Indies First Celebration at Bookstores Around Town This Weekend

November 29 is the "Indies First" celebration: a nationwide bookstore extravaganza.  Need to start your shopping for holiday gifts? Skip the black Friday malls-- you can get your gift-shopping done, and meet local authors at the same time. 

Joanna Connors writes about the Indies First Celebration, pointing out that bookstores all around Cleveland are participating:

Mac's Backs – Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-321-2665, macsbacks.com
Mac's Backs will have holiday refreshments and nine local (or native) authors on hand throughout the day on Saturday, Nov. 29.
Each author will hold court for an hour, signing books and suggesting titles, starting at 10 a.m. In order of appearance, they are: Deanna Adams, Anne Trubek, Ben Small, Jane Turzillo, Les Roberts, Shelley Costa, Tricia Springstubb, Joyce Brabner and John Paulett.
Loganberry Books
13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights, 216-795-9800, loganberrybooks.com
Loganberry will host authors on Friday, Nov. 28, and Saturday, Nov. 29, during the Larchmere Holiday Stroll. Starting each day at noon, authors will chat and sign books for an hour each. On Friday, look for (in order of appearance): Suzanne McGinness, Les Roberts, Jennie Jones and Derf Backderf. Saturday, look for (in order): Tricia Springstubb, Laura and Barney Taxel, Gail Ghetia Bellamy and Charlie Mintz.
The Learned Owl
204 N. Main St., Hudson, 330-653-2252, learnedowl.com
On Saturday, Nov. 29, The Learned Owl will offer refreshments and special deals on featured titles. Author Nancy Christie will sign books from 1 to 3 p.m. And you can enter a raffle to win a Christmas Story Leg Lamp, with proceeds going to the Hudson Food Pantry.
Appletree Books
12419 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-791-2665, appletree-books.com
Appletree will give away special Indies First tote bags, emblazoned with the motto "Shop Small," to purchasers.
Fireside Book Shop
29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls, 440-247-4050, firesidebookshop.com
On Friday, Nov. 28, from 1 to 3 p.m., local author Sandy Philipson and illustrator Jenny Campbell will sign the new chapter book, Wings. On Saturday, Nov. 29, from 1 to 3 p.m., local editor Laura Gorretta will sign the revised version of Chagrin Falls: An Ohio Village History.

• Letter from Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.
• Indies First: What's happening?

Autumn Photo-Poems

Lake Erie Ink teen open Mic December 13

If you want to hear what younger poets are about, here's your chance.  Lake Erie Ink is sponsoring an open Mic for teen poetry on December 13 at 1854 Coventry Road [formerly Phoenix, next to Bodega], part of the Coventry Holiday Fest.

'Tis the season!

• Lake Erie Ink (located right next to the Coventry library), is a "writing space for youth" with programs and creative expression opportunities for young people in the Greater Cleveland area.
• Programs
• Coventry Holiday Fest facebook page

"We believe in the transformative power of creative expression."

Belt

Cleveland's Belt magazine is getting some ink!

• Joseph Lichterman: "By the book: How Belt Publishing led to an online magazine covering the industrial Midwest":

"Belt is a small independent publishing house that tells stories of the industrial (and post-industrial) Midwest, from Pittsburgh to St. Louis. It published its first book, Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, in 2012, and it launched an online magazine last fall that grew out of the Cleveland Anthology and a successful kickstarter campaign."

• Robert L. Smith: "Tiny Belt Magazine invited to show New York how to do new journalism: the Mix":

"...The result is a selection of stories and essays that often offer fresh insight into regional issues and challenges and that stoke smart conversation. Discerning readers in Greater Cleveland are not the only ones to notice. The Paley Center for Media has chosen Belt Magazine to present at its "The Next Big Thing in Media and the Innovation Economy" conference..."
"'We see ourselves doing independent Rust Belt journalism, and we're the only ones doing it.' Apparently, tiny Belt is seen as big enough to disrupt."

"The Slumlords We Love," by Robert Langellier

• Like Belt on Facebook
• Belt magazine

Kurt Landefeld and JACK'S MEMOIRS: OFF THE ROAD, A NOVEL will be featured at the Beat Reading 7 pm Wed. Nov. 12th at Mac's Backs Books...Join the poets and readers who connect with the Beat Movement as it lives on.Bring a favorite Beat poem to share.

Bree's first novel Pigskin In a Blanket

Green Panda Press announces its first work of full-length fiction. Pigskin in a Blanket is an existential-buddhist-romantic-comedy written by the formerly Cleveland poet Bree (now Kentuckian) in a period of six weeks that followed a string of curses. the novel is set in Cleveland, OH. it features Anya, who marries her twice-senior plastic surgeon and schemes to become the woman people take most seriously, and former Browns player Harry who might just be some kind of poet; he battles an obscure liver disease while slinging meats and cheeses for a local purveyor. 260 pgs TP.

the book plus shipping is $12 via paypal to greenpandapress@gmail.com and comes with a copy of Bree's latest paperback poetry Some Hiatus: Tucky Poems.

or order thru amazon or the link below. thanks! read and pass along.....
https://www.createspace.com/5091426

luv and hugs, Bree

John Burroughs is coming to Sandusky for the Coffeehouse Reading Series
Sponsored by the Firelands Writing Center and Bottom Dog Press.