"Upstairs at the Square" Freudenberger + Fishman October 30, 2006

NEW YORK, NY (September 29, 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 Monday, October 30th, at 7:00PM, Nell Freudenberger, author of the new novel The Dissident, and Howard Fishman, the noted downtown bandleader, guitarist and songwriter whose latest album is Look At All This!, 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.

Nell Freudenberger's debut collection of stories, Lucky Girls, was a New York Times Notable Book and won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2005 Freudenberger was the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award. Her second book, a novel about secrets, love, and the shining chaos of everyday American life entitled The Dissident, is a remarkable and surprising group portrait, done with a light, sure hand. Reviewing Lucky Girls, the Seattle Times praised Freudenberger's "merciless and often hilarious eye for family dynamics, and her equally sharp eye for cultures in collision." These talents and others are on full display here, as the author captures her characters in their struggles with art, with identity—and with one another. As the New York Times Book Review observed, "Young writers as ambitious—and as good—as Nell Freudenberger give us a reason for hope."

Howard Fishman (www.howardfishman.com), bandleader, guitarist and songwriter, made his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room in 1999. He has since headlined in major venues both in the States and abroad, including The Steppenwolf Theater, The Blue Note, NJPAC, MassMOCA, Stamford Center for the Performing Arts, The Bottom Line, Le Petit Journal, and Joe's Pub. A Connecticut native, he spent his musically formative years in New Orleans. The All-Music Guide has called him "an important force in creative music," and The New York Times has written that his work "transcends time and idiom." Fishman has been a featured guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, World Cafe with David Dye, and on The Leonard Lopate Show. He maintains a full-time touring schedule and has recorded five critically acclaimed CDs for his own Monkey Farm label. His most recent, Look At All This! was released in late 2005. we are destroyed, Fishman's first foray into music theater, was recently work-shopped at the Pasadena Playhouse as part of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab West and will be presented by the Penobscot Playhouse in next spring. His most recent project is his exploration of Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes, which he performed in a three night series at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in May. Howard Fishman will make his debut with the Lincoln Center American Songbook series with a one-night version of The Basement Tapes Project in February 2007.

Katherine Lanpher (www.katherinelanpher.com) is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press will publish her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move, next month.

Audio downloads of all four previous events, including the series premiere on June 21 (Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, whose new album is Ready), the event in July (Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart and pop sensation Sondre Lerche, whose latest album is Duper Sessions), and the August edition (Coronado author Dennis Lehane and singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, whose new album is White Limousine), as well as September’s event (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints director/author Dito Montiel and singer-songwriter Jesse Malin, whose latest album is The Heat) are available on Barnes & Noble.com (bn.com/writers).

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 799 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