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Spine is an independent bookstore specializing in fiction and nonfiction titles from indie authors and publishers. They also have a café and small event space that hosts various literary discussion groups, author showcases, and open mics. They host storytelling, music, history talk, and other various community-building events to foster independent, creative expression.
Arvida Book Company is a woman-owned and family friendly independent bookshop in Old Town Tustin in Orange County, California. The bookshop sells new and old books, and functions as a town square for the area regularly hosting author events and writing workshops. The bookshop’s owner, Sam Robertson, also founded the Arvida Review, a community-oriented short fiction publication that provides a platform for new and diverse voices.
Friendly City Books is a bookstore located in historic downtown Columbus in Mississippi offering books in an array of genres, including children’s books. Launched with the intention of bolstering community in the city, the bookstore intends to be not merely a seller but a gathering place for writers and readers. Their curated events hope to highlight Mississippi’s rich literary tradition, and their publishing imprint seeks to promote new voices from the Hospitality State.
This literary arts center is located in western Massachusetts. Founded in 1992 by author Dori Ostermiller, the center offers a variety of weekly, half-day, and one-day writing workshops and retreats, craft development, editorial services, and a year-long manuscript intensive. Workshops are taught by published authors and take place both virtually and in person—in a bright, seven hundred-square-foot studio located in the historic Brushworks Arts and Industry Building. They also host a Community Writing Workshop series and a Live Literature Series, which are both free and open to the public.
Totem Books is an independent bookstore and record store in Flint, Michigan. The shop has an expansive collection of new and used books, a café, and hosts the Totem Talk series and other live events. They are open Monday through Saturday.
Literary Cleveland is a nonprofit organization and creative writing center that empowers people to explore other voices and discover their own. They provide workshops, events, and multiple levels of classes which allow writers and readers of any experience to participate. In 2017, Lit Cleveland introduced a Cleveland Stories, a neighborhood-based writing program; a staged reading series with Cleveland Humanities Festival; and Gordon Square Review, an online literary journal.
At a time when the writing world faces serious challenges, the coauthored novel Fourteen Days brings together thirty-six noted writers to raise money for the Authors Guild and its battle against book bans and copyright infringement.
An introduction to four new anthologies, including The Weird Sister Collection: Writing at the Intersections of Feminism, Literature, and Pop Culture and You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World.
A testament to best-selling novelist Amy Tan’s obsession with birds, The Backyard Bird Chronicles spotlights hundreds of excerpts of illustrations and prose from Tan’s observations over the years.
Poets of African descent sitting on a first or second collection (including work that intersects with poetry, such as hybrid text, speculative prose, and translation) should not miss out on the chance to submit to the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics/Autumn House Press Book Prize. This year’s deadline is February 15. The annual prize awards $3,000 and publication to a writer “embodying African American, African, or African diasporic experiences.”
Using only the online submission system, submit 48 to 168 pages of poetry or poetry-adjacent work. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Founded in 1998, Autumn House Press publishes books in all genres with the belief “that literature is an affirmation of the deep and elemental range of our human experience” and that “our need for it is crucial now more than ever.” Over the years, the press has met this commitment by putting out debut poetry collections such as Ada Limón’s Lucky Wreck (2006), Danusha Laméris’s The Moons of August (2014), Cameron Barnett’s The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water (2017), and Eric Tran’s The Gutter Spread Guide to Prayer (2020). This year’s CAAPP Book Prize judge, Aracelis Girmay, is a hybrid genre poet whose most recent work is the chapbook and was a flower (Center for Book Arts, 2023), made in collaboration with book artist Valentina Améstica.
