Managers at Austin's BookPeople bookstore and Brazos Bookstore in Houston are preparing to launch Texas Independent Bookstore Day. Slated for August 5, the event is being modeled on the nationwide Independent Bookstore Day, the annual day celebrating independent bookstores community engagement programs (which is April 29 this year).
Though in its preliminary stages, TIBD is intended as a statewide event. “Participating stores come from all over the state—not only from Austin and Houston, but also from Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, New Braunfels, Alpine, Weslaco, Brenham, South Padre Island, and more,” said Benjamin Rybeck, manager of Brazos Bookstore and press liaison for the event.
Rybeck added: “The Lone Star State is full of dedicated readers and home to a vibrant literary scene, and so this celebration is designed to create a platform where Texas booklovers can coalesce statewide.”
Texas is increasingly becoming more relevant to the national bookselling scene, and several independent bookstores are slated to open in the state this summer. Among the notable openings will be Interabang Books in Dallas, which is under the leadership of former Brazos Bookstore manager Jeremy Ellis. A second branch of Deep Vellum Books is also expected to open in Grapevine, Tex.
For Rybeck, if TIBD is a hit, the hope is that the rest of the county will see that “there’s more to Texas than you might expect.”
