You can now watch our Bookstore Day author events anytime you want.

Just click the links below to view!

Want to buy books by the featured authors? Visit or contact your favorite indie bookstore!

AN EVENING THE NEW YORKER’S ANN GOLDSTEIN & MARY NORRIS FOR ELENA FERRANTE’S NEW NOVEL. MODERATED BY EUROPA EDITIONS’ Michael Reynolds.

Join long-time friends, former New Yorker copy department colleagues, and literary icons in their own right, Mary Norris and Ann Goldstein, for an exclusive event in celebration of the forthcoming release of Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults. Moderated by Michael Reynolds, Editor in Chief of Europa Editions.

GOLDFISH GHOST DRAWING CLASS
with Lisa Brown

Join us for a fun and interactive drawing demonstration with illustrator and author Lisa Brown (Goldfish Ghost, The Airport Book, Mummy Cat, Long Story Short, The Phantom Twin).

GRAPHIC NOVEL DRAWING CLASS with Gene Yang

Graphic novel discussion and drawing class with Gene Luen Yang (Dragon Hoops).

MIDDLE GRADE FUN

WORLD-BUILDING IN
YA FEMINIST FANTASY FICTION

Middle-Grade Fun with Rene Watson (Ways to Make Sunshine) and illustrator Nina Mata (I Promise) with moderator Isaac Fitzgerald (How to Be a Pirate).

Join bestselling YA fantasy authors Kat Cho (Wicked Fox and Vicious Spirits), Rena Barron (Kingdom of Souls and Reaper of Souls), and Rebecca Kim Wells (Shatter the Sky). Moderator: Abby Rauscher of Books Are Magic!.

YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DESTINATION WITH AMOR TOWLES

Explore the very near future with Amor Towles as he discusses the exclusive, SIGNED Bookstore Day edition of his story “You Have Arrived at Your Destination.”

WRITING THE WEST WITH REYNA GRANDE, RISHI REDD & LAUREN FRANCIS-SHARMA

Join authors Reyna Grande (The Distance Between Us), Rishi Reddi (Passage West) and Lauren Francis-Sharma (Book of the Little Axe) as they discuss reexamining the history, culture, and myths of the West through their fiction.

ALONE TOGETHER: STORIES OF
LOVE, GRIEF, AND COMFORT
IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

BOOKSTORE DAY AMBASSADOR SHOWCASE WITH LAUREN GROFF & EMMA STRAUB

Join co-hosts Jennifer Haupt, editor of Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19, and Garth Stein, Author Leadership Circle Campaign Chair for Binc, for readings and conversations with Alone Together contributing authors Faith Adiele, Gayle Brandeis, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jamie Ford, Major Jackson, Sonora Jha, Scott James, Jessica Keener, Jean Kwok, Roberto Lovato, Ada Limón, Claudia Castro Luna, Kevin Sampsell, and Luis Alberto Urrea.

Join two of Bookstore Day’s past Author Ambassadors for a lively discussion of books, bookstores, and the writing life. Featuring Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies and Florida), and Emma Straub (All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, The Vacationeers and owner of Books Are Magic! in Brooklyn).

While we’re stuck inside, we’re asking you to tell us about your favorite books in a bunch of categories, like “books that have made you cry… in a good way!’

Check out all the titles you’ve suggested so far!

2020 Bookstore Day Ambassador Sean Doolittle has also shared several reading lists to keep you busy.

Check out Sean’s favorite books about baseball and more!

Where will you be on Bookstore Day?

Find your closest store here!

What is Independent Bookstore Day?

Independent Bookstore Day is a one-day national party that takes place at indie bookstores across the country on the last Saturday in April. Every store is unique and independent, and every party is different. But in addition to authors, live music, cupcakes, scavenger hunts, kids events, art tables, readings, barbecues, contests, and other fun stuff, there are exclusive books and literary items that you can only get on that day. Not before. Not after. Not online.

To see past exclusives, check out our archives.

Why are we celebrating independent bookstores?

Independent bookstores are not just stores, they’re community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. They are lively performance spaces and quiet places where aimless perusal is a day well spent.

In a world of tweets and algorithms and pageless digital downloads, bookstores are not a dying anachronism. They are living, breathing organisms that continue to grow and expand. In fact, there are more of them this year than there were last year. And they are at your service.

Bookstores: find out how you can participate!

Relive the Magic of Independent Bookstore Day 2019!

“I love indie bookstores because I love the safe and inclusive spaces that they create for the people in their communities. They’re more than just places to shop. They are community centers that promote and host important events about issues that impact their communities. They promote authors and give them a space to promote their works and further their careers. They provide good jobs. They pay taxes (looking at you Amazon). But most importantly, indie bookstores provide really unique spaces that capture the spirit of their communities to promote reading.”

— Sean Doolittle, 2020 Independent Bookstore Day Ambassador

“As a young reader, I was starved for literature. Bookstores fed me. They feed me still. My happiest hours still seem to be the ones I’ve spent in small bookshops on rainy days, when I lost myself for hours in the new, the strange and the ecstatic.”

— Lauren Groff, 2016 Independent Bookstore Day Ambassador

“Independent bookstores are my first steps in any new city — a quick check of the pulse in any literary community. They are ports in the storm, passageways to magical lands, escape hatches out of bad moods. Even when I don’t think I need a book, because the stack beside my bed is teetering towards the ceiling, I always need a bookstore. And then I usually need a book, too.”

— Emma Straub, 2017 Independent Bookstore Day Ambassador

“Bookstores are more than just repositories of knowledge. They’re living, breathing, evolving representations of our best selves. I love Independent Bookstore Day because it asks readers, writers, and booksellers to join in celebrating all that bookstores represent. It’s a gathering to remind ourselves that the written word can both change us and the world, and of what’s possible when we all come together.”

— Celeste Ng, 2018 Independent Bookstore Day Ambassador