Literary Site Type: Indie Bookstore

Founded in 1974, Changing Hands Bookstore is an independent community bookstore and online bookseller that gives a portion of its proceeds to local schools and over 200 local, national and international charities, and service organizations. They also have another bookstore in central Phoenix with a book bar.

Owned by writer Louise Erdrich, Birchbark Books is a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that identifies as Native-friendly. The store places special emphasis on Native American titles, and regularly sponsors readings by Native and non-Native writers, journalists, historians. The store inventory also includes quillwork, traditional basketry, silverwork, unusual dreamcatchers, and Native paintings. Books and items may also be purchased through their online store.

Women & Children First is one of the largest feminist bookstores in the country, stocking more than thirty thousand books by and about women, children’s books for all ages, and the best of lesbian and gay fiction and nonfiction. The bookstore hosts book launches, talks, and readings across multiple genres.

Square Books is a general independent bookstore in three separate buildings (about one hundred feet apart) on the historic town square of Oxford, Mississippi.  The main store, Square Books, is in a two-story building with a cafe and balcony on the second floor; Off Square Books is a few doors down from the main store and has lifestyle sections such as gardening and cookbooks; and Square Books Jr, the children’s bookstore, is in a building on the east side of the square.