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Local authors and titles at East Side Story
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East Side Story
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Chuck Beard
Recently opened East Side Story may be the poster child for the city's newly revived literary renaissance. Located inside the Five Points Collaborative, the store is filled with inspirational artwork and cozy reading nooks, which are animated and welcoming as proprietor Chuck Beard himself. When the self-published children's book author was approached in early July about a vacancy inside the business incubator, he jumped at the opportunity to build a platform for the city's literary talent and revitalize an interest in reading as an interactive event.
'Books are a business and unfortunately unless you're persistent for years or in the right place at the right time you may not get an opportunity unless you're a reality TV show star. I want to be whatever platform I can to help cultivate local literary talent and not let some of the best stories slip through the cracks,” says Beard.
The bookstore's tightly edited selection of fiction, nonfiction, and children's lit has already generated strong local buzz inspiring a forthcoming series of spoken word and storytelling events open to authors from across the country.
'There's something magical about hearing or reading stories from people that you're living next door to. It's just another aspect of living in Nashville; you don't know if your neighbor is a singer, songwriter or painter and they all add to the mix,” says Beard.