Independent Bookstores

When my last book, Coming to Rest, was published, I was invited to read at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC, my favorite bookstore anywhere. My good friend Joyce Moore is owner and manager; we go way, way back to student days at UNC-Greensboro, where Joyce was editor of the undergraduate literary magazine, Coraddi. A few years later she and her husband moved to their farm outside Cullowhee, because Allen had taken a job in the biology dept. at Western Carolina University. Their presence has enriched my life beyond the telling, and City Lights has enriched our community in ways that deserve more than one blog to describe. Our independent booksellers are always struggling to stay afloat, especially these days when the economy is weak. Go to City Lights' webpage--listed below in my links, and to the website for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance--www.sibaweb.com--to see what our indie bookstores are doing these days. Then go buy a book, preferably a book of poetry, from them.