A book club that explores and celebrates Indigenous books and authors

We started Indigenous and Lit with the intention of creating a community space where members can share their thoughts and ideas about contemporary Native American literature, as well as indigenous resources and information. Everyone is welcome to join. There is a monthly virtual book club meeting. In December we are discussing The Art Thieves by Andrea L. Rogers. You can sign up to join us here.

I have an Indigenous and Lit Book of the Month Subscription Box that includes the book pick and an Indigenous made gift for $20. You can sign up for it here.

Grab a glass of wine and your next read at the Boozy Book Fair at Bound by Fate in Schuylerville. Think all the nostalgia of a Scholastic Book Fair, but with beer, cocktails and delicious food!

A Big Gay Market is always such an awesome event. This time there will be 100 queer vendors set up and I will be bringing so many awesome queer books, stickers, pins, patches and more!

This national one-day party held the last Saturday in April celebrates independent bookstores across the country online and in-store. Through exclusive books and literary items, contests, cupcakes, and everything in between, it’s a party you don’t want to miss!

For Independent Bookstore Day @beldamebooks @ghostsbooks and I are celebrating the four bookstores of the @shirt_factory_gf with scavenger hunts, a raffle, giveaways and day of exclusives! Last year was so much fun, I am really excited about this year with Little Black Walnut Books in the mix!

This year Sweetside Records, Beldame Books, Little Black Walnut Books, Ghost Books and Black Walnut Books are teaming up to celebrate your local Glens Falls indies! Get a stamp when you Shop at Black Walnut Books, Little Black Walnut Books, Ghosts Books, Sweet Side Records or Beldame Books On Record Store Day (4/20), Independent Bookstore Day (4/27) and Free Comic Day (5/4) and get 10% off at the store of your choice when your card is full.

Join Beldame Books and Black Walnut Books for a discussion of Lost Souls. You can get a copy of the book at either bookstore!

Vampires . . . they ache, they love, they thirst for the forbidden. They are your friends and lovers, and your worst fears.

“A major new voice in horror fiction . . . an electric style and no shortage of nerve.”—Booklist

At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, look for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not; Ann, longing for love; and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.

Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds—Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah, whose eyes are as green as limes—are on their own lost journey, slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.

They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself. . . . 

“An important and original work . . . a gritty, highly literate blend of brutality and sentiment, hope and despair.”—Science Fiction Chronicle

A book club that explores and celebrates Indigenous books and authors

We started Indigenous and Lit with the intention of creating a community space where members can share their thoughts and ideas about contemporary Native American literature, as well as indigenous resources and information. Everyone is welcome to join. There is a monthly virtual book club meeting on Microsoft Teams, as well as a Facebook group that book club members are encouraged to use between meetings to keep the dialogue going.

In April we are reading and discussing Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. You can sign up to join us here.

I have an Indigenous and Lit Book of the Month Subscription Box that includes the book pick and an Indigenous made gift for $20. You can sign up for it here.

This year Sweetside Records, Beldame Books, Little Black Walnut Books, Ghost Books and Black Walnut Books are teaming up to celebrate your local Glens Falls indies! Get a stamp when you Shop at Black Walnut Books, Little Black Walnut Books, Ghosts Books, Sweet Side Records or Beldame Books On Record Store Day (4/20), Independent Bookstore Day (4/27) and Free Comic Day (5/4) and get 10% off at the store of your choice when your card is full.

On Record Store Day, Sweetside Records is also having their famous $1 record sale!!

Come make some pottery while talking about an awesome book club pick!

Paper and Clay meets quarterly to discuss a Black Walnut Books queer read pick. While we chat about the book, Eric from Adirondack Pottery walks us through making a functional ceramic art piece. The concept is having something fun and engaging to do with our hands while we chat about a shared read. We have a themed stamp for each book pick, which you can use to decorate your piece.

We have two days you can sign up for to discuss My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland, Saturday April 13th and Sunday April 14th at 6:30pm. We’ll be meeting at Adirondack Pottery, which is right down the hall from the bookstore at The Shirt Factory. If you would prefer to pay in cash you can stop into the bookshop! Get tickets here: https://www.blackwalnutbookshop.com/shop/p/paper-and-clay-myautobiographyofcarsonmcullers

Come make some pottery while talking about an awesome book club pick!

Paper and Clay meets quarterly to discuss a Black Walnut Books queer read pick. While we chat about the book, Eric from Adirondack Pottery walks us through making a functional ceramic art piece. The concept is having something fun and engaging to do with our hands while we chat about a shared read. We have a themed stamp for each book pick, which you can use to decorate your piece.

We have two days you can sign up for to discuss My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland, Saturday April 13th and Sunday April 14th at 6:30pm. We’ll be meeting at Adirondack Pottery, which is right down the hall from the bookstore at The Shirt Factory. If you would prefer to pay in cash you can stop into the bookshop! Get tickets here: https://www.blackwalnutbookshop.com/shop/p/paper-and-clay-myautobiographyofcarsonmcullers

The Second Saturday Flea Markets always have so many awesome vendors. Check out Little Black Walnut Books, my new children’s bookstore, for a selection of used books that we only have available at the flea markets!

Join Black Walnut Books and Lower Adirondack Pride for a Pride mixer at The Shirt Factory. There will be after hours shopping, queer vendors and non-profits, tasting from Springbrook Distillery, craft and coloring stations, snacks and cool queer folks to hang out with! Head over to Sweetside Records next door for the Hub Gallery house music after party from 7-10pm. Glens Falls Distilling will be open with craft cocktails.

Grab a glass of wine and your next read at the Boozy Book Fair at Adirondack Winery. Think all the nostalgia of a Scholastic Book Fair, but with cheese and wine.

The Paper & Clay Series is a quarterly book discussion hosted by Black Walnut Books at Adirondack Pottery. While we talk about the book pick, we make pottery!

In October we are going to be discussing Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor and making bowls, which you can stamp with a custom made stamp by Barn and Brick.

Spaces are limited and tickets are $25. You can purchase a ticket here or at the bookstore. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is available here.

A book club that explores and celebrates Indigenous books and authors

We started Indigenous and Lit with the intention of creating a community space where members can share their thoughts and ideas about contemporary Native American literature, as well as indigenous resources and information. Everyone is welcome to join. There is a monthly virtual book club meeting on Microsoft Teams, as well as a Facebook group that book club members are encouraged to use between meetings to keep the dialogue going.

In September we are going to be reading and discussing 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance by Gord Hill. You can sign up to join us here.

I have an Indigenous and Lit Book of the Month Subscription Box that includes the book pick and an Indigenous made gift for $20. You can sign up for it here.

On the Same Page is a collaborative book club hosted by the Wood Theater and Black Walnut Books. We meet at 6:30pm on the second Wednesday of each month at the Charles R. Wood Theater Cabaret Space (207 Glen Street). Each month’s book is 10% off for members of the book club or you may choose to forego the discount and make a donation to the Wood Theater and its mission! Just choose either donation or discount when adding books to your cart.

You can sign up to join us here. Such a Fun Age is available at the bookstore or online here.

The Second Saturday Flea has dozens of incredible vendors selling the most incredible vintage and antique finds you can imagine! Black Walnut Books will have a booth full of used and sale books, all of which are buy two get one free.

If you’d like to vend at the event, reach out to Jeremy at Barn and Brick here.

Our Queer Book Club virtual discussion of Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan. Sign up to get the video chat link here.

You can get the Queer Book Club pick in store, online here or you can sign up for the Queer Book Club monthly subscription box here.

The Queer Book Club meets the first Sunday of every other month online at 12:30pm and in person at 5pm.

Come hang out with other local queers at the Pride Mixer hosted by Lower Adirondack Pride and Black Walnut Books. From 6-8pm you can grab snacks and drinks in The Shirt Factory Gallery and shop down the hall at Black Walnut Books and Pastel Price, two queer owned shops. Black Walnut Books will also be welcoming Gifts of Nyx, a queer pop-up with lots of witchy goods.

Horror Book Club Discussion of The Vessel at The Shirt Factory. Sign up to join the discussion here.

The On the Same Page Book Club discussion of Milk Blood Heat at the Wood Theater Cabaret Space.

Romance Book Club Discussion of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris at The Shirt Factory Gallery. Sign up to join the discussion here.

Sci-Fi Book Club Discussion of Noor by Nnedi Okorafor at The Shirt Factory Gallery. Sign up to join the discussion here.

Black Walnut Books, The King’s English Bookshop and Gibson’s Bookstore are proud to be co-hosting a virtual event with Joyce Chopra, the author of Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond. She will be in conversation with Annie Berke, a Washington Post reporter and film editor at the Los Angeles Review.

To Join the Conversation Register Here

Order Lady Director

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About Lady Director:

An intimate account of a seminal filmmaker's development--as a creator and as a woman--both in art and in life.

"Joyce Chopra, what a gift of an extraordinary filmmaker you are, and one of our great pioneers who forged a very difficult path. And for female filmmakers everywhere, we are so blessed to have you as a storyteller to forge the way to make it easier for others."--Laura Dern, actor

Hailed by the New Yorker as "a crucial forebear of generations," award-winning director Joyce Chopra came of age in the 1950s, prior to the dawn of feminism, and long before the #MeToo movement. As a young woman, it seemed impossible that she might one day realize her dream of becoming a film director--she couldn't name a single woman in that role. But with her desire fueled by a stay in Paris during the heady beginnings of the French New Wave, she was determined to find a way.

Chopra got her start making documentary films with the legendary D.A. Pennebaker. From her ground-breaking autobiographical short, Joyce at 34 (which was acquired for NY MoMA'S permanent collection), to her rousingly successful first feature, Smooth Talk (winner of the Best Director and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1985), to a series of increasingly cruel moves by Hollywood producers unwilling to accept a woman in the director's role, Chopra's career trajectory was never easy or straightforward.

In this engaging, candid memoir, Chopra describes how she learned to navigate the deeply embedded sexism of the film industry, helping to pave the way for a generation of women filmmakers who would come after her. She shares stories of her bruising encounters with Harvey Weinstein and Sydney Pollack, her experience directing Diane Keaton, Treat Williams, and a host of other actors, as well as her deep friendships with Gene Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Laura Dern.

Along with the successes and failures of her career, she provides an intimate view of a woman's struggle to balance the responsibilities and rewards of motherhood and marriage with a steadfast commitment to personal creative achievement. During a career spanning six decades, Joyce Chopra has worked through monumental shifts in her craft and in the culture at large, and the span of her life story offers a view into the implacable momentum of the push for all womens' liberation.

"Joyce Chopra has written a devastatingly frank, candid, and unsparing memoir of her life as a film director--a 'woman director' in a field notoriously dominated by men. The reader is astonished on her behalf, at times infuriated, moved to laughter, and then to tears. Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television, and Beyond is one of its kind--highly recommended." --Joyce Carol Oates, author of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

About the Author:

Joyce Chopra has produced and directed a wide range of award-winning films, ranging from Smooth Talk, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the Sundance Film Festival, to the A&E thriller The Lady in Question with Gene Wilder. She has received American Film Festival Blue Ribbon and Cine Golden Eagle Awards for her numerous documentaries, including That Our Children Will Not Die, about primary health care in Nigeria, and the autobiographical Joyce at 34, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She lives in Charlottesville, VA.

Black Walnut Books presents, in partnership with The King’s English Bookshop, a virtual event with Francine Cunningham.

Register for the Event

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Francine Cunningham is an Indigenous writer, artist and educator. She currently spends her summer days writing on the prairies and her winter months teaching in the north. Her debut book of poems, On/Me, was nominated for the B.C. and Yukon Book Prize, an Indigenous Voices Award and the Vancouver Book Award. Her debut book of short stories, God Isn't Here Today, is a book of Indigenous speculative fiction and horror. Her first children's book, What If Bedtime Didn't Exist, is forthcoming with Annick Press (2024).

Francine will be discussing her collection of short stories with Hillary Smith, the founder of Black Walnut Books, a queer and Indigenously owned bookstore in Glens Falls, New York.

God Isn’t Here today is the January Indigenous and Lit Book Club Pick. We will be discussing the book at our meeting on January 18th at 9:30am PST, 12:30pm EST. You can sign up to attend the book club here.