Upstairs at the Square: ARMISTEAD MAUPIN + ELK CITY June 14, 2007

NEW YORK, NY (June 1, 2007) – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today announced the next "Upstairs at the Square," held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). On Thursday, June 14, at 7pm, Tales of the City creator and bestselling author Armistead Maupin, whose new novel is Michael Tolliver Lives (HarperCollins, June 2007), and much buzzed-about downtown indie band Elk City, whose new album is New Believers (Friendly Fire Recordings, 2007), discuss and perform their work. Journalist Katherine Lanpher hosts the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Armistead Maupin (www.armisteadmaupin.com) is the critically acclaimed bestselling author whose works include the six-books series collectively titled "Tales of the City," (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, and Sure of You), Maybe the Moon, The Night Listener, and now, Michael Tolliver Lives. The first portions of the "Tales of the City" series were initially published as a newspaper serial and later reworked into a series of books, which became global bestsellers. The first three books in the wildly popular series have also been converted into three television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney, the first airing on PBS and the latter two on Showtime. The Night Listener became a feature film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette. Maupin lives in San Francisco with his husband, Christopher Turner.

Singer/songwriter Renée LoBue and drummer Ray Ketchem team up with influential ex-Luna guitarist Sean Eden and ex-Lovelies bassist Barbara Endes on New Believers, Elk City's (www.elkcity.net) finest work to date. LoBue and Ketchem first paired as Melting Hopefuls, a pioneering 1990's band that scored two "Single of the Week" picks in England's Melody Maker and a SPIN Top Ten Single. In 1998, they became Elk City and recorded two critically acclaimed albums: 2000's status (Hidden Agenda) and 2002's Hold Tight the Ropes (WARM/Touch & Go). The band criss-crossed the US and Europe endlessly to promote their releases, and performed for more than 450,000 listeners on French radio.

Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press recently published her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move.

With this month's show, "Upstairs at the Square" celebrates a year of truly innovative cultural programming, pairing authors such as Paul Auster, David Lynch, Anna Gavalda, Dana Spiotta, Elizabeth Gilbert, Gary Shteyngart with musicians including Badly Drawn Boy, Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Sondre Lerche, Au Revoir Simone, Rosie Thomas, Aidan Moffat and more. A full archive of audio and video recordings of every program is available at www.bn.com/upstairs.


About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 793 bookstores in 50 states. For the fifth year in a row, the company is the nation's top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com ( www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites and the number one online bookseller for quality among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.


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