A glorious and shining day here at Malvern HQ: the standards are on their way, our final book order has arrived, and… we have an opening date for you! That date—mark it in your calendars now, my dears—is Tuesday, October 8th. (We are naturally delighted to be sharing a birthday with Zog I of Albania, “the strangest monarch of the twentieth century.”)

Now, before you start rummaging through your closet for your tutu and top hat, please note that October 8th is not the Grand Opening. We will not be serving wine in paper cups and THERE WILL BE NO FREE CHEESE. Nope, this is the soft opening (lower case, see, for lack of emphasis), the splendid but low-key day on which we quietly open our doors and then stand nonchalantly behind the cash register, hoping no one has any complicated transactions for us. We want to get fully into the swing of bookstore life (selling books; evicting pigeons; shushing benevolently) before we stage an elaborate grandest-of-the-grand opening shindig. So on October 8th at 11am, we welcome you to stop by Malvern Books, say hello, and pick up a few wonderful books and journals (like this and this and this). We might get a little teary as we hand you your purchases; that’s just all the, um, new-book fumes.

Also worth noting: now that our handsome stage is all spick-and-span and this errant loo is no longer lounging in the middle of the store, we’re ready to start filling our Events Calendar with all manner of exciting literary festivities (we already have a couple of great readings lined up, and we’ll fill you in on all the details soon). If you’d like to give a reading, or if there’s a local writer you’d love to hear strut their poetic stuff, please send us an email. And do tell all your writerly friends about us… the more Malvernians, the merrier!