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Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is an annual event that celebrates the spirit and value of independent bookstores. On Saturday, April 25th independent bookstores from coast to coast participate with a vibrant array of celebrations. Bookmark owner, Dan MacDonald, says ‘Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is one of our favourite events of the year - the spirit of the book community is on full display, the support shown for our small business, and the celebration of books, authors, illustrators and readers - these are the things that make this a special day.”
Indie booksellers are experts in their field, passionate about facilitating connections between reader and writer, and creating genuine, lasting relationships with their customers. The shops function as pillars of the community – inclusive spaces for conversation and hubs for events promoting enlightenment and entertainment. Local booksellers also play a vital role in the Canadian literary ecosystem. They are conduits of discovery, champions of Canadian creators at all career stages, and introducing Canadian readers to a diverse range of voices from across Canada’s rich cultural landscape.
This year’s celebration at Bookmark includes –
• A chance to win a $1,000, or one of four $200 Bookmark gift certificates. Please visit indiebookstores.ca/CIBD for the full contest rules.
• Bookmark’s popular ‘Spin to Win’ contest will be back with chances to win extra points, swag and product, or donations to our local food bank.
• Lots of book swag and exclusive merchandise while quantities last.
• Blind date with a book.
• Double reward points on all qualifying purchases for our Bookmark Reader Rewards Program. If you haven’t signed up for our Reader Rewards Program, please ask us, it’s FREE.
• Live music and more…
Bookmark’s 2026 Bookstore Ambassador, local poet and author and former publisher, Laurie Brinklow, when talking about why she loves independent bookstores, says, “You open the front door of the new Bookmark and you’re no longer on Kent Street, no longer in Charlottetown, no longer even on Prince Edward Island. Tiptoeing between those magnificent new shelves laden with magic rectangular boxes… you take one in your hand, crack it open, a smell sparks your nose… you read the first line and you’re suddenly transported through space and time.
For me, bookstores are the original teleporter and TARDIS rolled into one.
As a child, books took me everywhere. They were the constant in my life: my friends, my teachers, my mind-blowers… “Oh, that Laurie, she’s always got her nose in a book!” My mom says she put books in my crib, and I, of course, devoured them – literally. Maybe the words I ingested then are the ones that come back out now, on the page, in a different order…
There’s nothing more joyous than seeing your book in the Bookmark’s window for the first time, or on a shelf lined up alongside other books (face out, of course!), or in a little magic two-dimensional rectangle along with all the other magic promises in the Holiday Catalogue. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you realize you’re part of a world full of writers.
And where but an independent bookstore will you find stacks of POETRY! Where but an independent bookstore will you find rows and rows of books about HERE!, and published HERE! Bookstores give us back to ourselves; they are our little culture mirrors that shine like stars in celebration.
Where but an independent bookstore will you find so much creativity and beauty, inspiration and joy, a place to take you outside yourself? Where but an independent bookstore will you find the people who hold the keys to unlocking the teleporter? Where but an independent bookstore will you find the power to transform: a person, a community, an Island, a world?”
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Event Venue
111 Kent Street, Unit 110, Charlottetown, PE, Canada, Prince Edward Island C1A 1N3
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
