The Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl Returns for Its Fourth Year With Nearly 60 Shops and Special Programming

The Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl Returns for Its Fourth Year With Nearly 60 Shops and Special Programming

The Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl will return for its fourth year on Saturday, August 22, with nearly 60 independent bookshops across the region participating. The event is structured similarly to a First Friday gallery crawl, but centered on bookstores. Rather than following a set route, participants are encouraged to visit as many shops as they can over the course of the day, taking advantage of author appearances, giveaways and deals.

This year’s participating stores include:

50 Watts Books, A Novel Idea, American Grammar, Another Corner, Beaucoup Hoodoo, Big Blue Marble, Bindlestiff, Binding Agents, The Book Trader, Booked, Brave New Worlds, The Broken Spine, Bristol Books + Bindery, Capricorn Books, Celia Bookshop, Chapter Two Books, Children’s Book World, Cupid’s Bookshop, Doylestown Bookshop, The DuBois Robeson People’s Center, PAT @ Giovanni’s Room, Fingerprint Bookshop, Forage Books, Harriett’s Bookshop, Headhouse Books, Healing While Black, H&H Books, Hilltop Books, House of Our Own Books, Huxley and Hiro, Iffy Books, The Last Word, Julia de Burgos Bookshop, Main Point Books, Mavey Books, Molly’s Books and Records, Mostly Books, Multiverse, Narberth Bookstore, Neighborhood Books, The North Philly Book Tower, Partners & Son, Reads & Company, Read Recycle Repeat, Runehammer, Thrillerdelphia, Uncle Bobbie’s, Wellington Square Books, Whales and Windmills, and Wooden Shoe Books.

Several new bookstores are participating for the first time this year. Fingerprint Bookshop and Midsummer Books recently opened in Fishtown inside a shared retail space called Our Mutual Friend. Little Yenta Books, a used bookshop on Passyunk, and Whales & Windmills, a new used bookshop in Rittenhouse, also opened this year. Thrillerdelphia, which opened last November, is joining the crawl for the first time, and Chapter Two, which opened in Wynnewood last year, is also participating. Organizers also noted that Capricorn Books and Cupid’s Bookshop have each relocated to larger retail spaces.

Sponsors and Author Appearances

This year’s sponsoring publishers include Quarto, Abrams, Blackstone and Berkley, each of which is providing giveaways for multiple stores.

Participating authors include Brittney Morris, Jennifer Herrera, Thomas Elrod, Samantha Paige Rosen, Jo Piazza, Farah Naz Rishi, Quinn Jamison, E.M. Eliot, Laura Genn, Dr. Amalia Daché, Virginia Adams O’Connell, Donna Jo Napoli, Sam Sidiqi, Linny Mack, Christy Schillig, Timothy Janovsky, Kathryn Coin, Warren Basla, CJ Spataro, Linda Romanowski, Kyle Michelle, Betty Corrello, Marc Avery, Nick Gregorio, Nicole Wolverton, Janice Nissen, Jenni Walsh, Victoria Schade, Xio Axelrod, and Lee Kelly, along with cookbook author Peggy Casella. Poets Jiordan Castle, Laynie Brown and Holly Ian Winter are also scheduled to appear, as are artists Meghan Turbitt and Abe Lampbert. Organizers noted that additional authors and events are expected to be announced as the date approaches.

Additional Programming

A number of additional events are planned in connection with the crawl:

• Main Point Books in Wayne will host its annual afterparty, which will include a free celebration alongside a ticketed book foiling workshop led by author Jo Piazza.
• A poetry and small press fair will be held outside Molly’s Books and Records in the Italian Market, featuring a number of local poets and independent presses throughout the afternoon.
• Philadelphia Stories will run a tour bus stopping at five participating bookstores.
• A limited-edition Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl passport, illustrated by local artist Gus Andrews, will be available at participating stores.
• Industry-focused events will be held at American Grammar and coworking space Indy Hall, featuring literary agents, editors and authors, aimed at giving aspiring writers insight into the publishing industry.
• A Book A Day will host a related event the same day at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
• Doylestown Bookshop will host a separate three-day event called Dark Ink, featuring genre-fiction authors, panels and signings.