SIBA Bookstores Embrace Friends of Fantasy Day
Did you know? January 31st is the first annual Friends of Fantasy Day. Created by Rachel Randolph, a bookseller with Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee (and incidentally a past recipient of SIBA's McCoy Grant for bookseller-writers!), and taken up by indie booksellers and fantasy readers nationwide, its mission is to connect readers, authors, and bookstores through their mutual love of the fantastical and fantasy-adjacent. Fantasy lovers are encouraged to visit participating bookstores "...for author signings, fantasy displays, book blind-dates, and general fun and whimsy."
"Fantasy" is one of the most popular genres among the booksellers who write reviews for The Southern Bookseller Review, which has to date published almost 300 reviews in the fantasy category.
Southern bookstores celebrating Friends of Fantasy Day (to date):
- The Snail on the Wall (Huntsville, AL)
- Portkey Books (Safety Harbor, FL)
- Bookends: Literature & Libations (Tampa, FL)
- Citrus and Sage Bookshop (Brooksville, FL)
- The Book Tavern (Augusta, GA)
- Gottwals Books (Macon, GA)
- Morally Gray Bookstore (Newnan, GA)
- Horton's Books (Carrollton, GA)
- Read It Again Bookstore (Suwanee, GA)
- Fables Forest (Georgetown, KY)
- Plaid Elephant Books (Danville, KY)
- Cavalier House Books (Denham Springs & Lafayette, LA)
- The Roasted Bookery (Wilmington, NC)
- The Preppy Peacock (Hertford, NC)
- The Storybook Shoppe (Bluffton, SC)
- The Book and Cover, LLC (Chattanooga, TN)
- Crying Cat Books and Records (Murfreesboro, TN)
- Harper's Books (Lebanon, TN)
- Bound Booksellers (Franklin, TN)
- Novelette (Nashville, TN)
- The StoryBook Cottage (Greenbriar, TN)
- Parnassus Books (Nashville, TN)
- Eleanor's Norfolk (Norfolk, VA)
There is still time for bookstores to sign up to participate. Visit the Friends of Fantasy Day website.