Barnes & Noble’s Acclaimed “Upstairs at the Square” Series Continues with Blake Nelson and Care Bears on Fire March 11

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, The Wall Street Journal, New York, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Flavorpill, Daily Candy, Time Out London, Vice and more – at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). Guests discuss and perform their work in conversation with cultural journalist Katherine Lanpher. Admission is free.

On Thursday, March 11th, at 7 p.m.: Blake Nelson, author of Girl, Paranoid Park, Destroy All Cars, Rock Star Superstar and more, and Care Bears on Fire (Get Over It!, S-Curve Records).

ARTIST BIOS:

Blake Nelson (www.blakenelsonbooks.com) is the author of ten novels for teens and adults that have been published in fourteen countries. His first novel, Girl, was excerpted in Sassy magazine and became an instant cult classic, which Simon Pulse recently reissued in a new edition. His novel Paranoid Park, which won Italy’s Grinzane Prize, was made into a film by Gus Van Sant that won a special prize at Cannes and was named Cahiers du cinéma’s #1 film of the year. His new novel, Destroy All Cars, has been praised as “smart and entertaining” by The New York Times Book Review and for its “nuanced look at why it's hard to change anything in the world but also why it's a noble cause worth striving for,” by The Los Angeles Times. He grew up in Portland and now lives in Los Angeles.

Featured in The New York Times this month for their “furiously energetic playing” and “similar verve” to The Runaways (the band that gave the world Joan Jett, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning starring in the forthcoming Floria Sigismondi-helmed biopic), in Teen Vogue for “tearing it up” –– and, as The OC Register needlessly notes, “way cooler than most of us were at that age” –– Sophie (lead vocals, guitarist), Izzy (drummer) and Jena (bass) are Care Bears On Fire (www.myspace.com/carebearsonfire). The Brooklyn band are regulars on the New York and festival scene (SXSW, Lollapalooza), not to mention “Late Show with David Letterman,” winning over jaded hipsters of all ages with songs that capture the experience of being a kid with attitude and humor. “Everybody Else,” the single off Get Over It!, which followed their debut, I Stole Your Animal, delivers their message with a blast of ferocious energy. Sophie even appeared in Converse’s “Three Chords” commercial, playing an acoustic version of “Everybody Else.” Care Bears on Fire are punk meets garage, straight out of a Brooklyn basement. As the chorus goes: “Nanananananana, I don’t want to be like everybody else!”

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.

“Upstairs at the Square,” which celebrated three years last June, has paired authors such as David Lynch, Elizabeth Gilbert, William Gibson, Tom Wolfe, Kurt Andersen, Nikki Giovanni, Sherman Alexie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Min Jin Lee with musicians such as Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Vampire Weekend, Sondre Lerche, Au Revoir Simone, Aimee Mann, Craig Finn, Regina Spektor, Japanther, Patti Smith, Nick Cave 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 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 775 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 636 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and over 250,000 faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is the nation’s top bookseller brand for the sixth year in a row, as determined by a combination of the brand’s performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent; the top bookseller in quality for the second year in a row and the number two retailer in trust, 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, which also features hundreds of thousands of titles in its eBookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks). Customers can buy and read eBooks on a wide range of platforms, including the iPhone and iPod touch, BlackBerry® smartphones, as well as most Windows® and Mac® laptops or full-sized desktop computers.

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

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