Via Ron Silliman and Silliman's blog, comes Tammy Joyner's piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

In the bookselling business, it's the best of times and the worst of times. Giants like Barnes & Noble and Borders are doing well. It's not the same story for little guys like Chapter 11 Bookstores. Next month, the independent Atlanta chain will close two of its three remaining stores to focus on its business-to-business service and Internet sales.

"Those seem to be the areas that are growing," said Patricia Marr, manager of the Chapter 11 chain. "Businesses don't want to have to walk into a bookstore. They want to place a call and have the books delivered." Trying to stay independent these days has all the shadings of a Dickens novel.

The Gneiss Poetry Series presents "The Art & Poetry of Stan Rice" on Tuesday, April 10 at 7pm in the UCR Palm Desert Theater, 75-080 Frank Sinatra Drive.

Rice (1942-2002) was a painter and author of eight collections of poetry, including “Red to the Rind”, “Radiance of Pigs”, and “False Prophet.” He is survived by his wife, the novelist Anne Rice, and their son, the novelist Christopher Rice.

Stan Rice was associated for many years with San Francisco State University where he was professor of English, chairman of the Creative Writing program and assistant director of the Poetry Center.

Contributing to the program through readings and commentary will be Andy Brumer, Rick Bursky and family and friends.

Representatives from literary reviews and publishers from across North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina turned out March 8 and 9 for UNCG’s first Southeastern Literary Magazine and Small Press Festival writes Michelle Hines, Univsrity Relations for UNCG: 

Jim Clark, MFA Writing Program director, and Terry Kennedy, the program’s assistant director, organized the event. They plan to continue the festival, funded in part by a $2,500 N.C. Arts Council grant, growing it gradually over the next five years.

“There’s a fall festival in Atlanta,” Clark said as he watched budding writers browse a plethora of publications in the Elliott Center’s Maple Room. “What I’d like to see is this turn into the Greensboro Festival of the Book.”

Chicagoist met up with the self-proclaimed “Chicago’s sexiest librarians” at Lincoln Park’s Bourgeois Pig coffeehouse, a fitting literary-themed spot for word nerds to wax poetic about cataloging, the Dewey Decimal System — and Google stalking.

Probably due in part to cabin fever as a result of our insanely cold winters, Chicago can be pretty hardcore about its literature. Small-press publishing enthusiasts Nell Taylor and Emerson Dameron decided to channel their love of local lit into a public service by co-founding the Chicago Underground Library last year.

Wade Nkrumah of the Oregonian reports that Viola M. Gale, a poet and owner of Prescott Street Press, has died at age 90. A funeral will be 11 a.m. tomorrow in Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes. Remembrances to the Clatskanie Library District.

Gale, known as Vi, founded the publishing company in 1974. She was active in the business until her health began failing about three years ago. She died Saturday, March 31, 2007.

In 1989, she was honored with the C.E.S. Wood Retrospective Award by the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts, now Literary Arts Inc.

John Laursen, owner of Press-22 Book Design and Production in Southeast Portland, said Gale approached her work as "a labor of love."

"She cared about poetry, and she cared about the writers she was publishing," Laursen said. "She really wanted to bring their work to a wider audience."

Viola Hokenson was born Feb. 24, 1917, in Dalarna, Sweden. At age 6, she moved with her family to the Clatskanie area. Gale graduated from Clatskanie High School and took college extension courses.