POP! Art Books Culture will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with a store-wide sale and signings by two local authors.

The event occurs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 25. POP! Art Books Culture is located at 6949 Market St. in Boardman.

“I’m so excited to have authors Mike Prelee and Eliza Osborn join us this year,” said bookstore owner Craig Duster. “Mike is the author of the sci-fi ‘Milky Way Repo’ series and Tim Abernathy mysteries. His work has a real blue-collar feel to it and he is our store’s best-selling local author.

“Eliza’s book, ‘The Love I Meant,” is an amazing piece of historical fiction,” added Duster. “It mixes drama and romance and history into an incredible page-turner.”

In addition to book signings, POP! will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with 20% off almost everything in the store. “Our goal is to find the right book for the right person at the right price,” Duster said. “For Independent Bookstore Day the right price is 20% less than usual.”

About Independent Bookstore Day

The observance, also known as Indie Bookstore Day, was established in 2013 to promote, celebrate and highlight the value of the independent bookstore community. The day has been observed on the last Saturday of April every year since 2013. This year there are over 1,200 stores participating across the country.

Independent Bookstore Day is organized by the American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, that works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

About the authors

Michael Prelee is an award-winning crime and science-fiction author who grew up in rural Northeast Ohio and graduated from Youngstown State University. He is the author of the “Tim Abernathy Mystery Series,” published by North Star Press. The first entry in the series was “Murder in the Heart of It All.” The sequel, “Lost Little Sister,” won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association award for Fiction-Mystery/Thriller. He also writes the “Milky Way Repo” sci-fi crime series published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. His new release, “The Unworthy,” is the third installment of the series. More information about the author can be found at MichaelPrelee.com. Prelee’s book signing is from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Eliza Osborn wanted to be a writer ever since her mother read “Little Women” to her for the first time. After writing many short stories as a child–all of which involved horses, her first love. In high school, she began obsessively researching turn-of-the-century New York City and drafting longer fiction. In the early 2000s, she began freelance writing for national magazines and publishing short fiction. In 2014, Osborn partnered with Storybird for a full-length, serialized young adult novel entitled “The Mystery of Dogwood Cross,” set in her native South Carolina. Since then, she has continued to write and work as a freelance editor. Eliza lives in Youngstown with her husband, daughter and five rescue dogs. In 2022, she launched Author Cultivation, an author-services company that aims to help writers turn their ideas into books. More information about the author can be found at ElizaOsborn.com. Osborn’s book signing is from 1-4 p.m.

About: POP! Art Books Culture was established in 2021 by Craig and Christine Duster and has grown into Mahoning County’s largest used bookstore. POP! carries an inventory of more than 15,000 items and hosts community events such as book clubs and writing groups. In addition, the bookstore carries a wide selection of comics, graphic novels and artwork from local and national artists. POP! Art Books Culture won the Vindicator’s Reader’s Choice Award in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Call 330-360-9696 or visit www.popabcstore.com for more information.

POP! Art Books Culture

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