Indie Bookstores vs America's Literacy Crisis.

A discussion like never before. Bookstore owners from all over New Orleans will come together to discuss the state of reading in America.

The national headlines this year have been hard to ignore. A multi-university Education Scorecard released in May found that eighth-grade reading performance has slipped back to levels not seen since 1990, and this fall's international PISA results showed reading scores falling sharply over the past decade. Behind those numbers are kids and adults in our own neighborhoods, and independent bookstores are so often the very first place families turn for support and inspiration.

That's the conversation we'd love to have together:

• What does the national reading headlines actually mean for New Orleans?
• How do indie bookstores already support each other, from shared events and author visits to school partnerships and book drives?
• Where we can go further, side by side, to put books in more hands

Between Uptown, the Garden District, the Marigny, and beyond, each of the bookstores in New Orleans reaches different readers in different corners of the city, and that's exactly why our community is so much stronger when we work together.