It's a double-header Saturday on Rare Book Cafe!

We’re delighted and honored to welcome Haslam’s Books to the Rare Book Cafe’s table. Florida’s largest new and used bookstore on Central Avenue in St Petersburg, Haslam’s has been a mecca for readers and writers since 1933. They are also pioneers in broadcast book talk, having had an eight-year run on radio with a weekly book review show and hosting The Wonderful World of Books on public TV’s WEDU for fifteen years. They have kindly lent us Wofford College Professor Deno Trakas, who is appearing for a book signing at Haslam’s Sunday at 2:00.

Trakas was born in Charlotte, and has family in the St Petersburg. He was educated at Eckerd College (BA); University of Tulsa (MA); and the University of South Carolina Ph.D. He's the Laura and Winston Hoy Professor of American Literature, director of the writing center at Wofford College in Spartanburg SC. Trakas is a widely-published poet and short story writer; a past SC Fellow in Fiction (1992) and a four-time recipient of the SC Fiction Prize.

Other works include a memoir of the Greek-American community of Upstate SC and his new first novel, Messenger From Mystery (Story River Books, 2017), a thriller set in the Iranian revolution of 1979. He has two more novels in the works. His course offerings range from sci-fi to Scott Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age to Southern fiction, post-Civil War and contemporary.

Brooklyn’s Honey & Wax Booksellers believes books are to be used. Their website explains the store, “offers great works of literature: rare first printings, beautiful and curious editions, copies with surprising stories of their own. We handle unique books, striking books, books with no downloadable equivalent.

“Our name is inspired by a nineteenth-century epigram: “use books as bees use flowers." We like to see books, like flowers, in the field: on nightstands, in backpacks, given to friends, shared with children, passed across the bar at last call. And we like to hear readers buzzing: “You have to read this." “I marked a page." “This made me think of you."

“Don't be afraid to open our books, don't lock them away for safekeeping. Use books as bees use flowers, and pollinate the world.”

Co-founder Heather O’Donnell  read English at Columbia while working library, bookstore and publisher’s reader jobs before moving to Yale for her PhD and work in the Beinecke Rare Books Library. She was a Princeton Society of Fellows member 2001-04, then worked at Bauman’s Rare Books for seven years. She opened Honey & Wax in 2011. O’Donnell is a member of the Grolier Club, ABAA and IOBA; and is a graduate of the Colorado Book School. Honey & Wax is another broadcasting innovator; partner Rebecca Romney has been the rare books expert for the History Channel’s Pawn Stars program since 2011.

The two recently announced a new annual prize for young women book collectors, and we're looking forward to learning more about the program.

Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It’s broadcast every Saturday from 2.30 to 3.30 pm EDT and features interviews, panel discussion and stuff you can learn about book collecting whether you are a regular at Sotheby’s or just someone who likes books.

The program airs live on Rare Book Cafe’s Facebook page. Shows are archived on YouTube and can also be viewed on the Facebook pages, and the blog after their first run.

Hosted by Miami book dealer, appraiser and WDBFRadio.com’s Bucks on the Bookshelf radio show creator Steven Eisenstein, the program features a revolving set of cohosts and regular guests including Thorne Donnelley of Liberty Book Store in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Lindsay Thompson of Charlotte’s Henry Bemis Books; miniature books expert Edie Eisenstein; ephemera expert Kara Accettola; and program creator/producer T. Allan Smith.

Rare Book Cafe program encourages viewer participation via its interactive features and video: if you've got an interesting book, join the panel and show it to us! If you’d like to ask the team a question or join us in the virtually live studio audience for the program, write us at rarebookcafe@gmail.com.