An Aside: Why I Will Not Boycott Bookstores in North Carolina

Poor Man’s Feast is a food blog. Or at least a foodish blog. And while I generally refrain from making political pronouncements here — this is a blog about sustenance and nurturing and (sometimes) writing — I’m compelled to announce that I will be including North Carolina among my book tour stops for my upcoming memoir, Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw. While I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who have decided to boycott North Carolina bookstores in response to the state’s deplorable HB2 ruling, I cannot; as a writer, an editor, and a former bookseller, it is, in part, my responsibility to contribute to the general health, financial wellbeing, and safety of the independent bookstores and bookstore owners located in the eye of the storm, and who have historically been a sanctuary and an oasis