Independent Bookshop Week is a celebration of independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. It aims to highlight the vital role independent bookshops play in their communities, and to encourage consumers to shop for their summer reads with their local independent. The campaign was launched in 2006.
 
Independent Bookshop Week takes place annually, mid-June. Hachette UK is the headline sponsor, with support from Gardners and NielsenIQ BookData. Almost 800 independent bookshops are registered to participate.

Independent Bookshop Week 2026 (the 20th anniversary!) takes place Saturday 13 - Saturday 20 June.

Independent Bookshop Week 2026 

Ambassadors
The ambassadors for Independent Bookshop Week 2026 are Kit de Waal, whose debut My Name Is Leon won the ‘Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year’ and was later adapted for BBC television, and whose latest novel is The Best of Everything (Tinder Press); Katriona O’Sullivan, author of the bestselling memoir Poor, winner of ‘Biography of the Year’ and ‘Newcomer of the Year’ at the Irish Book Awards, whose new book is Hungry (Wildfire); and Katie Clapham, award-winning bookseller and co-founder of Storytellers Inc., winner of ‘Independent Bookshop of the Year (North England)’ at the British Book Awards in 2013, whose new book is Receipts from the Bookshop (Phoenix).

Kit de Waal said: “Independent bookshops bring people together at the counter, at events, in those long, unexpected conversations and that sense of connection is as nourishing as the books themselves. For authors, new or established, an independent bookshop is often the first place someone presses your work into a reader’s hands and says, “You’ll love this,” which is the best publicity you can get.  Above all, independent bookshops quietly protect the simple joy of reading for pleasure: the browsing, the discovery, the feeling of walking out with a story you didn’t know you needed until someone who loves books put it in your path.”

Katriona O’Sullivan said: ‘Independent bookshops may be small, but they often do big things! They keep brilliant stories alive, choose books with care, and are the places where stories like mine get a chance to shine. Support your independent bookshop this week, and every week.”

Katie Clapham said: ‘As a writer, bookseller, bookshop-owner and overall bookshop enthusiast, I couldn’t be more thrilled to be an ambassador for Independent Bookshop Week this year. I truly love independent bookshops; from the chic and glossy to the humble and chaotic; each of them are important to their community and vital to our society, and all of them are completely magnificent to me.’
 
Exclusive Poem
Following the success of poems created by Brian Bilston, Hollie McNish, Dean Atta, George Mpanga (aka George the Poet), and Michael Pedersen, we will soon be announcing who has written our new and exclusive poem for Independent Bookshop Week 2026. Watch this space!

Watch poems from previous years on the Books Are My Bag YouTube channel. 
 

How can I celebrate Independent Bookshop Week?

Our thanks to our headline sponsor, Hachette UK. Thanks also to Gardners and NielsenIQ BookData for their invaluable support.

If you are a bookseller or publisher and would like more information about the campaign, please visit the Booksellers Association website.