Poets & Writers Theater

In this PBS NewHour video, Jeffrey Brown speaks with best-selling author Rebecca Yarros and romance bookstore owner Leah Koch about the rise of the romantasy genre, which mixes elements of romance and fantasy stories.

“I think there’s still a hunger for reading, for the print book, for something you hold in your hand and take with you,” says Emily Powell, owner and president of Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, about the struggles independent bookstores face today in this CBS Saturday Morning interview with Michelle Miller.

“These times are really ripe for different opportunities and taking different approaches to things because everyone’s sort of making it up as they go along.” In this BLDRfly video, Wisteria Bristol, Peter Jones, and Sofia Miranda, co-owners of Trident Booksellers & Café in Boulder, Colorado, speak about shifting the store to an employee-owned model during the pandemic and how that has affected their connection to the community. For more, read “From Booksellers to Owners” by Lynn Rosen in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“A book to me is an escape into a different world.” For National Book Lovers Day, here are some booksellers from Waterstones in the U.K. expressing their love of books.