Upstairs at the Square: MIN JIN LEE + MIKE DOUGHTY April 10, 2008

NEW YORK, NY – March 25, 2008 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the next event in its popular series, “Upstairs at the Square,” held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). On Thursday, April 10th, at 7pm, author Min Jin Lee makes her appearance to discuss the new paperback edition of her debut novel, Free Food For Millionaires (Grand Central Publishing, April 2008). Appearing with her is singer-songwriter Mike Doughty, whose new album is Golden Delicious (ATO Records, February 2008). They will discuss and perform their work in conversation with journalist Katherine Lanpher, who hosts the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Min Jin Lee (www.minjinlee.com) was awarded the Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the Veech Prize for Fiction at Yale College where she studied History. She attended Georgetown Law School and worked as a lawyer for several years prior to writing full time. She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts, and her essays have appeared in The Times (London), Vogue and in the anthologies To Be Real and Breeder. Her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires is a No. 1 Book Sense Pick, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Wall Street Journal Juggle Book Club selection, and a national bestseller; it was a Top 10 Novels of the Year for The Times (London), NPR’s Fresh Air and USA Today. She lives in Tokyo with her husband and son where she is working on her second novel, Pachinko.

Mike Doughty's new album, Golden Delicious, is a loose-limbed, freewheeling set that brings all the aspects of his singular muse together in one smart, humorous and eloquent package. Like his work with Soul Coughing, Golden Delicious is melodically rich and rhythmically dense, with Doughty's vocals giving the lyrics a syncopated pulse that adds another level of complexity to the overall sound. Most of the songs were cut live. Mike Doughty's father was in the U.S. Army and Doughty was schooled on Army bases in the United States and Europe. By the time he entered the New School in New York City to study poetry, he'd developed his syncopated guitar style. Doughty credits Sekou Sundiata's poetry class and the work of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks with sparking his interest in the craft of songwriting. His band, Soul Coughing, was signed to Warnes Bros. Records at the time he released his first solo album in 1996; the label rejected Skittish, but it leaked and became a hit on Napster. After the band split in 2000, Doughty rented a car and started playing acoustic shows. Being on the road sent his creativity into overdrive. After he ran into Dave Matthews, a big Soul Coughing fan, at Bonnaroo, Matthews signed Doughty to his ATO label and released Haughty Melodic, Doughty's first solo album with a band backing him, which reached the top 5 at AAA radio on the strength of the hit single "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well." And through it all, Doughty has maintained a widely read blog (www.mikedoughty.com/blog) chronicling his unique shows, creative endeavors, international travels and more.

Katherine Lanpher (www.katherinelanpher.com) is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press published her first book, Leap Days.

“Upstairs at the Square,” which will celebrate its two-year anniversary this June, has paired authors such as Tom Wolfe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Lynch, Anna Gavalda, and Armistead Maupin with musicians including The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Sondre Lerche, Au Revoir Simone, Camphor and more. A full archive of recordings of all previous events is available on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/upstairs), where “Upstairs at the Square” is enjoyed by listeners around the world in addition to its live audiences.


About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 798 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top bookseller brand, as determined by a brand’s overall strength based on its combination of familiarity, quality and purchase intent, 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.

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

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