Outposts

Autumn 2019

Cafe Ohlone, Berkeley

By Ella Parsons

Photo: Ella Parsons Nestled in a tiny courtyard shared by the Berkeley Press Bookstore and the adjacent classical music store, Cafe Ohlone is a thriving cultural center for the Ohlone tribe. In spit...
Summer 2019

The Literary Storehouses of Coimbra, Portugal

By Grant Schatzman

Photo: Serge LAROCHE/Flickr TWO HOURS BY TRAIN from the capital in Lisbon and midway to Porto in the country’s northern quarter, Coimbra is home to Portugal’s oldest university. The...
Spring 2019

Jinbōchō

By Reid Bartholomew

PHOTO: Antonio Tajuelo NESTLED IN TŌKYŌ'S Chiyoda Ward is Jinbōchō, a quieter side of the city that stands in sharp contrast with the frenetic energy of central Tōk...
Winter 2019

Jawahar Kala Kendra

By Ella Parsons

The arts center is serene compared to the streets outside. Photo: Jaipur Beat Digital Magazine JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA (JKK), जवाहर कला केन्द्र, Jaipur’s art center, could be considered a...
November 2018

Groundwork Books

By Tyler McElroy

Photo: Tyler McElroy WHEN THINKING OF San Diego, most people imagine palm trees, sand, and ocean breeze. Over thirty-five million tourists visit the city each year, and most come for...
September 2018

La Noche de las Librerías: Buenos Aires

By Erin Donnelly

Photos: Erin Donnelly While Buenos Aires is primarily known for Maradona, the tango, and some of the tastiest steak in the world, for me it will always be the city of books. The booming literary scen...
July 2018

Kashkul: Contemporary Art, Cultural Preservation, Research, and Translation in Kurdistan

By Pshtewan Kamal, Shene Mohammed

Photo: Alana Marie Levinson LaBrosse In the Kurdish language the word kashkul describes a Sufi’s traditional begging bowl. Over time, the term evolved to also describe a commonplace book, a...
May 2018

The Mysterious Bookshop

By Tyler McElroy

photo: Tyler McElroy A bustling center of business and culture, New York City is host to one of the most vibrant literary scenes in America. Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs are often featured...
March 2018

The Wild Rumpus Bookstore

By Linda Stack-Nelson

photo: linda stack-nelson I did not have an “outdoorsy” childhood. Homeschooled and incredibly bookish, I experienced trees through paper and water through ink. Because of this, I couldn’t help but f...
January 2018

The Mosaic Theater Company

By Hannah Grillot

Scene from "Wrestling Jerusalem" Photo: Teddy Wolff Exiting out of Union Station—a slightly less historic but nevertheless still important landmark in Washington, DC—one comes to the landing of a sh...
November 2017

Ler Devagar

By Grant Schatzman

Photos courtesy of Ler Devagar Lisbon is a city with no shortage of literary monuments. Look at downtown Chiado, where Livraria Bertrand continues its 285-year-old bookselling business uninterrupted,...
September 2017

Congregating at Commonplace

By Reid Bartholomew

In midtown Oklahoma City, independent businesses are thriving off of the community’s desire for a new approach to urban living. Emerging from that environment, Commonplace Books sits in a brick build...
May 2017

American Writers Museum Launches in Chicago

By Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Photo courtesy of the American Writers Museum The new American Writers Museum, opening this May in Chicago, celebrates American literature in a lively, interactive space that honors America’s writers...
March 2017

Politics & Prose

By Bridey Heing

Washington, DC, is a city that holds culture and the arts close to its heart. When the stereotypes and outside-the-beltway misconceptions about what this city is—political infighting, opportunistic s...
January 2017

Stockholm Literature . . . and Art

By Anna Paterson

Skeppsholmen Island in central Stockholm, home of Moderna Museet where the Stockholm Literature festival takes place. Photo: Routes North/www.routesnorth.com As literary events go, Stockholm Literatu...
November 2016

The Brooklyn Book Festival

By Laura Hernandez

Photos by Laura Hernandez. Celebrating its eleventh year, the Brooklyn Book Festival hosts writers from around the world and highlights the literary landscape in a two-day book extravaganza. The festi...
September 2016

Illiterati Café and Bookstore

By David Joshua Jennings

In the foothills of the Himalayas, a few hundred meters below the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamshala, on a quiet, winding, monsoon-eroded road next to a motorcycle garage, sits the bookstore/café Illi...
May 2016

Entering Apartheid’s History in Johannesburg

By Laura Hernandez

Photos by Laura Hernandez Located in bustling Johannesburg, South Africa, the Apartheid Museum traces segregation along with the diversity of its people. As they enter, visitors experience a split en...
March 2016

Malvern Books: Reading Broadly in Austin

By Jen Rickard Blair

The “Keep Austin Weird” adage has grown to mean something unique among many Austinites—it’s long been a celebration of creative resistance, a clash between economic growth and eccentricity. In recent...
January 2016

Outpost: The Port Eliot Festival

By Violet Wilson

Photo courtesy of the Port Eliot Festival Deep in the Cornish countryside, in the tiny village of St Germans, sits the house and estate of Port Eliot. A plot of land Napoleon himself claimed to be th...