by Paula Treick DeBoard
April is National Poetry Month… and it’s also a month for celebrating independent bookstores. So basically, it’s the best month (even if we are a bit biased).
Bookish is part of a Central California Bookstore Crawl happening from April 1 to 30. Each bookstore is offering special deals, freebies or new merch, depending on location. Stop by any store to get your passport and begin your trip to check out these indie bookstores, most of which have opened in the past two years: Bookish; BK Bookstore in Ceres; Scrawl, Scribble & Smirch Bookstore in Gustine; Mountain Bookstore in Sonora; Story Books & Toys in Oakdale (the fearless organizer of this crawl!); Ripon Bookstore in Ripon and Caspian Books in Tracy. This is all leading up to Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 25, a national day of celebrating independent bookstores in our communities. We’d love to see you on the crawl!
And of course, April is for poetry lovers… The Aileen Jaffa Young Poets Contest ends on April 3 (see more information on mostpoetry.org), and on April 14, Second Tuesday Poetry returns to Bookish at 7pm with five featured poets from Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun, followed by an open mic.
And fiction writers, we haven’t forgotten about you! Bookish Write Club continues on April 6 and 20 with every-other-Monday meet-ups from 6:30-8:30pm. It’s a low-stakes way to meet other writers and (re)commit to your project. Also check out twice-a-month meet-ups for writers and poets at Queen Bean (follow their Instagram account at @queenbean_coffeehouse.
We’re also welcoming debut horror writer Tamika Thompson to Bookish for the launch of her novel The Curse of Hester Gardens on April 7. We’ll talk horror and writing; books will be for sale, and Tamika can’t wait to meet you! And on April 18, we welcome Faye Snowden to celebrate the release of her Southern gothic novel, A Killing Breath. It features Raven Burns, a detective hunting down her serial killer father – perfect for fans of dark thrillers.
