CELEBRATE MORE THAN 300 YEARS OF INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLING IN NEW ORLEANS

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Afro-American Book Stop (15 years)
7056 Read Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70127, (504) 243-2436
Michele Lewis, afrobooks2@aol.com
1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Deborah M. Trigs will be signing You Are The Head And Not The Tail and Pamela Davis-Noland will be signing Coffee-Colored Dreams.

Beckham’s (36 years)
228 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA 70130, (504) 522-9875
Carey Beckham, booksco@cox.net
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Blue Cypress Books (February 2008)
8126 Oak St., New Orleans, LA 70118, (504) 352-0096
Elizabeth Ahlquist, bluecypressbooks@hotmail.com
http://bluecypressbooks.blogspot.com
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Community Book Center (25 years)
2523 Bayou Rd., New Orleans, LA 70119, (504) 948-7323
Vera Warren, warrve@aol.com
http://www.communitybookcenter.com
Community Book Center will be kicking off its 25th anniversary celebration with a book signing by Freddie Evans, store specials, and more!

deVille Books (30 years)
134 Carondelet St., New Orleans, LA 70130, (504) 525-1846
Winter Randall, devillebooks@bellsouth.net
http://devillebooks.blogspot.com
Inside Out, Outside In: Celebrating Street Art in New Orleans at the opening of Galerie deVille, inside deVille Books, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Faubourg Marigny Art & Books (31 years)
600 Frenchmen St., New Orleans, LA 70116, (504) 947-3700
Otis Fennell, otis.fennell@gte.net
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Faulkner House Books (19 years)
624 Pirate's Alley, New Orleans, LA 70130, (504) 524-2940
Joe DeSalvo, fhibooks@juno.com
http://www.faulknerhousebooks.net
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Garden District Book Shop (33 years)
2727 Prytania St., New Orleans, LA 70130, (504) 895-2266
Britton Trice, betbooks@aol.com
http://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com
Noon - 4 pm: Holiday Party at the Rink
*Holiday Music
*Wine Tasting
*Refreshments - including samplings from the Junior League cookbooks
*Free Booklovers 2009 calendar with $30 purchase (40 available)
*Register for a $50 gift card giveaway

Librarie Book Shop (40 years)
823 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70116, (504) 525-4837
Carey Beckham, booksco@cox.net
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Maple Street Book Shop (44 years)
7523 Maple St., New Orleans, LA 70118, (504) 866-4916
Gladin Scott, maplestreetbookshop@gmail.com
http://www.maplestreetbookshop.com
1:00 to 3:00 p.m., Dr. Courtney Cowart from the Office of Disaster Response for the Episcopal Diocese of LA will be signing her book An American Awakening, From Ground Zero to Katrina - The People We Are Free to Be.

Maple Street Children's Book Shop (34 years)
7529 Maple St., New Orleans, LA 70118, (504) 861-2105
Cindy Dike, cdike1@gmail.com
http://www.maplestreetbookshop.com
From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., they will host a party to celebrate J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Music from the wizard rock phenomenon, The Pure Bloods. There will games related to the Harry Potter books. Refreshments. Free. No reservations.

McKeown's Books and Difficult Music (4 years)
4737 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans, LA 70115, (504) 895-1954
Maggie McKeown, magbooks@earthlink.net
http://mckeownsbooks.com
No special events, but will donate a percentage of sales.

Octavia Books (8 years)
513 Octavia St, New Orleans, LA 70115, (504) 899-7323
Tom Lowenburg, tom@octaviabooks.com
http://www.octaviabooks.com
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., children's book author Whitney Stewart reading & signing Marshall: A Nantucket Sea Rescue, and Illustrator Jean Cassell will be signing Two Bobbies.
12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., Elsa Hahne, food tasting and book signing, You Are Where You Eat: Stories and Recipes from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans
1:30 p.m - 3:30 p.m., The Tommy Sancton New Orleans Trio performs, followed by Tom Sancton signing Song for My Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White

HISTORY

The New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association (NOGSBA) is an organization primarily made up of independent booksellers in the New Orleans and Gulf South areas. These booksellers are small business owners, both men and women, who have a deep love and devotion, not only to books, but to their community and its residents as well.

These business owners joined together in 1984 to share information about the independent bookselling business. The original group was made up of just eleven booksellers in the New Orleans metro region. Very quickly, however, the group expanded to include booksellers throughout the Gulf South region. Today, there are approximately forty-five members and associate members, including authors, editors, publishers, librarians, and booklovers from the entire New Orleans/Gulf South area.

Just as NOGSBA membership has expanded, so has its purpose. Six to eight meetings are held each year, in the bookstores and/or establishments of various members, and business interests, as well as technological developments and the future of bookselling are discussed, among other topics. At the end of the meetings, publishers and wholesalers show what new books will be coming out in the near future. This gives both booksellers and booklovers advance notice of important books (both at the regional and national level).

In addition to its original purpose of sharing information about all aspects of bookselling, NOGSBA has expanded its outreach, and takes a special interest in the work of local authors, inviting them to participate in these meetings to publicize their work and make publishing, marketing, and bookselling contacts. In other words, NOGSBA members take a "hands-on" approach when dealing with local talent.

These meetings also give booklovers a chance to socialize with authors and the bookselling community, while also allowing authors and publishers to hear directly, from the mouths of readers, what works they are interested in seeing brought to market.

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