Saturday marks Canadian Independent Bookstore Day nationwide

Your friendly neighbourhood bookstore isn’t just a small business, it’s a centre of community engagement and discourse. That is the idea behind Canadian Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday. The nationwide effort supports and celebrates the role booksellers play in our communities.

It’s like Record Store Day, but with books! Saturday is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. Listen for clips of my interview with Hilary Atleo of Vancouver’s @IronDogBooks this afternoon on @CityNewsVan. #CIBD2023 #CityNewsBookshelf pic.twitter.com/vcxirFWAYx

— John Ackermann (@jackermann) April 28, 2023

“Independent Bookstore Day, and [Record Store Day] which just passed, are all moments to say, ‘These [businesses] matter, these places matter,'” said Hilary Atleo, manager and co-owner of Vancouver’s Iron Dog Books.

“It’s an opportunity to say people should notice their independent bookstores and if you want them to exist, you should come see us. We would love to see you, and we would love to talk books with you and be part of that conversation.”

Iron Dog Books is completely Indigenous-owned. Atleo says she and her husband started the business, first as a book truck and then as an actual brick-and-mortar store, because they didn’t see their culture or perspective reflected in existing bookstores.

“He’s Nuu-Chah-Nulth from the West Coast of Vancouver Island and I’m Anishinaabe from Curve Lake, Ontario,” she explained.

“We would spend a lot of time in bookshops and we often felt like we weren’t seeing the books we were interested in. They were hard to get. So, it was really important to us to open our own place where we could see ourselves reflected on the shelves and also just get access to some of the things we knew were being published.”

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She says Vancouver booksellers are teaming up to make the most of Canadian Independent Bookstore Day.

“There are 15 [stores participating] this year. It’s the most we’ve ever had and we’re so thrilled,” she explained. “We’ve put together a map so that folks can hit as many of the bookshops as they want.”

Every book sold on April 29 is eligible for a $1,000 gift card from the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association.