Duncan Sheik + Dennis Lehane "Upstairs at the Square" August 16, 2006

NEW YORK, NY (August 2, 2006) – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the next event in its new series, “Upstairs at the Square,” held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square).
On Wednesday, August 16th, at 7:00PM, Dennis Lehane, author of the newly released Coronado, a collection of five short stories and a play, and singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, whose latest album is White Limousine, read and perform their work. Journalist Katherine Lanpher will again host the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Bestselling author Dennis Lehane (dennislehanebooks.com) has written seven novels: A Drink Before the War; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River and Shutter Island. Mystic River was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award, won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, and the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction. Clint Eastwood directed the film adaptation of Mystic River, which won two Oscars, for Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins). Before becoming a full-time writer, Mr. Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar.

Though many know him for his gold records, Grammy nomination and yearlong ride on the pop charts with “Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik's (duncansheik.com) mainstream success may belie the depth of his work. Sheik has scored for film and for the stage (most recently, Spring Awakening, which The New York Times praised as “bold, inviting and funny”), produced ambitious records for himself and his peers, and captured audiences around the world. Sheik's new record, White Limousine, represents the latest turn from an artist who has always avoided predictability, despite commercial triumphs and critical acclaim. The album fuses the epic balladry and tuneful love songs for which Sheik is known with visceral comments on war, media and consumer culture.

Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press will publish her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move, this October.

The next event in “Upstairs at the Square” will be held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble on Tuesday, September 19 at 7PM.

Audio downloads of all three summer events, including the series premiere on June 21 (Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, whose new album is Ready) and the event on July 19 (Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart and pop sensation Sondre Lerche, whose latest album is Duper Sessions) will be available on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/writers).

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 797 bookstores in 50 states. For the fifth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top retail brand for quality, 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 and the number one online bookseller for quality among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

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Official Website: http://www.bn.com/writers