Upstairs at the Square: David Carr + Greg Laswell September 9, 2008

NEW YORK, NY – August 8 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today announced the next event in its buzzed-about series, "Upstairs at the Square," held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square). On Tuesday, September 9, at 7 pm, David Carr, author of The Night of the Gun (Simon & Schuster, August 2008) and Greg Laswell, whose new album is Three Flights From Alto Nido (Vanguard Records, July 2008), discuss and perform their work in conversation with journalist Katherine Lanpher, who hosts the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

David Carr (www.nightofthegun.com) is the author of The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life, His Own. Carr writes "The Media Equation Column" for The New York Times. He also works as a general assignment reporter in the Culture section of The New York Times covering all aspects of popular culture. During the Oscar season, Carr writes a daily blog about the awards season as "The Carpetbagger," including weekly video segments. In reporting and writing The Night of the Gun, which chronicles his long, strange trip from crack house regular to regular columnist for The New York Times, Carr made every effort to fact-check his memories against on-the-ground reporting. Formerly a single parent on welfare, Carr often speaks about recovery, personal accountability and development. And as the author of The Night of the Gun, Carr explores the nature of memory, the tendency of all people to mythologize their own past and conjure only the history they can live with. He is married, with three children and lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Greg Laswell (www.greglaswell.com) finds himself released from heartache with Three Flights From Alto Nido, his sophomore album on Vanguard Records. Three Flights From Alto Nido is the third volume of his trilogy of heartbreak and redemption. With his elegantly expressive piano technique and feathery acoustic guitar work, Greg has drawn comparisons to Jeff Buckley, Coldplay, Ron Sexsmith and Radiohead. As with his prior Vanguard releases, Three Flights From Alto Nido was written, recorded and produced at his home studios in San Diego, Dana Point and Santa Ana, CA. Early support comes from tastemakers such as KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, Indie 103 in Los Angeles and WXPN in Philadelphia. He has been heard on NPR's World Cafe, which praised his new work as "more haunting, and more epic," and the iTunes Indie Spotlight, and his music has been featured on television shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Shark, The Hills, Without a Trace, Cold Case, NUMB3RS, Smallville, and One Tree Hill. Laswell, a fixture at the famed Hotel Café in Hollywood, recently took part in the Hotel Café Tour, which highlights the premiere singer/songwriter venue's artistic community, including Sara Bareilles, Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michaelson.

Katherine Lanpher (www.katherinelanpher.com) is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press published her first book, Leap Days.

"Upstairs at the Square," which celebrated its two-year anniversary this June, has paired authors such as William Gibson, Tom Wolfe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Lynch, Anna Gavalda, Min Jin Lee, and Armistead Maupin with musicians including Craig Finn, Duncan Sheik and members of the cast of Spring Awakening, Badly Drawn Boy, Sondre Lerche, Au Revoir Simone, Nicole Atkins, Aimee Mann and more. An archive of recordings is available on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/upstairs), where "Upstairs at the Square" is enjoyed by listeners around the world in addition to its live audiences.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 800 bookstores in 50 states. The company is the nation's top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent, 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.

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

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Official Website: http://bn.com/upstairs