Co-op celebrates Independent Bookstore Day with event, special author appearances by Jennifer Haigh and Neema Avashia

The founding worker-owners of Rozzie Bound Co-op, a new bookstore coming to Roslindale later this year, aren’t waiting until their first day in the brick-and mortar to serve the community. In addition to working on the process of incorporating as a multi-stakeholder cooperative, Ana Crowley, Judy McClure, Kim Patch, Roy Karp, and Talia Whyte are already setting up shop via popups through the spring and summer, starting with an event on Independent Bookstore Day this week. 

Here’s what they sent over:

Rozzie Bound Co-op is very excited to host an Independent Bookstore Day celebration at the Roslindale Substation (4228 Washington Street) on April 30, 11am – 6pm. This will be the bookstore’s first in-person event since February 2020.  Customers will have hundreds of books to choose from, including giftable books for  Mother’s Day. There will also be a free book giveaway! Customers who sign up for our  email list will get a chance to win gift-wrapped advanced reader copies (ARCs) of a  highly-anticipated book coming out later this year.  

The pop-up will feature book signings by local authors Jennifer Haigh, author of Mercy  Street, and Neema Avashia, author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and  Indian in a Mountain Place. Copies of both books will be available for purchase at the  event.  

Jennifer Haigh’s new critically acclaimed novel, Mercy Street is set at an embattled women’s health  clinic during Boston’s Snowpocalypse, the unforgettable winter of 2015. Her earlier  books include the novels Heat and Light, Faith, The Condition, Baker Towers and Mrs.  Kimble, and the short-story collection News From Heaven. The New York Times says  that Jennifer Haigh is “an expert natural storyteller with a keen sense of her characters’  humanity.”  

Neema Avashia was born and raised in southern West Virginia, the child of Indian  immigrants who moved to Appalachia for work in the chemical industry. She has lived in  Jamaica Plain for the last 19 years and has worked as a teacher in the Boston Public  Schools for just as long. Her essays have appeared in publications such as Catapult, The Bitter Southerner, and Lithub. Another Appalachia is Avashia’s first book. Another  Appalachia “commands your attention from the first page to the last word,” said New  York Times best-selling author Morgan Jerkins.  

Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) is a one-day national party that takes place at independent bookstores across the country on the last Saturday in April. Rozzie Bound will be popping up every Saturday (except May 21) after April 30, 11am – 6pm at the Substation.

Roslindale Substation, 4228 Washington St, Roslindale. 4.30, 11am – 6pm. rozziebound.com