BTW News Briefs

Donald Hall Named Poet Laureate

On June 14, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the appointment of Donald Hall to be the Library's 14th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Hall will take up his duties in the fall, opening the Library's annual literary series in October with a reading of his work. He will also be a featured speaker at the Library of Congress National Book Festival poetry pavilion on Saturday, September 30, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Hall succeeds Ted Kooser as Poet Laureate and joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including most recently Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, and Rita Dove.

Houghton Mifflin, which publishes Donald Hall's work, will publish in 2007 the paperback edition of The Best Day The Worst Day, as well as his forthcoming collection of prose about New Hampshire, Eagle Pond. In April 2006, Houghton published White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946 - 2006, a volume of his essential life's work that includes a CD of Hall reading his work. All told, Hall has published 15 books of poetry, beginning with Exiles and Marriages in 1955.

Powell's Books Beaverton Location to Move and Expand

Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, one of the country's largest independent bookstores, announced recently that it is moving its Beaverton store to Cedar Hills Crossing, according to the Associated Press. The new Powell's store will be 32,500 square feet, about twice the size of the current Beaverton store. Other recently announced changes include that Michael Powell, the founder of Powell's Books will be turning his business over to his daughter Emily, "renewing the commitment to keep Powell's an independent, family-run endeavor," as reported by AP.

"Powell's is viewed as one of the pre-eminent bookshops in the world," Mitchell Kaplan, president of the American Booksellers Association, told AP. "No one has done it the way Powell's has done it." According to the article, the transition from father to daughter will take place over the next six years "with the help of family business consultants."

Emily Powell, who has worked for the store's online and used books divisions, told AP that she understands what she is getting into: running a store that has become, as AP described, a "bibliomecca of sorts."

Changing Hands Goes Shopping in Downtown Phoenix

 Last week, the Arizona Republic reported that the Tempe, Arizona's Changing Hands Bookstore is shopping downtown Phoenix for a second location to "take advantage of the development expected to come with light rail in central Phoenix." The bookstore is seeking a location that is within five minutes of the planned rail line, with affordable rent, and with room to house the Wildflower Bread Co. restaurant, Cindy Dach, the store's marketing and events coordinator told AR.

Explaining that she doesn't know when the proposed store would open, Dach told AR, "I would love to open next week because I live in Phoenix. But we just don't know where we could go. Lots of bookstores have opened too early.... Bookstores have a very small profit margin. There is a long history of bookstores going into transitional areas like Mill Avenue and helping to transform them and then leases skyrocketing and the bookstore being forced out. We want to make sure we don't do that."