Join us in our newly renovated reading room!
Help us in welcoming author W.M. Akers for the release of his new novel To Kill a Cook! Joining Akers in conversation is Jon McGoran, known for his cyberpunk thriller, The Price of Everything.
Lori Litchman returns to BBM! Just in time for the holidays, as well as those chilly trips to all the wonderful sights of the state, Litchman will be selling and signing her newest travel guide: Pennsylvania Day Trips.
Join us in welcoming debut children’s author Antonielle Whitmore as she shares the powerful story of her son’s experiences with sickle cell disease. Featured in news outlets across Philadelphia, Whitmore hopes Kaaliph the Brave will resonate with children and adults facing this experience.
Please join us for a night of games, puzzles, and more as we welcome New York Times’ senior Puzzles Editor, Joel Fagliano. Joel will feature some of his favorite recent games and puzzles, together in a gorgeous hardcover volume. Come for the fun, stay for the insight!
Define your Era and join us in welcoming renowned poet and educator Stephanie Burt as she releases her newest book, Taylor’s Version, an in-depth look at the lyrics and music of pop superstar Taylor Swift.
We’re teaming up with the Talking Writing Podcast to bring three titanic voices in non-fiction to Big Blue Marble! Joining author Tom McAllister is Athena Dixon and Juliet Diaz, all three vital voices to the creative and unique field of non-fiction, offering various perspectives to learn from. All three authors will be reading and discussing their newest works, as well as singing their respective books. Please join us in welcoming these brilliant minds!
Spooky season is upon us! Why not celebrate with a little witchery? Join us in welcoming poet Chelsea Fanning as she launches her new poetry collection, To Love a Fierceness So Bright. Joining Fanning are local poets Kailey Tedesco (Motherdevil), Kathrn Bratt-Pfotenhauer (Bad Animal), and Amy-Small McKinney (& You Think it Ends). The group will also be leading a spell workshop with attendents! This is definitely not one to miss.
Who among us would not wish to have a superhuman memory. But for Thomas, whose brain injury caused him to lose the ability to remember his life, the need was critical. His solution? To develop a digital memory app. “ME.mory” now provides him and an increasing number of users with rapidly-searchable, artificial memories.
Closed Thursday October 2, 2025 for Yom Kippur. Shana tova!
Join us in welcoming author Natalie Pompilio to celebrate the releas of her new book of guided tours throughout historical Philadelphia. She will be offering a presentation and signing copies of the book.
The Mt. Airy Village Fair is a volunteer community-led fair for our neighbors by our neighbors. This year the 15th Annual Mt. Airy Village Fair will take place on Sunday, September 21, 2025 from 11am-4pm (rain or shine!) on the 500 & 600 blocks of Carpenter Lane and the 6800 & 6900 blocks of Greene Street; spanning the intersection of Carpenter Lane and Greene Street in West Mt Airy.
Big Blue Marble is closed Tuesday September 23, 2025 for Rosh Hashana
Join us in excitedly welcoming author and poet Melissa Lozada-Oliva in celebration of her newest story collection, Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive!
Join us in welcoming renowned author and spiritual-activist Eileen Flanagan as she celebrates the release of her newest book, Common Ground, a hopeful look toward the future of climate justice, as well as a searing endictement of those in power attempting to bring the earth to the brink of destruction.
Signings & Readings with Emily Hunsberger, translator of Wonderland: Crónicas of Belonging in América by Melanie Márquez Adams, and middle grade author Cordelia Jensen, with her new book Lilac and the Switchback
Join us for a night of poetry, as we welcome authors Courtney LeBlanc and Miriam Kramer. The writers will be reading and discussing LeBlanc’s newest collection, Her Dark Everything, from Riot in Your Throat Press. Miriam will also read from he collection, Built By Storms, from Write Bloody Publishing. This will definitely be one not to miss!
A civil action to protest recent SCOTUS ruling on queer kids books in schools
Nationwide 24 hour read aloud of queer kids books (in person and online 8/2-8/3)
Read Out Loud at Big Blue Marble during regular store hours or sign up to read during the national livestream
Please join us in welcoming poet Liza Flum, as we help her celebrate the recent release of her newest poetry collection, Hover. The poems within span genre, form, and beauty as Flum navigates sexuality, non-monogamous queer love, and fertility with an astounding grace and humor.
Join us in welcoming poet Caroline M. Mar, who will be reading and signing her newest poetry collection, Water Guest, releasing through University of Wisconsin Press. Joining Mar in conversation are fellow writers Adrienne Perry, Somayeh Shams, and Eleanor Wilner. Read more about Water Guest below!
The conversation will be held @7PM in the upstairs Reading Room here at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.
Lake Tahoe: home of the Washoe Tribe, a shining blue jewel that crowns the Sierra Nevada, and a beloved American vacation destination made accessible by the transcontinental railroad built largely by Chinese laborers. This gorgeous location forms the site from which Caroline M. Mar’s stunning collection, Water Guest, seeks to reconcile issues of identity, ownership, and place. Mar’s attempts to locate herself geographically, genealogically, and etymologically echo throughout the poems. A direct ancestor was a railroad laborer; is that why her love for the land feels older than herself? Or is it the siren call of the deep, clear water?
Raising questions of inheritance, the conundrum of land ownership, and the violence of history, Mar gives voice to the lost writing of Chinese laborers and silent communion to those of us still here—immigrant and Indigenous, settler and resister. This engaging collection finds acceptance, if not resolution, through the questions themselves.
Caroline M. Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Special Education and the chapbook Dream of the Lake. A high school health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, she is getting to know her new home of Oakland. A member of Rabble Collective, she has been granted residencies at Storyknife, Ragdale, and Hedgebrook, among others.
Adrienne Perry grew up in Wyoming, earned her MFA from Warren Wilson College, and her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. From 2014-2016 she served as the Editor of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. A Hedgebrook alumna, Adrienne is also a Kimbilio Fellow and a member of the Rabble Collective. Adrienne's writing has received support from Friends of Writers, the Elizabeth George Foundation, Inprint, and the University of Houston. In 2020, Adrienne received the inaugural Elizabeth Alexander Prize in Creative Writing from Meridians journal. Adrienne’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. She is an Assistant Professor of literature and creative writing at at Villanova University.
Somayeh Shams is an Iranian-born writer and Engineer with an MFA degree in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She has been a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook and a recipient of a merit scholarship at the New York Summer Writers Institute. An excerpt of the novel she is currently finishing has appeared in Waxwing. She is the prose editor and a regular contributor for Nimrod International Journal.
Eleanor Wilner was born in Cleveland on July 29, 1937, and holds an interdepartmental PhD from Johns Hopkins University.
Wilner has published nine collections of poetry, including Before Our Eyes: New and Selected Poems, 1975–2017 (Princeton University Press, 2019); Tourist in Hell (University of Chicago Press, 2010); The Girl with Bees in Her Hair (Copper Canyon Press, 2004); Reversing the Spell: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1998); Otherwise (University of Chicago Press, 1993); and Sarah’s Choice (University of Chicago Press, 1989).
Avitus B. Carle and Alison Lubar read from their award-winning flash fiction and poetry collections.
In Milkweed and Honey Cake: A Memoir in Ritual Moments, Wendy A. Horwitz shares stories about celebration, loss, change, and the best way to open a pomegranate.
Homicide sleuth Inspector Macmurphy tries to solve six murder cases in this collection of short stories, one of which takes place in Philadelphia.
Local author Dylan Mitchell joins us to present his first book, The Dove Who Became Human, a poetry collection illustrating a narrative of transformation and growth.
Pushcart prize-nominated poet, liturgist, and bookseller Elliott batTzedek presents her translation of a poem cycle by Israeli lesbian feminist poet Shez.
Closed for Inventory January 2, 3, 4
Have a Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day!
Closing at 3 PM for New Year’s Eve
Menika Dirkson joins us to discuss the history of race, policing, and community activism in Philadelphia from the 1930s through the 1970s, and the non-carceral solutions put into action by everyday people.
