Third Place Books to host Melbourne ‘Bookseller in Residence’

Ellen Cregan, Melbourne-based bookseller
will be in residence at Third Place Books in March

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park will host Melbourne bookseller, Ellen Cregan, for a week-long residency March 13-20, 2020. Her visit is supported in part by Seattle City of Literature.

The Melbourne Booksellers in Residence program is an initiative of Melbourne City of Literature.

Melbourne City of Literature director David Ryding started the program after a visit to a sister City of Literature bookshop (Prairie Lights in Iowa City, Iowa) that made him wonder how booksellers across the world could create connections and exchange ideas.

Applicants were assessed by an independent selection committee of representatives from sister Cities of Literature. Cregan is one of four Melbourne-based booksellers participating in the program. Booksellers will also be in residence at the Book Hive (Norwich, England), Lighthouse Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) and the Bookcase (Nottingham, England).

Cregan currently works in marketing and events for Readings, a Melbourne-based bookshop chain. 

Additionally, she is a writer and editor. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Voiceworks, Kill Your Darlings, The Suburban Review and Feminartsy. Cregan’s residency will include Third Place Books’ flagship location in Lake Forest Park, as well as visits to their locations in Seattle’s Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods.

Third Place Books is the deliberate and intentional creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, their Ravenna store opened in 2002, and in the Seward Park neighborhood in 2016. Third Place Books is a general interest bookstore with over 200,000 new, used, and bargain books in Lake Forest Park and over 40,000 books in Ravenna.

Founded in 2013 to manage Seattle’s bid to join UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, Seattle City of Literature is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our city’s literary community by connecting it to the world. This includes local programming and relationship building with other Cities of Literature as well as Creative Cities around the world.

In 2008, Melbourne joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network when it was designated the first and only City of Literature in Australia, and the second in the world. The Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office is tasked with serving the City of Literature, and supports the work and networks that exist, nurtures and develops new opportunities and networks, makes connections across industry and audiences and champions all things Melbourne as a City of Literature.

For more information about the Melbourne Bookseller Exchange please contact Stesha Brandon (executive@seattlecityoflit.org) or Sam Kaas (skaas@thirdplacebooks.com).