Bloglander

This Saturday local bookstores across the country are celebrating the fourth annual National Independent Bookstore Day. More than 500 independent bookstores in 48 states are set to have in-store events, activities and exclusive merchandise in conjunction with the celebration.

Auntie's Bookstore will join in the festivities with events featuring local authors and businesses. The store will also offer 20 percent off all used books along with exclusive merchandise created by major publishers and authors. Past exclusives include signed books, artwork and T-shirts.

Here’s a list of the day's events at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane:

11 am - 1 pm: Local artist Katey Mandley will display an 8-foot easel in store for an impromptu drawing and art session. The 2003 Gonzaga graduate will be joined by the Spokane Art School. The easel is set to be on display until 4 pm.

11 am - 12:30 pm: Writers of the Future first place award winner Jeremy TeGrotenhuis will be signing copies of Writers of the Future Vol. 34. People who visit his table will also get the chance to win tickets to this year's Lilac City Comicon and draw pictures with the writer.

11 am - 3 pm: Students from Lewis and Clark High School will be selling books for a wish list as a part of a fundraiser to support their school’s library. If you donate a book to them from their list you’ll receive the educators 15 percent discount that day.

11 am - 1 pm: Northwest Yo-Yo Champion Chris Cook will be performing yo-yo tricks to onlookers. Cook has spent two summers as a professional yo-yo demonstrator for yo-yo manufacture Yomega Corporation. His books Damn Good Cookie and The View from the Broken Mic will be on available for purchase in store.

11:30 am - 1:30 pm: Joseph Haeger will be hosting “Let’s Write a Story Together” where people are invited to finish short stories and poems Haeger has started on postcards.

12:30 pm - 1 pm: Spokane Civic Theatre will be performing selections from their upcoming show Hello, Dolly!, set to run May 8-June 10.

1 - 3 pm: Author Trent Reedy will be in store promoting his upcoming book Gamer Army!, equipped with a Nintendo.

1 - 3 pm: Author of When Colors Meet Darcy Lee Saxton will be displaying artwork and creating on-the-spot contour-line portrait drawings for people.

1:30 - 2:30 pm: Chelsea Martin will be displaying and signing copies of her book Caca Dolce: Essays from a Lowbrow Life. She is also the author of The Really Funny Thing about Apathy.

1:30 - 2:30 pm: Co-authors of the crime-noir series Kiss the Messenger Devin Devine and Tony Russell will be in store to talk poetry with people and take poem requests for their typewriter.

2:30 - 4 pm: Spokane authors Sam Ligon and Kate Lebo will be displaying and signing copies of their book Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze. Ligon also wrote Among the Dead and Dreaming and Safe in Heaven Dead, Wonderland and Drift and Swerve. Lebo is the author of Pie School: Lessons in Fruit, Flour, and Butter.

3 pm - 4 pm: Pineground founder Annica Eagle will have a selection of pun challenges to pose to her. In 2017 she receive third place in the O. Henry Museum Pun-Off World Championship.

National Independent Bookseller Day • Sat, April 28 from 11 am - 4 pm • Auntie's Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave • auntiesbooks.com • 838-0206