Hitting the Road with Wave Books

You may remember those halcyon days of the Wave Poetry Bus Tour. If you need a refresher, we chronicled the tour day-by-day, minute-by-minute here. Now, Wave is on the road again—this time with Alan Brandsted acting as poetry/Wave ambassador visiting independent bookstores across the country. Brandsted is a book seller at Elliott Bay Book Company, an indie store in Seattle, and a marketing assistant for Wave Books. More from Wave:

In fall 2013 [Brandsted] decided to embark upon the requisite mid-20-something road trip across the U.S. Instead of just heading out, though, he came to Wave with a map and a plan: if Wave would supply him with a box of galleys and gas money, he would pack his tent and turn his cross-country trip into a mission to spread the good word of poetry to independent bookstores. And so the Wave DIY indie-bookstore tour began.

All too familiar with the tiresome traveling salesman pitch, Brandsted wants his visits to be a pleasant experience for both parties. He’s not actually “selling” books. When Brandsted enters a bookstore, he’s personally curious about every aspect of their shop and their community—what’s the community like, are they reading poetry, why are there antlers on the wall—so instead of offering a well-worn pitch and a catalog, he asks for a tour and a conversation.

“Wave is lucky to have such an enthusiastic and handsome chap to introduce booksellers to Wave titles,” says Robert Baumann of Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee. “Alan has the aesthetic chops to start a fashion movement known as bookseller chic, and smarts to back it up.”

Brandsted has visited 35 bookstores so far, and has spent the last 8 months traveling down the West coast, and through the Southwest and Texas. This spring, he is making his way through the Midwest then will head to the Southeast and up the East coast. Up next on the Wave indie-bookstore tour: St. Louis, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, and Fayetteville. Tour chronicles can be found on Instagram and Tumblr with the hashtag #wavepoetrytour.

Keep up with Brandsted's travels and see if he's coming to an indie bookstore near you!