My Book Trail: Ashley Robin Franklin
To get us in the spirit of this year’s Austin Texas Book Trail on April 12 + 13, we asked a few of our favorite local readers, writers, and community orgs about bookshops on their must-stop list. Keep scrolling to learn which bookstores our 2024 poster artist Ashley Robin Franklin is hitting up this year.
✽ Meet Ashley Robin Franklin, local artist + bookseller
Ashley Robin Franklin is a local cartoonist, illustrator, and bookseller. They make sweet and spooky comics for all ages. Notable works include The Hills of Estrella Roja, their debut YA graphic novel (Harper Collins, 2023), and The Skin You’re In, an adult horror collection (Silver Sprocket, 2024). You can find more about their work over at arfranklinstein.com or follow them on instagram at @arfranklinstein.
Ashley Robin designed the poster for our inaugural 2024 Book Trail and helped us with lettering for this year’s poster. Thanks, Ashley!
What’s on Ashley Robin Franklin’s Book Trail?
Last year for the book trail I teamed up with a friend to drive up to Taylor in order to visit both Curio Mrvosa and Libros Bookstore (so sad we lost Libros, a fantastic bilingual bookshop specializing in work by latine authors). It was such a fun time, we decided to make another trek this year— this time to Lockhart.
I’m very excited to visit Haunt Happy— they specialize in horror, which is one of my favorite genres, and I adore a niche specialty bookstore.
While there, I’m excited to see all the other bookshops Lockhart has to offer— Colossus, a used bookstore, Best Little Wine & Books, and Magnolia Books and Gifts are all clustered nice and close together, perfect for a mini bookstore crawl.
Back in the city, I’m hoping to visit Keep Looking. It’ll be my first time visiting the newsstand and I’m excited to peruse their selection of magazines and zines, as well as check out the Austin (Used) Book Collective’s pop up. They’re a group of four different pop up bookstores each with their own specialty and voice. Last time I ran into collective member Sleeper Books at an event, I walked away with some wonderful horror paperbacks. They’ll all be set up at Keep Looking on Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm.
And I can’t forget The Little Gay Shop, which is just a hop away from Keep Looking. I love their diverse collection of queer books for all ages, along with magazines and lots of other goodies. They also often have a cart outside with affordably-priced secondhand queer books.
Maybe this list is too ambitious? Good thing the book trail is two days this year!