Have you been wondering what Judy’s been doing since the release of In the Unlikely Event?

The absence of a first-class bookstore in Key West weighed heavily on Judy’s mind. Key West is famed for many things, not least of which is a literary tradition developed by the cadre  of renowned  writers who worked amidst and were inspired by its palm shaded charms—Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, James Merrill, John Hersey, Robert Stone, Annie Dillard, and Anne Beattie, to name only a few. The annual Key West Literary Seminar is one of the premiere cultural events in the nation.  What Key West was lacking was a top-notch bookstore.  

The result was Books & Books @The Studios of Key West  — the brainchild of a small group of local booklovers, led by Judy Blume and her husband George Cooper, who previously founded the Tropic Cinema in Key West. 
Books & Books @The Studios of Key West is a locally owned, nonprofit, independently minded neighborhood bookstore.  It serves as a community center for readers and writers, hosting author events and featuring a carefully curated selection of books and gift items.

It is affiliated with Books & Books, one of the nation’s great independent bookstores, founded in 1982 by Mitchell Kaplan in Coral Gables. It is located in  The Studios of Key West, a non-profit arts center and cultural organization in its eighth year—promoting multidisciplinary arts, providing artist-in-residency opportunities for artists and writers worldwide, and maintaining long-term studio spaces dedicated to Florida Keys artists. Stop by if you’re in Key West. There’s a good chance you’ll find Judy behind the register, or stocking books on the shelves.