Sherman Alexie + Kelley McRae "Upstairs at the Square" October 27, 2009

NEW YORK, NY – October 1 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the next edition of its hit series, “Upstairs at the Square” – recommended by The New Yorker, New York, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Flavorpill, WWD Scoop, Time Out London, Vice and more – at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). On Tuesday, October 27th, at 7 p.m., Sherman Alexie, whose new book is War Dances (Grove/Atlantic, October 2009), and Kelley McRae, whose new album is Highrises in Brooklyn (sonaBLAST! Records), will discuss and perform their work in conversation with cultural journalist Katherine Lanpher. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Fresh off his National Book Award win, Sherman Alexie (www.shermanalexie.com) delivers a heartbreaking, hilarious collection of stories that explores the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. In a bicoastal journey through the consequences of simple and monumental life choices, Alexie introduces us to personal worlds as they transform beyond return. Brazen and wise, War Dances is Alexie at the height of his powers. His latest book of poetry, Face (Hanging Loose Press, March 2009), was praised by Publishers Weekly for the “Brash, confrontational verse and prose [that] have made Alexie the most famous, and the most controversial, Native American writer of his generation.” An award-winning author, poet, and filmmaker, beloved for such works as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Smoke Signals and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Alexie has been named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists and lauded by The New York Times Book Review as “one of the major lyric voices of our time.”

Kelley McRae (www.kelleymcrae.com) made her debut in 2006 with Never Be, which received four stars in Paste, and her performance on WNYC's “Soundcheck” was named one of the year's best. The album also led her to reunite with an old friend, director Lear Debessonet, who called on her for Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards at P.S. 122, reviewed glowingly by the New York Times. These successes, along with the stand-out track "Johnny Cash," put her on the map — at least the downtown music and theater map. With her newest release, Highrises in Brooklyn, produced by Brian Deck (Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter, Counting Crows), she deserves more longitude. This is an album that should span time zones. Not because Kelley arrived in Brooklyn by way of Baltimore; Dallas; and Starkville, Mississippi, but because she, like everyone, makes a daily commute through joy, despair, gratitude, doubt, hope, fear, shame, and the rest. In an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle, acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders was asked when he was last moved to tears by art and replied, "The last songs that made me cry were by a young New York singer, Kelley McRae.” Kelley's music has also been featured in the Sundance film, Children of Invention, and the hit television show, Army Wives.

Katherine Lanpher (www.katherinelanpher.com) is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, host of TIME Financial Toolkit on Time.com, contributing editor to More magazine, and substitute host for “The Takeaway,” a collaboration of WNYC, PRI, the BBC and the New York Times. Springboard Press published her essay collection, Leap Days.

Please save the date for the next edition of “Upstairs at the Square”: Patti Smith on January 19.

“Upstairs at the Square,” which celebrated three years in June, has featured authors such as Nick Cave, William Gibson, Tom Wolfe, David Lynch, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Anna Gavalda, Kurt Andersen, Min Jin Lee and musicians including Regina Spektor, Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Japanther, Badly Drawn Boy, Au Revoir Simone, Aimee Mann and more. An archive of recordings is available on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/upstairs), where “Upstairs at the Square” is enjoyed by listeners around the world.

Official Website: http://www.bn.com/upstairs