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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260619T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260619T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20260115T114318Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260115T115038Z
UID:3066-1781877600-1781881200@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:The British Book Trade and the Book War of 1906
DESCRIPTION:Details coming soon.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/the-british-book-trade-and-the-book-war-of-1906/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260522T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260522T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20260115T113403Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260121T114206Z
UID:3064-1779458400-1779462000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:BA Bookshop Mentoring Scheme with Creative Access
DESCRIPTION:Throughout 2025\, the Booksellers Association (BA) collaborated with Creative Access to deliver a mentoring programme designed to support young people seeking to enter—or advance within—the bookselling profession. Fifteen mentees\, selected by Creative Access from communities historically under‑represented in the book trade\, were paired with experienced bookseller mentors identified by the BA. In her presentation\, Kate Gunning\, Head of Membership Development at the BA\, will discuss the origins of the initiative and provide an overview of its implementation and outcomes. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKate Gunning\, Head of Membership Development at the Booksellers Association\, is a seasoned bookselling and publishing professional with extensive experience across retail management\, buying\, and member services. Joining the Booksellers Association in 2022 as Acting Membership Manager\, she now supervises all membership processes and services and runs BA Learning\, the Association’s learning and development programme. She also runs the Children’s and Christian Bookselling Groups and the Independent Booksellers Forum. Kate previously spent 13 years at Waterstones\, managed stores in Paris and London\, served as Book Buyer at Selfridges and Head of Buying at Foyles\, and later spent 12 years as Independent Bookshops Manager at Penguin Random House.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/brn-gunning26/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260414T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260414T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20260309T095422Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260309T104915Z
UID:3157-1776175200-1776178800@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:From Market to Margin: The Growth of Queer Literature in the UK
DESCRIPTION:Join Zoom Meetinghttps://ucl.zoom.us/j/98153761033?pwd=SHHU6UCpXbUSaT4UrXhGayfhmpMzb5.1 \n\n\n\nMeeting ID: 981 5376 1033Passcode: 958779 \n\n\n\n\n\nOver the past five years\, the UK has seen a striking surge in LGBTQIA+ literature\, both in visibility and in commercial weight. The “Queer Top 50” alone accounted for around 2.2 million books sold and £20.6 million in value in 2024\, showing that queer writing is no longer a niche but a significant cultural and economic force. \n\n\n\nBreakout titles such as Heartstopper have set records — 60\,000 copies sold in just three days — proving that readers are hungry for authentic queer stories across genres. This growth is also supported by change inside the industry itself: in 2024\, 16% of the UK publishing workforce identified as LGBT+\, up from just 5% in 2017\, helping shift commissioning and marketing decisions towards greater inclusivity. \n\n\n\nFor independent and specialist booksellers\, this represents both opportunity and responsibility. We are uniquely positioned to curate\, champion\, and hand-sell the diverse range of LGBTQIA+ titles that mainstream outlets may overlook. At a time when some schools and libraries are under pressure to remove queer books\, shops like Gay on Wye become not just retailers but safe cultural spaces\, sustaining visibility\, access\, and community for readers who need these stories most. \n\n\n\nJoin Tom Owen\, founder of Gay on Wye\, an independent LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Hay-on-Wye\, as he discusses the research which led to the opening of his shop and his vision for the future of queer literature on the UK high street\, Stocking LGBTQIA+ books isn’t about cashing in on the pink pound — it’s about offering stories that resonate deeply with readers and help build lasting community. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Tom Owen: \n\n\n\nTom opened Gay on Wye in 2023 after nearly a decade of planning. With a background in the creative arts\, he has worked with institutions across South Wales and the UK\, shaping his understanding of storytelling\, culture\, and representation. A passionate reader — especially of science fiction — he believes in literature’s power to transport\, challenge\, and affirm identities.  \n\n\n\nWhether promoting LGBTQIA+ authors\, creating a welcoming space for discovery\, or simply sharing his love of books\, Tom remains committed to the belief that every reader deserves to see themselves reflected in literature.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/from-market-to-margin-the-growth-of-queer-literature-in-the-uk/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IMG_9927-scaled.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260313T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260313T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20260113T151420Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260316T160610Z
UID:3057-1773410400-1773414000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Literature for the People: How the Pioneering Macmillan Brothers built a Publishing Powerhouse
DESCRIPTION:Join us with this link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/91934261983?pwd=78mkAzw85rsPM2k9l0Xk6WfFQZGGJI.1 \n\n\n\nFrom poverty on the Isle of Arran\, via a little shop in Cambridge\, two men with little education founded one of the world’s most famous publishing companies\, bringing to their Victorian readers\, authors as varied as Lewis Carroll\, Christina Rossetti\, Matthew Arnold\, Thomas Hughes and Alfred Lord Tennyson. They combined fabulous networking skills with a keen business sense and a love of fine writing. Above all\, the brothers\, Christian Socialists\, believed that publishing should have moral and political purpose.Within two generations the family would produce a British Prime Minister – quite the ‘rags to riches’ tale. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSarah Harkness studied PPE at Mansfield College\, Oxford\, then joined an investment bank in the City\, one of the first women working in corporate finance\, where she enjoyed a highly successful career for twenty years. For the last twenty years she has served on a number of boards\, including both public and private companies. Her interests have been primarily in the education\, culture and health sectors\, including three years as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. She is now chair of Orthopaedic Research UK. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield University and an Honorary Fellowship at Mansfield College. In 2018\, a ten-year personal interest in a pioneering Victorian artist and writer\, Nelly Erichsen\, led to her writing and self-publishing a well-received biography\, which was longlisted for the 2019 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History. In October 2021 she was awarded an MA with Distinction in Biography at the University of Buckingham\, studying under Professor Jane Ridley. In 2021 she won the Tony Lothian Prize\, awarded by The Biographers’ Club\, for the best proposal for an uncommissioned biography. Literature for the People: How the Pioneering Macmillan Brothers Built a Publishing Powerhouse was published by Pan Macmillan in May 2024.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/harkness26/
CATEGORIES:Symposium
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260303T143000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260303T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20251104T103652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260323T110531Z
UID:2840-1772548200-1772551800@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Insights from the Booksellers Association research into the Cultural and Community Value of Bookshops across the UK and Ireland
DESCRIPTION:It has long been the contention of the Booksellers Association (UK and Ireland) that its members – chains and indies – play an outsize role in enriching the cultural lives of their communities. Starting in 2024\, research has been undertaken to determine the extent to which and in what ways bookshops enrich their communities\, whilst identifying enablers and barriers so that this contribution can be sustained and strengthened. Consequently\, a series of research reports has been produced covering England (September 2024)\, Ireland (excl. Northern Ireland: November 2024)\, Scotland (November 2025)\, and Wales (scheduled for January 2026). Howard will outline the insights arising from this body of research\, similarities and contrasts between the four nations\, and the key policy recommendations that have emerged. \n\n\n\nHoward Davies has a background in Public Affairs and Public Policy. Howard is a self-confessed bookshop enthusiast. He has previously worked for the Booksellers Association of UK and Ireland as (maternity cover) Head of Policy and Public Affairs. Howard authored the 2024 research reports on the Cultural Role and Value of England’s Independent Bookshops  (funded by Arts Council England and supported by the BA)\, and on the Cultural Role and Value of Bookshops in Ireland (funded by the BA)\, and the November 2025 BA research report into the Cultural and Community role of Scotland’s Bookshops\, and the January 2026 research report into the Cultural and Community role of Wales’s Bookshops.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/davies2026/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260127T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260127T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20250928T113919Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260202T131401Z
UID:2512-1769522400-1769526000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Sheila Markham & Conversations with the Rare Book Trade
DESCRIPTION:Sheila Markham is an Honorary Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association for her oral history project celebrating rare booksellers and collectors from around the world. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAfter reading Theology at Oxford\, Sheila joined Marlborough Rare Books in 1979\, where she spent seven years doing a traditional apprenticeship. She worked for various leading figures in the rare book business\, and ran her own business specialising in books on the Ancient Near East for a few years. In 1994 she became Librarian of the Travellers Club in London\, a position which she continues to hold. \n\n\n\nIn 1991 Sheila was invited by the editor of The Bookdealer to conduct a series of interviews with her colleagues in the world of rare books. The project continues to this day\, although they now appear in The Book Collector\, and the total number of interviews published so far is 172. Two collections of interviews were published in book-form in 2004 and 2014\, and A Third Book of Booksellers: Conversations with the Antiquarian Book Trade will be published on 1 December 2025. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn her talk\, Sheila will share some of her findings from these conversations\, covering a period from the early 1990s\, when bookselling had hardly changed since the invention of printing\, to the turbulent times of online commerce. \n\n\n\nThe majority of those interviewed come from the English-speaking world\, but booksellers in Argentina\, France\, Italy\, Japan\, the Netherlands\, South Korea\, Spain and Turkey are also represented. One of the recurring themes in these global conversations is the unanimous belief in the survival and enduring appeal of the book as a physical object.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/brn-markham26/
CATEGORIES:Symposium
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251212T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251212T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20251208T124647Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251208T124650Z
UID:2897-1765548000-1765551600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:BYOB25: Books and spaces
DESCRIPTION:Our final session of the year will be on Friday\, 12th December\, again at 2 pm on Teams  — this will be our now traditional festive session\, where you are invited to bring along a book you’ve enjoyed this year to talk about.  This year’s twist\, to fit in with the theme of next year’s conference: be prepared to also talk about the space you obtained your book from\, and the space(s) where you read it!  Any book genre\, any book format welcome! \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nLink to Join:  BRN session | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/byob25-books-and-spaces/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251121T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251121T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20251030T171843Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251121T153823Z
UID:2837-1763733600-1763737200@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:David Piovesan & The European Bookshop Business Model
DESCRIPTION:Join researcher and author David Piovesan as he shares insights from his four-year journey across 23 countries\, where he met over 250 booksellers and publishing professionals. Drawing from his newly published book The European Bookshop Business Model (Routledge\, October 2025)\, Piovesan offers a compelling overview of how bookshops are navigating the challenges of the digital age. Discover the strategies\, struggles\, and innovations shaping the future of bookselling in Europe. \n\n\n\nDavid Piovesan is an Associate Professor in Management Sciences at Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3\, France\, and a former CEO of a French independent bookshop. He is leading a research program on book markets from a European-based perspective. He has been a visiting researcher in several universities (Prague\, Padua\, Münster). He is regularly invited to speak at book fairs and professional meetings all over Europe. He is currently researching the role of books in facing ecological issues. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe European Bookshop Business Model
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/david-piovesan-the-european-bookshop-business-model/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/9781003615101.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251031T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251031T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20251011T092234Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251011T092236Z
UID:2757-1761919200-1761922800@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:From Margin to Market: The Growth of Queer Literature in the UK
DESCRIPTION:Join the webinar now \n\n\n\nOver the past five years\, the UK has seen a striking surge in LGBTQIA+ literature\, both in visibility and in commercial weight. The “Queer Top 50” alone accounted for around 2.2 million books sold and £20.6 million in value last year 2024\, showing that queer writing is no longer a niche but a significant cultural and economic force. \n\n\n\nBreakout titles such as Heartstopper have set records—60\,000 copies sold in just three days—proving that readers are hungry for authentic queer stories across genres. This growth is also supported by change inside the industry itself: in 2024\, 16% of the UK publishing workforce identified as LGBT+\, up from just 5% in 2017\, helping shift commissioning and marketing decisions towards greater inclusivity. \n\n\n\nFor independent and specialist booksellers\, this represents both opportunity and responsibility. We are uniquely positioned to curate\, champion\, and hand-sell the diverse range of LGBTQIA+ titles that mainstream outlets may overlook. At a time when some schools and libraries are under pressure to remove queer books\, shops like Gay on Wyebecome not just retailers but safe cultural spaces\, sustaining visibility\, access\, and community for readers who need these stories most. \n\n\n\nJoin Tom Owen as he discusses the research that led to the opening of Gay on Wye and shares his vision for the future of queer literature on the UK high street. Stocking LGBTQIA+ books isn’t about cashing in on the pink pound — it’s about offering stories that resonate deeply with readers and help build lasting community. \n\n\n\nAbout Tom Owen\n\n\n\n\n\nTom Owen is the founder of Gay on Wye\, an independent LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Hay[1]on-Wye\, the world-famous “town of books.” Opened in 2023 after nearly a decade of planning\, the shop is Tom’s vision for a space where queer literature is not just included but celebrated. He curates a diverse selection of books that reflect the struggles\, triumphs\, and experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community. \n\n\n\nWith a background in creative arts\, Tom has worked with institutions across South Wales and the UK\, shaping his understanding of storytelling\, culture\, and representation. A passionate reader—especially of science fiction—he believes in literature’s power to transport\, challenge\, and affirm identities. \n\n\n\nAs an advocate for independent bookshops\, Tom champions their role in amplifying underrepresented voices\, offering alternatives to mainstream retail’s sales-driven approach. Through Gay on Wye\, he isn’t just selling books—he’s fostering community\, conversations\, and visibility for queer stories. \n\n\n\nWhether promoting LGBTQIA+ authors\, creating a welcoming space for discovery\, or simply sharing his love of books\, Tom remains committed to the belief that every reader deserves to see themselves reflected in literature.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/from-margin-to-market-the-growth-of-queer-literature-in-the-uk/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Tom-@-Gay-on-Wye-by-Billy-Charity-2023.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250911T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250912T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20240812T131102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240909T093641Z
UID:1914-1757577600-1757696400@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:BRN Conference 2025: Bookselling as Resistance
DESCRIPTION:Conference in Münster\, Germany\, combined with the annual meeting of the Bookselling Research Network (BRN). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe are still accepting abstracts for the Bookselling as Resistance conference to be held at the University of Münster. The deadline for submission has been extended to September 29\, 2024.  \n\n\n\nWe’ve had some questions about the early deadline; as indicated below\, we are applying for funding and need an indication of participation to complete the application. We anticipate that there will be another call later\, but we are grateful to delegates who are able to submit something for consideration now. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCall for Papers \n\n\n\nAbstracts are requested by September 15\, 2024 (see below for how to submit) \n\n\n\nBook historical work has been increasingly highlighting books – their publication\, distribution and reception – in intersectional activist contexts\, shining light on interconnections between community-building\, politics and the book. In our conference\, scheduled for September 2025 in Münster\, Germany\, we plan to hone in on bookselling as a practice and consider the ways in which resistance can be interpreted vis-à-vis bookselling and bookstores.  \n\n\n\nAs Kimberley Kinder has shown\, bookstores – and booksellers – play a central role in social activism and for “activist placemaking” (Kinder 2021). In the wake of the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016\, independent bookstores received heightened media attention for offering readers and community members spaces to exchange ideas and organize\, with the stores “taking on roles ranging from meeting place to political war room” (Bosman 2017). Adjacently\, feminist bookstores experienced a resurgence after the 2016 US election (Kirch 2018). Doyle Highland has considered “how the material space of bookstores shapes social engagement […] and cultural values” (2023)\, and recent work by Dhingra (2024) and Srinivasan (forthcoming\, 2025) puts pressure on these concepts from an Indian perspective. Internationally\, independent bookselling per se has come to be understood as a mode of resistance against Amazon’s market dominance and destructive human and ecological (Caine 2021).   \n\n\n\nBeyond these examples\, our conference invites delegates to explore the theme of bookselling – past and present – as resistance. We encourage papers that take transcultural\, transnational and intersectional approaches. 20-minute papers could engage with issues such as: \n\n\n\n\nInformal spaces of bookselling and alternative routes of circulation\n\n\n\nBookstores as community/gathering space\n\n\n\nMail-order book clubs or book subscription boxes\n\n\n\nBooks on the bookshelf and activist organizational practice; curation; banned book displays\n\n\n\nAlternative bookstore business models (independent\, volunteer-run\, traveling\, etc.) \n\n\n\nServing specific communities: bookselling for specific groups\, communities\, lifestyles; locations of bookselling\n\n\n\nBookselling of pirated copies and resistance to copyright/market norms\n\n\n\nBooksellers\, censorship\, and legal battles\n\n\n\n\nThis is not an exhaustive list\, and we welcome proposals for papers that engage the theme in creative ways. \n\n\n\nWe plan to apply for funding through the German Research Foundation\, which would enable us to pay for delegates’ travel to Münster and accommodation during the conference. For this reason\, abstracts are requested by September 15\, 2024. Notification of preliminary acceptance and inclusion in the funding bid will be made by September 30\, 2024. Please submit 400-word abstracts and short bios via the Indico platform: https://indico.uni-muenster.de/e/brn_2025.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWorks Cited and Bibliography \n\n\n\nBosman\, Julie. “Bookstores Stoke Trump Resistance With Action\, Not Just Words.” The New York Times\, February 15\, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/bookstores-stoke-trump-resistance-with-action-not-just-words.html. \n\n\n\nCaine\, Danny. How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling. Portland: Microcosm Publishing\, 2023. \n\n\n\nCaine\, Danny. How to Resist Amazon & Why: The Fight for Local Economies\, Data Privacy\, Fair Labor\, Independent Bookstores\, and a People-Powered Future. Portland: Microcosm Publishing\, 2021. \n\n\n\nFarrell\, Greg.On the Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC’s Strand Bookstore. Portland: Microcosm Publishing\, 2014. \n\n\n\nGarber\, Jeremy. “Bookselling in the 21st Century: There Will Always Be Bookstores.” Literary Hub\, November 9\, 2016. https://lithub.com/bookselling-in-the-21st-century-there-will-always-be-bookstores/. \n\n\n\nHogan\, Kristen. The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability. Durham: Duke University Press\, 2016. \n\n\n\nKinder\, Kimberley. The Radical Bookstore: Counterspace for Social Movements. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press\, 2021. \n\n\n\nKirch\, Claire. “Trump Presidency Reinvigorates Feminist Bookstores.” Publishers Weekly\, March 09\, 2018. Accessed July 24\, 2024. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/76289-trump-presidency-reinvigorates-feminist-bookstores.html. \n\n\n\nNoorda\, Rachel\, Corinna Norrick-Rühl\, and Elizabeth Le Roux. “Exploring Transnational Dimensions of Activism in Contemporary Book Culture: Introduction.” Mémoires Du Livre 13\, no. 2 (June 14\, 2023): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.7202/1100559ar. \n\n\n\nThomas\, June. A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women’s Culture. London: Virago\, 2024. 
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/brn-conference-2024-bookselling-as-resistance/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250620T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250620T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20250324T191604Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250623T092349Z
UID:2358-1750428000-1750433400@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Shai Feraro: Occult and New Age Spirituality Bookshops
DESCRIPTION:Studying Occult and New Age Spirituality Bookshops as Sites for the Production and Exchange of Rejected Knowledge in the UK\, c. 1893 – c. 1993 Dr. Shai Feraro (University of Haifa) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis paper presents exploratory notes from my ongoing research project\, which focuses on occult and New Age spirituality bookshops in Britain and aims to illuminate their function as hubs and arenas for the transference of knowledge and information within these respective milieus\, c. 1893 – c.1993. Its time frame is dictated by the founding of Watkins Books – one of the first establishments in London to dedicate itself specifically to occult and esoteric literature – and by the rise of the Internet\, which has become the chief arena for the exchange of relevant knowledge\, thus eliminating the primacy and – in the case of the occult subcultures – sometimes even the very exclusivity of the bookshop. \n\n\n\nI aim to show how these literary establishments were simultaneously dependent on and cultivated a large array of networks concerned with ‘rejected knowledge’. Following Webb (1976) and especially Hanegraaff (2012) we can define ‘rejected knowledge’ as a generative culture of epistemic claims\, based on a fusion of heterodox religion and speculative science\, which has been practiced against hegemonic religious and scientific institutions since at least the late Nineteenth Century. \n\n\n\nThis project is vital for understanding the proliferation of new and alternative religions in western societies and opens a new line of wider historiographical enquiry with the UK as a test case\, answering longstanding questions regarding the material availability of ‘occult’ and ‘new age’ reading materials during the Twentieth Century and their impact on wider British – and Western – society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMy research focuses on the study of occult and New Age Spirituality bookshops in Britain between the late-19th and late-20th Centuries. I’m also interested in esoteric publishing and in the role of women in the British book trade during the same period. More broadly\, I research alternative religions and spiritualities in North America and the UK during the 19th and 20th centuries. My 2020 book\, Women and Gender Issues in British Paganism\, 1945–1990\, was published by Palgrave Macmillan\, who also published two anthologies I co-edited – Contemporary Alternative Spiritualities in Israel (2016) and Magic and Witchery in the Modern West (2019).
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/shai-feraro-occult-and-new-age-spirituality-bookshops/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250523T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250523T150000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20250320T100951Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250527T160204Z
UID:2289-1748008800-1748012400@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Michael Robb–author of Shelf Life
DESCRIPTION:Shelf Life: A Journey Through the Past\, Present & Future of Bookselling and Publishing in Britain \n\n\n\nTime: May 23\, 2025 02:00 PM London \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Author \n\n\n\nMichael Robb has experienced first-hand the shifting tides of this well-loved industry over the past 40 years. \n\n\n\nFrom successfully running an independent bookshop in Essex for two decades\, to transitioning into the publishing domain\, his broad network within the book trade gives him a unique insight into the world of the books. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nExactly the book I wish I had had in my hands when I was writing mine! It’s a simply written and straightforward account of the history of bookselling in Britain\, and the development of British publishing\, brought to life by the author’s obvious passion for the subject\, his warm love of books and his appreciation of the value of reading for the human soul. Full of ideas for the future\, and a wake-up call to all of us who worry about the future of our children\, when public and school libraries are disappearing before our eyes and screens are ubiquitous. I also enjoyed the discussion of the impact of AI on the industry\, which is clearly of concern if we value genuine creativity. Packed full of interesting facts\, and interviews and insights from some of the leading players in the industry. – Sarah Harkness\, author of Literature for the People: How the Pioneering Macmillan Brothers Built a Publishing Powerhouse  \n\n\n\n\n\nIn Shelf Life\, Michael Robb gives us 2\,000 years of the history of publishing books\, shot through with Robb’s own love of reading\, before navigating the tempestuous present. We can’t know for sure the next chapter in the history of the book\, but Michael Robb’s surging account – from William Caxton to the contemporary high street; from Wynkyn de Worde to the Net Book Agreement – can help us speculate better on the book’s possible futures. I loved reading Shelf Life. – Adam Smyth\, Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College\, Oxford\, and author of The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives (2024)
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/michael-robb-author-of-shelf-life/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250425T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250425T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20241204T124808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250428T104510Z
UID:2093-1745589600-1745595000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Nina Stavisky on European Bookselling Courses
DESCRIPTION:Time: Apr 25\, 2025 02:00 PM London \n\n\n\n\n\nBookselling seems to be an innate profession\, after all we learn to read at school and to be a bookseller you have to love reading\, don’t you? Across Europe\, a number of bookselling schools\, whether public or private\, apprenticeship or university-based\, for initial or continuing training\, provide high-quality training for future booksellers\, department managers or company directors.What do they teach and how do they train the booksellers of tomorrow? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNina Stavisky has been working in the book trade for over 20 years\, as a bookseller\, trainer\, teacher\, in the technical field and in booksellers’ associations. She is the general delegate of ALIRE\, an association working on technique and technology in bookshops\, and is also an associate lecturer at the University of Paris Nanterre and head of the bookselling section of the information and communication department\, which trains students in three years to become booksellers. \n\n\n\nALIRE was founded in 1989\, and represents independent booksellers\, chains and pure-players (including Amazon\, supermarkets…) in the French book trade. 
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/nina-stavisky-on-european-bookselling-courses/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250328T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250328T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20241218T140740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250423T142140Z
UID:2114-1743170400-1743175800@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Anna Muenchrath: Just Browsing: Time and the Online Bookstore
DESCRIPTION:Convenience and the saving of time are attractions of buying books online\, particularly on Amazon\, which advertises rapid delivery speeds at very low prices. Algorithms are designed to save time\, making a database of books easily searchable\, but they are also programmed to increase the time users spend looking at a particular page or scrolling through a list of results. Moreover\, when we move from the web to the distribution warehouse\, Amazon’s algorithms parcel out time to “pickers” who have to try to beat the clock (“make rate”) as they translate online clicks\, communicated at the speed of light\, into the work of navigating vast shelves in search of books and other items. Set against the backdrop of the pastoral metaphor of “browsing\,” indicating a slow consumer behaviour historically linked to book buying\, this talk considers the ubiquitous control of time in Amazon’s bookselling operation.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/anna-muenchrath-just-browsing-time-and-the-online-bookstore/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250214T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250214T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20241217T203430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250219T132725Z
UID:2022-1739541600-1739547000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Mark Thornton from Bookshop.org
DESCRIPTION:Mark Thornton\, Senior Partnerships Manager for the UK side of Bookshop.org will be talking to us about the way this online platform is trying to support physical indie bookshops\, and some of the connected bookish initiatives the B-Corp company has initiated.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/mark-thornton-from-bookshop-org/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250124T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250124T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212136
CREATED:20241218T140119Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250129T160226Z
UID:2110-1737727200-1737732600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Women Booksellers in the Twentieth Century
DESCRIPTION:Hidden Behind the Bookshelves \n\n\n\n\n\nJoin Prof Samantha Rayner to discuss her recently published Cambridge Element\, Women Booksellers in the Twentieth Century.  \n\n\n\nThe British women booksellers who built and ran successful businesses before\, during\, and after the Second World War have largely been forgotten. Samantha Rayner (UCL) will be speaking about her research for Women Booksellers of the Twentieth Century: Hidden Behind the Bookshelves\, (CUP\, 2025) which seeks to reclaim some of these histories from where they lie hidden or obscured in archives\, accounts of the book trade of the time\, and other sources. Though they were often called ‘formidable’\, this research reveals the astonishing impact of these women at local\, national\, and international levels. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWomen Booksellers of the Twentieth Century: Hidden Behind the Bookshelves is out on January 17th\, and can be downloaded for free here:  Women Booksellers in the Twentieth Century.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/women-booksellers-in-the-twentieth-century/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241213T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241213T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20241002T094507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241217T203049Z
UID:1995-1734098400-1734103800@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:BYOB: Bookshop Books
DESCRIPTION:We are looking forward to our second pre-holidays Bring Your Own Book event.  \n\n\n\nBring a favourite book (or two) that you’ve read (or want to read) featuring bookstores (fiction\, non-fiction\, all welcome!). This will be a relaxed and informal chat—perfect for getting into the holiday spirit with fellow book lovers! \n\n\n\nBooks Recommended and Discussed at BRN session on December 13th \n\n\n\nNon-Fiction\n\n\n\n\n· Jane Cholmeley\, A Bookshop of Their Own (2024)\n\n\n\n· Joseph Hone\, The Book Forger (2024)\n\n\n\n· Frederick Nesta\, George Gissing\, Grub Street\, and the Transformation of British Publishing (2020)\n\n\n\n· Frederick Nesta\, ed.\, Where the Victorians Got Their Reading: Cultural change in marketing\, distribution\, and individual access for ‘The Million’ in Britain\, North America\, and Australia (2024)\n\n\n\n· Michael Robb\, Shelf Life (forthcoming)\n\n\n\n· Arthur Edward Waite\, The Quest for Bloods: A Study of the Victorian Penny Dreadful (1997)\n\n\n\n\nFiction:\n\n\n\n\n· Jenny Colgan\, Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop (2024)\n\n\n\n· Carsten Henn\, The Door-to-Door Bookstore (2024)\n\n\n\n· Veronica Henry\, How to Find Love in a Bookshop (2024)\n\n\n\n· Ian Norrie\, Brought To Book (2003)\n\n\n\n· Cressida McLaughlin\, The Secret Christmas Bookshop (2024)\n\n\n\n· Leonardo Padura\, Havana Fever (2009)\n\n\n\n· Barbara Wilson\, Murder in the Collective (1994)
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/byob-bookshop-books/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241122T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241122T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20241022T205420Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T123712Z
UID:1944-1732284000-1732289400@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Radical Bookselling in the UK 1970-2000
DESCRIPTION:Radical Bookselling History Project: Dave Cope\, John Goodman\, Rick Seccombe\, Maggie Walker \n\n\n\n\n\nFrom the early 1970s\, there was a rapid expansion in the number of radical bookshops in the UK\, with at least one in many large (and some small) towns and cities. The number peaked in the 1980s and then declined: few have survived\, although some new ones have been established more recently. \n\n\n\nThe four of us who set up and run the Radical Bookselling History Project were all involved in that wave of radical bookselling and decided it was a history that needed to be recorded and told. \n\n\n\nWe contend that these shops significantly contributed to the growth of radical social and political movements in this period. Not only did they provide a crucial last link in the production\, distribution and consumption of radical literature and other artefacts in their multitude of forms – books\, pamphlets\, newspapers\, magazines\, posters\, badges\, records and even board games – but in pre-internet times they were also social spaces where activists met and held both public and private events. \n\n\n\nThe group held a conference in Manchester in October 2019 with 37 attendees who had worked in radical bookshops or distributors. Since then\, it has produced eight bi-annual Newsletters (PDF only) covering the earliest and most recent radical bookshops and extending even to radical publishing and distribution. Apart from our Newsletter\, which we think is world-first\, articles from our work have also appeared in other journals. \n\n\n\nIn addition to this writing and publishing\, we are building an oral history archive by interviewing other shop workers and encouraging them to write histories of their shops. We are also attempting the difficult task of tracking down surviving records of the shops and ensuring they are preserved in publicly accessible archives. \n\n\n\nWe have participated in public events such as the 2023 London Radical Book Fair and the Quiet Revolutions event at London’s Barbican Centre in 2022. \n\n\n\nMuch of our work is in collaboration with other organisations\, including On the Record\, The Alliance of Radical Booksellers\, The Working Class Movement Library and London’s Senate House Library (over the digitisation of the Radical Bookseller) and we look forward to a fruitful link with the Bookselling Research Network. \n\n\n\nThe Conference Report and Newsletters are available at: https://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co.uk/research.php
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/radical-bookselling-in-the-uk-1970-2000/
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241025T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241025T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240609T120705Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241031T111457Z
UID:1782-1729864800-1729870200@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:In Conversation with Jane Cholmeley
DESCRIPTION:In 1982\, in the midst of Thatcherite-Britain\, Jane Cholmeley\, Sue Butterworth and Jane Anger decided they needed to open a feminist bookshop in London. The result was the Silver Moon Bookshop. For seventeen years\, the Silver Moon survived commercially\, selling books by women or about feminist concerns\, and was able to serve as a safe space for women to participate in literary events and as a resource center to learn about local feminist initiatives. \n\n\n\nIn A Bookshop of One’s Own\, Jane Cholmeley describes what it was like to start a feminist bookshop in an industry dominated by men. With humor and honesty\, Jane tells the story of how a lesbian bookshop could thrive in Thatcher’s time when the government was legislating to restrict women’s rights\, and the lessons learned when trying to run a business when your real aim is to change the world.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/in-conversation-with-jane-cholmeley/
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240927T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240927T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240903T102001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241002T120326Z
UID:1960-1727445600-1727451000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Conversation with Evan Friss\, Author of The Bookshop
DESCRIPTION:Evan Friss’s The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore is “an affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life\, from department stores to indies\, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors\, and from chains to special-interest community destinations.” \n\n\n\n\n\nMatthew Chambers\, author of London and the Modernist Bookshop interviews Evan Friss\, followed by a Q&A with BRN members. \n\n\n\n\n\nBookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store\, shaping readers and writers\, and influencing our tastes\, thoughts\, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces\, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop\,we see the stakes: what has been\, and what might be lost. \n\n\n\nEvan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories\, archival collections\, municipal records\, diaries\, letters\, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand\, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company\, the Gotham Book Mart\, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear\, sidewalk sellers of used books\, Barnes & Noble\, Amazon Books\, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling\, often impassioned eccentrics\, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries—including\, for example\, a 3\,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field’s in 1944. \n\n\n\nEvan Friss is a professor of history at James Madison University and the author of two other books: The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s and On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City. He lives with his wife (a bookseller) and two children (occasional booksellers) in Harrisonburg\, Virginia.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/conversation-with-evan-friss-author-of-the-bookshop/
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240712T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240712T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T143533Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240715T123441Z
UID:1550-1720792800-1720798200@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Lanora Jennings on The Bookseller Oral History Project
DESCRIPTION:Lanora Jennings began this project in 2023 after a conversation at an academic conference with other researchers in the History of the Book field. Many noted how difficult it was to find primary sources from booksellers—retail operations rarely donate their papers to library archives. As a former bookseller\, Lanora thought that the best way to preserve the history of bookselling was through the voices of the booksellers themselves. \n\n\n\nBookstores are private entities performing a public service – a delicate balance maintained for over 150 years. Bookstores are places where literary and cultural endeavors entwine with commerce\, where the pursuit of economic profits must balance with the pursuit of social profit – because a bookstore is symbiotic with its community. This is the culture of bookselling. \n\n\n\nHistorically\, booksellers have used their spaces as sites of resistance against censorship and in support of the First Amendment. Bookstores have served as crucial networking hubs for challenging systemic societal issues—from Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights Movement to LGBT+ Equal Rights. These stores constructed safe spaces that brought people together\, stimulated progressive conversation\, and facilitated public protest.  \n\n\n\nThe Bookseller Oral History Project collects the historical experiences\, insights\, and perspectives of current and former booksellers. These interviews help preserve the culture of bookselling\, the work practices\, the decision-making processes\, historical actions\, and events\, and they preserve the institutional memory of bookselling in general. \n\n\n\nBooksellers rarely tell their own stories and their impact on their communities is often anonymous. This project aims to preserve their legacy. \n\n\n\nLanora Jennings began her career in the early 90s at Borders Book & Music. She has since worked for three prominent independent bookstores and owned her own store for a time. She is currently the field sales representative for Princeton University Press and Yale University Press. She is also an independent researcher working on a large project that chronicles the history of bookselling in America\, of which the Oral History Project is one part.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/jennings2024/
CATEGORIES:Symposium
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240524T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240524T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T204003Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T155228Z
UID:1574-1716559200-1716564600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Publishing Your Friends: Interwar Booksellers and Their Literary Networks
DESCRIPTION:Matthew Chambers\, Author of London and the Modernist Bookshop (CUP 2020)\, will be discussing his work on the role of literary communities and networks in the growth of the bookshop. The event will be recorded. \n\n\n\nA “bookseller” could once describe a retailer\, publisher\, printer\, or even binder\, and while these roles were more definitively disambiguated in the nineteenth century\, and certainly by the early twentieth century\, it remained common for a bookseller to publish periodicals\, books\, and especially sales catalogues of their stock. First\, I examine situations where booksellers published periodicals of modernist literature\, and approach them as book trade narratives\, doubling as elaborate advertisements for their businesses\, including the promotion of specific stock or lending library; e.g.\, Coterie (Henderson’s\, London)\, Poetry and Drama/The Chapbook (The Poetry Bookshop)\, and This Quarter (At the Sign of the Black Manikin\, Paris). Second\, I contextualize the famous examples of Sylvia Beach publishing James Joyce’s Ulysses and Edward Titus publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover within these same dynamics of promotion and reputation-building. Finally\, I explore additional examples of bookseller-publishers — Argus Books (Chicago)\, House of Books (New York)\, Stanley Rose (Los Angeles)\, and The Poetry Bookshop (London) — to consider how associated literary communities could be bound and sold\, selling the idea of the bookshop to a broader clientele. \n\n\n\nMatthew Chambers is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading. He has written on literary networks and publishing history in Modernism\, Periodicals\, and Cultural Poetics (Palgrave 2015) and in London and the Modernist Bookshop (Cambridge 2020). He is a member of the Bookselling Research Network\, and editor of the peer-reviewed journal The New Americanist (Edinburgh University Press).
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/chambers2024/
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240315T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240315T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T204432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240606T204433Z
UID:1576-1710511200-1710516600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Conversation with Mark Pearson of Libro.fm
DESCRIPTION:Mark Pearson is the CEO and co-founder of Libro.fm\, the digital audiobook platform for more than 2\,600 independent bookshops around the world. Before that he was the publisher at Pear Press. You can learn more about Libro.fm at https://libro.fm/story and through our annual social purpose reports https://libro.fm/reports.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/pearson2024/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240126T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240126T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T205343Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240606T205516Z
UID:1581-1706277600-1706283000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Bookselling in India: The 'Proper' and the 'Parallel'
DESCRIPTION:The presenters retain copyright for all images in the presentation except those listed below. Images may be re-used with permission of the copyright holders\, either Pritha Mukherjee or Kanupriya Dhingra. \n\n\n\nSlide 2: \n\n\n\nPhotograph of the book launch of India Book Market Report\, 2022. Image of Nielsen Bookscan India Book Market Report 2022 from “New report on the Indian book market” by IPA Editor\, International Publishers Association\, 4 Oct 2022\, online. https://internationalpublishers.org/new-report-on-the-indian-book-market/ \n\n\n\nSlides 3 and 4: \n\n\n\nNo. of publishers and Data about sales generated revenue from 2019-2022. “Total number of publishers for selected countries\, 2022” by Nielsen Bookdata\, November 2023\, in The Global Publishing Industry in 2022\, WIPO\, 2023. CC BY 4.0\, p. 26. \n\n\n\n“Total copies sold and sales revenue\, 2019-2022\,” by Nielsen Bookscan\, November 2023\, in “Nielsen Bookscan data\,” The Global Publishing Industry in 2022\, WIPO\, 2023. CC BY 4.0\, p. 20. \n\n\n\nSlide 6: \n\n\n\nSeagull Books photos. Seagull Books\, Kolkata\, from their website https://www.seagullbooks.org/the-seagull-books-store/ \n\n\n\nBook collection in Seagull books\, Kolkata\, from Seagull Books Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/theindiastory/p/C19vTs3y8ZG/ \n\n\n\nSlide 7: \n\n\n\nThe book launch of Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh (Harper Collins\, 2023) at Taj Bengal\, Kolkata https://www.instagram.com/p/CvWouqMrnDF/ \n\n\n\nSlide 10: \n\n\n\nPresidency University\, formerly known as Presidency College in Kolkata\, by Pinakpani/CC BY SA 4.0/wikimedia.org https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Presidency_University\,_formerly_known_as_Presidency_College_in_Kolkata_18.jpg \n\n\n\nSlide 12: \n\n\n\nPhotograph of Dasgupta and Company https://www.getbengal.com/details/das-gupta-and-company-the-oldest-book-shop-opens-a-free-library-getbengal-exclusive-interview \n\n\n\nSlide 15: \n\n\n\nPhoto of Abu Sorip Mullick\, or PT Kaku from “Booksellers of College Street: Between tiny  shops and greasy palms\, an untold story” by Ishita Sengupta\, Indian Express\, Kolkata\, 21 Dec 2018. Photo by Subham Dutta https://indianexpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/college-street_759.jpg
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/india2024/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231117T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231117T170000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T144312Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T155541Z
UID:1558-1700208000-1700240400@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Conversation with Re-Imagining Bookstores
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a session talking to Praveen Madan\, Peggy Holman\, and Amanda Hall about the Re-Imagining Bookstores movement\, and hear how it is advocating for bookstore support in the US. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe PowerPoint presentation from the event can be viewed here: Reimagining Bookstores. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImagine bookstores with new ways to engage their communities\, easy access to funding and new business models. Now imagine these bookstores having strategies to increase readership\, attract and retain high-caliber staff\, and provide meaningful careers paying meaningful wages. Through these bookstores our communities deepen literacy\, increase civic engagement\, and become stronger. \n\n\n\nIf you can imagine this scenario\, then it is time to embrace bookstores as a social cause. It is time to invest in bookstores so they have the means to strengthen and reinvent themselves. We seek to launch a movement to encourage a new wave of investments in bookstores similar to the investments that have historically been made in public libraries\, museums\, public radio and television\, and non-profit journalism and literacy organizations. [Re-Imagining Bookstores] \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPraveen Madan is obsessed with a strong and exciting future for bookstores. He has successfully led Kepler’s from the brink of closure to becoming one of the most innovative and thriving bookstores in the country. He has been informally advising bookstores and their community champions on new sustainable models. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nAmanda Hall is an Emeritus Advisor of Kepler’s Books & Magazines in Menlo Park\, CA.  A former small-business owner from Chicago\, she has channeled her retail knowledge and passion for books into Kepler’s new mission-based model that supports community engagement\, sustainability and staff welfare.  She has a BS in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Illinois. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPeggy Holman supports diverse groups in facing complex issues by turning presentation into conversation and passivity into participation. In The Change Handbook\, Holman & her co-authors profile 61 practices that engage people in creating their desired future. Her award-winning book Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity provides a roadmap for tackling complex challenges through stories\, principles\, and practices.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/conversation-with-re-imagining-bookstores/
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231027T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231027T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T204946Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240606T204947Z
UID:1578-1698415200-1698420600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-first Century
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a conversation with Josh Cook as he discusses his new book\, The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-first Century. \n\n\n\n\n\nJosh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, where he has worked since 2004. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction\, criticism\, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston\, Maine\, and lives in Somerville\, Massachusetts.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/cook2023/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20230526T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20230526T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240606T213838Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240606T214054Z
UID:1594-1685109600-1685115000@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Booksellers and Bookstores in Mainland China: the Age of Common Prosperity
DESCRIPTION:This talk considers the place and importance of books in Chinese society and in the cultural life of the people. Our research gives new insights into the relationship between books and what has become known as common prosperity in mainland China. This\, in turn\, feeds into wider societal concerns as it raises questions about the place and purpose of bookstores within the broader social culture. The growth and development of the Chinese book trade will be covered but whereas other studies base their findings on data taken from sales and finance our focus is on official government publications to give a fresh perspective on the apparent expansion and development of physical bookstores in mainland China. How does an examination of the government policy regarding booksellers\, as set out in the Five-Year Plans and the Laws of the People’s Republic of China\, help us to understand the importance of literacy and culture in the wider Chinese society? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSimon Mahony is Professor of Digital Humanities\, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai\, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Information Studies\, University College London\, and Visiting Professor at the Department of Information Management\, Peking University. His research focus is digital humanities with specific interests in education\, information studies\, equality\, diversity\, inclusion\, and the open agenda.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/mahonu2023/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20230331T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20230331T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240609T104904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T113708Z
UID:1761-1680271200-1680276600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:The Spaces of Bookselling with Kristen Highland
DESCRIPTION:Claiming Space: Sidewalk Bookselling and Belonging in New York City\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis talk explores sidewalk bookselling in New York City as a dynamic space and practice for redrawing cultural\, social\, and legal boundaries of belonging for the bookseller and their customer-readers. Sidewalk booksellers everywhere must erect their tables on the unstable and shifting space of the sidewalk as regulated and politicized public and social space. In New York City in the late 20th and early 21st centuries\, while sidewalk booksellers benefited from First Amendment exemptions for vending print material\, municipal space management strategies continued to circumscribe and contain street bookselling. Within this tension\, New York City’s sidewalk booksellers crafted geographies of belonging through diverse strategies of evading regulatory enforcement and cultivating intellectual and social exchange. Using the liminal and contested space of the sidewalk not only to make a living but also to create an inclusive space that incorporates the book and bookselling into the dynamics of urban social exchange\, New York City’s sidewalk booksellers assert the value of books on streets. \n\n\n\nFollowing Kristen’s talk\, she will be interviewed by Eben Muse about her recent CUP Element\, The Spaces of Bookselling\, followed by an open Q&A session with all attendees. \n\n\n\n Kristen Highland is Assistant Professor of English at American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Her research focuses on book history and the material dimensions of literary culture\, including the social and cultural life of American bookstores\, as well as digital humanities and mapping. She has recently published The Spaces of Bookselling: Stores\, Streets\, and Pages with the Cambridge University Press Elements in Publishing and Book Culture series.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/highland2023/
CATEGORIES:Symposium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/spaces-1.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Bookselling Research Network":MAILTO:e.muse@bangor.ac.uk
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20230224T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20230224T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240609T110837Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T110839Z
UID:1764-1677247200-1677252600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Feminist & Queer Bookshops – Community and Censure
DESCRIPTION:Join Dr Kathy Liddle and Dr Sarah Pyke as they present their work on feminist and queer bookstores as places of contested cultural interactions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKathy Liddle\n\n\n\nMy presentation today will focus on two strands of my research on North American feminist bookstores. First\, I will briefly discuss my published research on the role of feminist bookstores as what I term cultural interaction spaces. In this case\, intentionally curated selections and carefully cultivated atmospheres open opportunities for their patrons to interact\, observe\, and experiment with cultural materials. For my respondents – primarily lesbians – the spaces contributed to their identity development and to the development of group solidarity. Second\, I will briefly introduce a project underway to explore how feminist bookstore owners historically claimed a niche that drew in part on a capitalist market logic\, while simultaneously critiquing capitalism and endeavouring to embed their activities in a feminist logic. I show how these owners managed to blend these competing and often contradictory demands in pursuit of both profit and social change. \n\n\n\nDr. Kathy Liddle is Associate Professor\, in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She has developed and taught courses on introductory sociology\, culture\, media\, qualitative methods\, and the sociology of books\, as well as a graduate seminar on teaching sociology. She incorporates critical pedagogies into her teaching\, with a particular interest in supporting first-generation students and students from underrepresented communities. She is currently researching engagement and community-building in large enrollment courses. Her disciplinary research interests lie at the intersections of culture\, organizations\, gender\, and sexuality. Her work on feminist bookstores considers their organizational logics\, contexts of emergence and decline\, and contributions to fostering feminist thought in general\, and lesbian-feminist community in particular; this research has been published in Cultural Sociology and The Journal of Lesbian Studies. \n\n\n\nSarah Pyke\n\n\n\n“Gay Books Will Burn” proclaimed a headline in London freesheet Capital Gay in June 1984\, following the second of several raids by HM Customs and Excise on Gay’s the Word bookshop\, Bloomsbury. These raids\, known as ‘Operation Tiger’\, saw thousands of pounds’ worth of stock seized\, staff homes searched\, and the shop’s directors and manager charged with importing indecent or obscene titles. They faced an Old Bailey trial\, and possible imprisonment: the most high-profile obscenity case since that of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960. Yet ‘Operation Tiger’ – and the sustained\, and ultimately successful\, campaign mounted to ‘Defend Gay’s the Word’ in the face of this heavy-handed state intervention ­– remains a largely underexamined episode in queer history.  In this talk\, I place ‘Operation Tiger’ in a longer history of literary censorship and queer book use\, examining the relationship between the state\, the (queer) reader\, and the British bookselling and publishing industries.   \n\n\n\nDr Sarah Pyke is an early career academic working on queer histories of the book. Currently MHRA Postdoctoral Research Associate at Anglia Ruskin University\, Sarah has taught at the University of Roehampton and Anglia Ruskin University\, and has held fellowships at Freie Universität\, Berlin\, and the Institute of English Studies\, University of London. In 2023\, Sarah co-convened (with Malcolm Noble) a symposium and practice-based workshop\, Queer Bibliography: Tools\, Methods\, Practices\, Approaches\, and is teaching a London Rare Books School course on children’s books. She is the recipient of the SHARP 25th Anniversary Fellowship Award 2023\, which will fund further research into ‘Operation Tiger’\, the 1980s raids by HM Customs on Gay’s the Word bookshop in London. The Award will facilitate the creation of a new collection of oral histories of the raids and their aftermath.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/feminist-queer-bookshops-community-and-censure/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20220525T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20220525T153000
DTSTAMP:20260403T212137
CREATED:20240609T113310Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T113310Z
UID:1772-1653487200-1653492600@booksellingresearchnet.uk
SUMMARY:Reading\, Wanting and Broken Economics: with Dr Simon Frost
DESCRIPTION:An Interview with Dr Simon Frost\n\n\n\nDr Simon Frost\, Principal Academic in English at Bournemouth University and author of Reading\, Wanting\, and Broken Economics: A Twenty-First-Century Study of Readers and Bookshops in Southampton around 1900 (SUNY Press\, 2021) part of SUNY\, speaks with Dr Eben Muse (the Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book) about the cultural and economic place of bookstores\, the shifting relationship between economics and literature\, and books as material\, commodified\, and contested objects of economic exchange. \n\n\n\nCombining historical study\, theorization\, and experimental fiction\, this book takes commodity culture and book retail around 1900 as the prime example of a market of symbolic goods. With the port of Southampton\, England\, as his case study\, Simon R. Frost reveals how the city’s bookshops\, with their combinations of libraries\, haberdashery\, stationery\, and books\, sustained and were sustained by the dreams of ordinary readers\, and how together they created the values powering this market. The goods in this market were symbolic and were not “consumed” but read. Their readings were created between other readers and texts\, in happy disobedience to the neoliberal laws of the free market. Today such reader-created social markets comprise much of the world’s branded economies\, which is why Frost calls for a new understanding of both literary and market values.
URL:https://booksellingresearchnet.uk/event/frost2022/
CATEGORIES:Symposium
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