Maine. Mainebiz reported that owner Matt Swanson, a southern Maine native who has spent more than two decades selling books, plans to offer a wide range of new and used books for adult readers, along with a children's section. 

The store will also sell nonbook items, including maps, postcards, and prints, and Swanson plans to host readings and community events. He anticipates a June launch for the bookshop.

Noting that opening a bookshop had been a long-held dream of his, Swanson told the Portland Press Herald that Biddeford Book Co. "is a place whose purpose is books. I want to create a space that invites discovery and gives every reader the chance to find a book they'll never forget.... I fondly recall the impact that my local bookstores and libraries had on me, offering spaces full of potential and possibility. I look forward to building something that can be an integral part of the community for years to come."

Tim Mohr, the journalist, author, and translator "who collaborated on memoirs with Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley," died March 31, Rolling Stone magazine reported. He was 55. Mohr started his career as a club DJ in Berlin for much of the 1990s before transitioning to journalism. He was a staff editor at Playboy for several years, where he hired McKagan in 2008 to write a regular column about finance and the economy. 

"To be in Tim's literary world was a crash-course lesson on how to be concise and informative, with nudges of humor here and there," McKagan said. "He nudged me to be great at all times, and to have humor every breathing second.... Tim was mainly responsible for guiding me and pushing me to write my first book It's So Easy (and other lies). I am forever grateful for his guidance.... We lost a good man, a family man, a friend, and a literary lion." 

Following McKagan's book in 2012, Mohr completed Gil Scott-Heron's unfinished memoir The Last Holiday. He also worked with Stanley on his 2014 memoir Face the Music: A Life Exposed. 

"My dear friend, literary collaborator, pure soul, brilliant mind, street food gourmet and so much more has died from pancreatic cancer," Stanley posted on social media. "I'm heartbroken. If you knew him, you loved him. The world has lost a bright light." 

Mohr's own book, Burning Down the Haus (2018), "would become his defining work," Rolling Stone noted, adding that it told "the definitive story of the role 1980s East German punks played in bringing down the Berlin Wall." It was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. 

Since 2008, Mohr had translated seven novels by Alina Bronsky for Europa Editions. In a tribute, executive publisher Michael Reynolds wrote: "Tim was a supremely talented German-to-English translator whose ear for the cadences of his source language was second-to-none and whose facility and inventiveness with English made his translations exciting to read. But he did far more as a translator than produce fun, felicitous, and faithful translations. He was committed to making conscious, meaningful decisions about whose work he translated."

In addition to Bronsky's works, Mohr translated Dorothea Dieckmann's Guantanamo (Catapult), which won the Best Translated Book Award; two books by Charlotte Roche, Wetlands and Wrecked (Grove); Tiger Milk by Stefanie de Velasco; and The Second Rider by Alex Beer. 

"When Tim began working as a literary translator it seemed to him (and to many of us) that the world of literature in translation had a laddish patina to it, that it was dominated by white guys translating well-established white guys," Reynolds recalled. "Tim took issue with that and was determined to establish his reputation as a translator of female voices, and, at the same time, of voices from outside the mainstream."

Reynolds added that Mohr "was not only someone I knew professionally; he was also a good and dear friend with whom I have had a lot of fun over the almost 20 years we knew each other and with whom I shared many important moments.... I loved and admired Tim for his eloquence, his moral compass, his large, rebel heart, his consummate cool.... As Europa's publisher, I can only say that we were lucky to have worked with Tim, that we're grateful for his brilliant translations, which left our reading landscape so much the richer, and that he will be terribly missed."

David Pakman, author of The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America (Beacon Press) visited Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass., to sign more than 2,000 store pre-orders--plus more for stock. Pictured: (from l.) Alex Schaffner, Brookline Booksmith community engagement coordinator, Pakman, and booksellers Jeremiah and Madeline.

Congratulations to the Bookstore of Gloucester, Gloucester, Mass., which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an open house this coming weekend. On Friday, April 4, the store's birthday party runs from 5 to 9 p.m., with a special art wall display, charcuterie and cookies, beverages, and more. As National Poetry Month continues, Saturday, April 5, features poetry writing, a 25% discount in the poetry section, and a special poem by John Ronan. Sunday, April 6, offers story time with bookstore friends from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and sweets, treats, and refreshments for kids and adults.

The Bookstore of Gloucester has a strong family tradition. Janice Severance began working there in 1980, and a decade later bought the store from Ann Banks. All of Janice's children worked in the store, and her daughter-in-law Arwen Severance, who has worked as a Bookstore of Gloucester bookseller since 2001, is now the owner. Arwen's daughters Tegan and Amelie help out at the store.

Penguin Random House Publisher Services will handle worldwide sales and distribution for comics publisher DSTLRY, effective in June.

Founded in 2023 by former comiXology executives David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, DSTLRY is creator-owned and emphasizes "artistic independence and fair compensation for creators." Founding creators include Mirka Andolfo, Brian Azzarello, Marc Bernardin, Elsa Charretier, Becky Cloonan, Lee Garbett, Jock, Joëlle Jones, Tula Lotay, Jamie McKelvie, Junko Mizuno, Stephanie Phillips, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Ram V, alongside founding editor Will Dennis. DSTRLY's Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay won the Eisner for Best New Series in 2024, the first time a debut publisher has won that award.

Chip Mosher, DSTLRY co-founder and CCO, called PRHPS "a perfect partner for DSTLRY to grow, reach more readers, and create new fans."

DSTLRY co-founder and CEO David Steinberger added, "With Penguin Random House, and the continued support of comic and bookstores, we'll collectively be able to capitalize on opportunities as the DSTLRY library grows."

Rachel Goldstein, executive v-p of PRHPS, said, "In just a short period of time, DSTLRY has established itself as one of the most innovative and refreshing publishers in the comic book and graphic novel markets. We've been wowed by the incredible list of creators they've developed and we're excited to support them in reaching even more readers throughout the world."

At Tor Publishing Group:

Alexis Saarela is being promoted to director of publicity.

Laura Etzkorn is being promoted to publicity manager.

Libby Collins is being promoted to publicity manager.

---

At the St. Martin's Publishing Group:

Marissa Sangiacomo has been promoted to director, marketing & advanced reader engagement.

Meghan Harrington has been promoted to senior publicity manager.

Amelia Beckerman has been promoted to manager, marketing.

Kejana Ayala has been promoted to associate manager, marketing.

Kelly South has been promoted to associate publicist.

Althea Mignone has been promoted to associate, marketing.

---

Lauren Lauzon has been promoted to assistant director of marketing at Penguin Press.  She was previously senior marketing manager.

Rhino: The Rise of a Warrior by Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Blackstone Publishing).

Tomorrow:
Today: Becky Kennedy, author of That's My Truck!: A Good Inside Story About Hitting (Feiwel & Friends, $19.99, 9781250326959).

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 5
9:30 a.m. Megan Gorman, author of All the Presidents' Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money (Regalo Press, $30, 9798888450802). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:30 p.m.)

2:55 p.m. Jeffrey Boutwell, author of Boutwell: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy (W.W. Norton, $39.99, 9781324074267), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

5 p.m. Frances Levine, author of Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail (University Press of Kansas, $34.99, 9780700637812).

5:56 p.m. Bruce Dorsey, author of Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation (Oxford University Press, $34.95, 9780197633090).

Sunday, April 6
9 a.m. Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource (‎Penguin Press, $32, 9780593653111). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m.)

10 a.m. David Enrich, author of Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful (Mariner, $32.99, 9780063372900). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 p.m. Timothy Heaphy, author of Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy (‎Steerforth, $30, 9781586424015).

4 p.m. Cass R. Sunstein, author of Climate Justice: What Rich Nations Owe the World--and the Future (The MIT Press, $29.95, 9780262049467).

4:55 p.m. Eric O'Neill, author of Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy (Crown, $17, 9780525573531).

6:05 p.m. Judith Butler, author of Who's Afraid of Gender? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30, 9780374608224), at the Strand in New York City.

The shortlist has been selected for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which aims to "recognize novels, short story collections, and graphic novels written by women and non-binary authors and published in the U.S. and Canada." The winner receives $150,000 and a five-night stay at Fogo Island Inn, while the four finalists each receive $12,500. The winner and other finalists will be invited to participate in a group retreat residency in the Leighton Artist Studios, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. 

The shortlist:
Pale Shadows by Dominique Fotier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
All Fours by Miranda July 
Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin 
Liars by Sarah Manguso 
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure 

Alexandra Skoczylas, CEO of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, commented: "Congratulations to these remarkable authors on behalf of everyone at the Carol Shields Prize Foundation. The five finalists represent the finest in literary fiction from women and non-binary authors published in 2024. We are proud to support these authors in a time when our mission to amplify the voices of women and non-binary writers feels more vital than ever."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, April 8:

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie (Celadon, $32, 9781250869548) explores the partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus and Dan Ozzi (Dey Street, $32.50, 9780063318915) is a memoir by the lead singer of Blink-182.

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris (Random House, $32, 9780593229866) is an exposé on the malfeasance of a pharmaceutical giant.

The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose (Ballantine, $30, 9780593875414) is the third Molly the Maid mystery.

Audition: A Novel by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead, $28, 9780593852323) is layered literary fiction about an actress having lunch with a young man.

Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Berkley, $29, 9780593337721) is inspired by the Kingdom of the Happy Land, a society of freed slaves in North Carolina.

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Tor Nightfire, $28.99, 9781250884954) is sci-fi horror about a woman on a spaceship full of frozen rich people.

Fun for the Whole Family: A Novel by Jennifer E. Smith (Ballantine, $30, 9780593358306) reunites four estranged adult siblings.

Every Day with Babs: 101 Family-Friendly Dinners for Every Day of the Week by Barbara Costello (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593797907) is a cookbook by a grandmother first made famous on social media.

Adventures Unlimited: The Land of Lost Things by Andy Griffiths, illus. by Bill Hope (Feiwel and Friends, $17.99, 9781250367358), is a new chapter book series from the author of the Treehouse series.

Fearless by Lauren Roberts (Simon & Schuster, $21.99, 9781665955461) is the final book in the BookTok sensation Powerless trilogy.

Paperbacks:
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (Berkley, $19, 9780593100912).

The Twisted Throne by Danielle L. Jensen (Del Ray, $20, 9780593975305).

The Page Turner by Viola Shipman (Graydon House, $18.99, 9781525804878).

A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine by Chris Hedges (Seven Stories Press, $18.95, 9781644214855).

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

Hardcover
The Women on Platform Two: A Novel by Laura Anthony (Gallery Books, $28.99, 9781668047385). "I was riveted to this fictionalized account of women in 1970s Ireland--a time when women had no rights to their bodies, their future, and their voice. From each woman's story to their effect on history, this book hits all the right notes." --Terry Gilman, Creating Conversations, Redondo Beach, Calif.

Hardcover: An Indies Introduce Title
Fundamentally: A Novel by Nussaibah Younis (Tiny Reparations Books, $28, 9780593851388). "Nussaibah Younis' witty debut novel fetches a relevant focus on today's societal views of women and what they are capable of. Read it through and embrace the character arc--you won't put this book down until the very last page." --Desirae Wilkerson, Paper Boat Booksellers, Seattle, Wash.

Paperback
Clear: A Novel by Carys Davies (Scribner, $17.99, 9781668030677). "Insightful and memorable, Clear is an elemental portrayal of loneliness, language, and unlikely companionship. Set on a harsh and unforgiving isle in northern Scotland, Davies elegantly shares how regular daily moments can be profound." --Miriam Roskam, Mountain Shire: Books & Gifts, Winter Park, Colo.

Ages 3-7
The Baby Who Stayed Awake Forever by Sandra Salsbury (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780593805879). "This baby is too busy to go to sleep, and now it's everyone else's problem. Full of fun shenanigans that anyone who has spent time with a baby will relate to! I love Sandra's quieter books, but in this one she's laugh-out-loud funny." --Amy O'Hanlon, Bookbug, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Ages 6+
How Elegant the Elephant: Poems About Animals and Insects by Mary Ann Hoberman, illus. by Marla Frazee (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $20.99, 9780316417129). "What a dream come true to have these two book celebrities come together again to create another masterpiece. I'm not sure there was ever a more perfect pairing of whimsical writing and illustrations. Destined to be a treasured classic." --Ashlee Null, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif.

Teen Readers
Say a Little Prayer by Jenna Voris (Viking Books for Young Readers, $12.99, 9780593692745). "Say a Little Prayer is a fun, fast-paced read following one teen's chaotic plan to shake up her week at church camp after the community shunned her older sister. It's honest and hilarious with a heartwarming center. I'm eager to read more from Jenna Voris." --Becky Martone, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Isabel Allende brings the experience of more than 20 books to My Name Is Emilia del Valle, a swashbuckling tale of the life and adventures of a young woman born in San Francisco in the 1860s. Emilia's story is exciting, empowering, and inherently feminist, as she travels from California to her father's native Chile during that country's civil war, bucking social norms and going wherever she's told she can't.

A young Irish novice named Molly Walsh is about to take vows as a nun when she is seduced and abandoned, pregnant, by a Chilean aristocrat. Devastated, she accepts a marriage proposal instead from a colleague and friend in San Francisco's Mission District, who will be the devoted stepfather, "Papo," to her child. Molly remains bitter toward the absent father, del Valle, but Emilia lacks for nothing in the loving household where her mother and Papo teach the Mission District's children, provide bread to the poor, and support her unusual goals.

Emilia first makes a living by writing sensational dime novels of "murder, jealousy, cruelty, ambition, hatred... you know, Papo, the same as in the Bible or the opera" (under a pen name, of course). Next she decides to become a journalist, launching a newspaper career, soon traveling to New York (where she takes her first lover and otherwise broadens her worldview) and then abroad: Emilia journeys to Chile to cover the civil war as a reporter for San Francisco's Daily Examiner. Female reporters are vanishingly rare, but as war correspondents, unprecedented; and Emilia del Valle writes under her own name. She is also motivated to fulfill her mother's lifelong wish to track down her biological father, del Valle. Emilia finds great danger as well as the opportunity to define her identity for herself. The adventures she encounters along the way fill Allende's pages with violence, love, high society, and human interest.

As she has in previous acclaimed novels, Allende (The House of the Spirits; A Long Petal of the Sea; The Japanese Lover) applies riveting storytelling to an exploration of history through the lens of a fictional heroine. Allende's language, and Frances Riddle's translation, is evocative in its descriptions of Chile's lovely landscapes, a young woman's complicated love for her family, and the horrors of the battlefield, with which Emilia will become painfully familiar. This enthralling novel leaves Emilia, still young, in a position of some uncertainty: readers may hope for more from this plucky protagonist in a possible sequel. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: A daring young woman and groundbreaking reporter journeys from San Francisco to Chile in the 1890s to investigate a civil war and her own roots in this stirring novel by the celebrated Isabel Allende.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/ Quite leisurely from the disaster..../ Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky

In W.H. Auden's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts," the poet explores a painting in which the everyday world grinds along, oblivious to a tiny splash in the lower right hand corner of the work that is the only evidence of a boy who'd flown too close to the sun.

It is easy to be oblivious; easier than flying; easier than poetry. 

In bookstores, where shelf space and inventory turns are eternal subjects of heated debate, National Poetry Month reminds us just how challenging some inventory decisions can be. A comprehensive poetry section in a general-interest bookstore is a conscious and often costly statement. It is unlikely to earn its keep and must be subsidized by increased sales in other categories, but, thankfully, for many booksellers an extensive poetry selection is a necessity. 

And Poetry Month is still a retail labor of love. Over the years, I've met Poetry Month evangelists and detractors. Even some poets I know have expressed mixed feelings about the concept, wondering why poetry has to be trotted out like an orphan up for adoption once a year. 

At one end of the April celebration spectrum is the Academy of American Poets, which spearheaded the original concept almost three decades ago. At the other end are the cynics--represented here by a classic Onion article--and the vast number of people who just don't care. 

Booksellers fall into place at various points along the spectrum, which prompts certain questions: Is promoting Poetry Month with events and displays a bookstore's option or duty? Does it take a devoted poetry reader on staff to drive creative, energetic participation? When, where and how often does passion top inventory turns, even if only for 30 days?

I'm not a poet, but I am a lifelong reader of poetry (and buyer of poetry collections, which is a truly endangered lit-species). I'm a writer, so I think about words all the time, but I'm also deeply intrigued by and engaged in the book trade, so I think about money, too.

It's complicated. I know many poets, and when our conversations turn to the book trade, a certain fatalistic refrain inevitably creeps in: "No money in poetry; never was, never will be," they will say, or: "I write poetry, therefore I teach."

I know, I know. It's not just about the money, whether you're a poet, a bookseller, a small press editor or any other toiler in the word fields. It is, however, a little bit about the money. For example, have you ever met anyone in the book world who didn't say, at some point, "I could have made more money doing (fill in the occupation), but I had to do this?"

John Berryman considered the bookish money dilemma in Henry's Fate:

Glistening, Henry freed himself from money
By making enough.
Not much, enough.
His bills in Hell will be easy to pay,
No laundry there,
No long-distance telephone.

And Charles Bukowski grumbled about it in "so you want to be a writer?":        

if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.

Thankfully, many booksellers continue to celebrate Poetry Month with events, displays, readings and promotions. Bronx River Books, Scarsdale, N.Y., for example, posted on Facebook: "All month long, books of poetry and books about poems/poets are 10% off. Also, recite a poem from memory for a $5 gift certificate."

Búho bookstore, Brownsville, Tex., posted on Instagram: "Goodbye March, hello April! Now that we had our fun with our yearly April Fool's joke, we can now report with 100% honesty that Búho will be featuring books by renowned poets in observance of National Poetry Month! From timeless classics, to modern masterpieces, and from movers & shakers from all walks of life, there's definitely something here to inspire everyone through the creative use of the written word. Now that we are talking on the subject, everyone is especially encouraged to participate in this month's Noche Bohemia with an original poem, artwork, or song, or perhaps one of the selections from our center table that really resonates with you. Be moved by rhetoric & verse at its finest forms--only at Búho!"

Poetry may not be widely read, but it cannot be stopped because, one way or another, we readers and writers will always have our way with words.

"We put shoes on the imagination," Homero Aridjis writes in his poem, "Borders, Cages and Walls," which concludes:

We put bolts on the eyes,
locks on the hands,
limits to the lightning.
But life keeps its distance,
love to its word,
and poetry comes up where it can.

In This Craft of Verse: The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1967-1968, Jorge Luis Borges observes: "We go on to poetry; we go on to life. And life is, I am sure, made of poetry. Poetry is not alien--poetry is, as we shall see, lurking round the corner. It may spring on us at any moment."

And in "Failing and Flying," Jack Gilbert reminds us: "Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew/.... I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,/ but just coming to the end of his triumph."

Maybe the wonder is that Poetry Month is still flying.