Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 11:00am
INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS: HOLDING ON IN THE AGE OF KINDLE
Mississippi’s most renowned independent book sellers will gather at Ole Miss on March
20 to discuss how they have managed to thrive in an era in which small stores are regularly
gobbled up by the big chains.
Richard Howorth, the owner of Square Books in Oxford, John Evans of Lemuria in
Jackson, Jamie Kornegay of TurnRow Book Company in Greenwood and Emily Gatlin of Gum
Tree Book Store in Tupelo make up a panel that will discuss the state of the book selling trade
and the ongoing national war between the big box stores and the independents.
They will share their survival secrets at 11 a.m. at the Overby Center for Southern
Journalism and Politics.
Howorth, a former Oxford mayor and a frequent host to some of the nation’s best-known
authors, operates three book stores within a short stroll of each other on the town square. His Off-
Square Books annex hosts the town’s popular Thacker Mountain Radio show.
Evans started Lemuria in a small converted apartment in 1975 saw it grow into a much
larger store just off I-55 in Jackson. It has since expanded, with LemuriaBooks.com occupying
an adjacent warehouse-like space where authors can speak and customers sip beer.
Before opening TurnRow and its popular sandwich shop in downtown Greenwood,
Kornegay got his start writing for the Oxford Eagle. He got the book bug, started writing fiction
and took a job at Square Books. He also found time to produce Thacker Mountain Radio.
Emily Gatlin’s frequent book reviews and her “bookseller Barbie” blogs on the book
trade have become well known to aficionados. Her book events at Gum Tree have helped the
store, housed in Tupelo’s legendary Reed’s department store, become a regular on the author
circuit.
Overby Fellow Bill Rose will moderate the panel, which is free and open to the public.
Mississippi’s most renowned independent book sellers will gather at Ole Miss on March
20 to discuss how they have managed to thrive in an era in which small stores are regularly
gobbled up by the big chains.
Richard Howorth, the owner of Square Books in Oxford, John Evans of Lemuria in
Jackson, Jamie Kornegay of TurnRow Book Company in Greenwood and Emily Gatlin of Gum
Tree Book Store in Tupelo make up a panel that will discuss the state of the book selling trade
and the ongoing national war between the big box stores and the independents.
They will share their survival secrets at 11 a.m. at the Overby Center for Southern
Journalism and Politics.
Howorth, a former Oxford mayor and a frequent host to some of the nation’s best-known
authors, operates three book stores within a short stroll of each other on the town square. His Off-
Square Books annex hosts the town’s popular Thacker Mountain Radio show.
Evans started Lemuria in a small converted apartment in 1975 saw it grow into a much
larger store just off I-55 in Jackson. It has since expanded, with LemuriaBooks.com occupying
an adjacent warehouse-like space where authors can speak and customers sip beer.
Before opening TurnRow and its popular sandwich shop in downtown Greenwood,
Kornegay got his start writing for the Oxford Eagle. He got the book bug, started writing fiction
and took a job at Square Books. He also found time to produce Thacker Mountain Radio.
Emily Gatlin’s frequent book reviews and her “bookseller Barbie” blogs on the book
trade have become well known to aficionados. Her book events at Gum Tree have helped the
store, housed in Tupelo’s legendary Reed’s department store, become a regular on the author
circuit.
Overby Fellow Bill Rose will moderate the panel, which is free and open to the public.
For more information please visit www.overbycenter.org
Event address:
160 Courthouse Sq
38655-3914 Oxford
us