Stanza Books Turns A New Page—In Spanish
Stanza Books’ new Spanish language section.
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Stanza Books opened its doors at 508 Main Street just 18 months ago. It quickly became a place for book lovers to gather to discuss their favorite genres, find literary treasures, and to connect with Stanza’s owners, who understand what readers want from their local bookstore.
Owners Andrea Talarico and Mark Harris host roughly an incredible15 to 18 book events in the store a month—from book clubs and launches to special author events. In addition to being the co-host of the 2025 annual literary festival Beacon LitFest, Stanza Books recently hosted its first high-energy Stanza Children’s Book Festival at the Howland Cultural Center, much to the delight of some of Beacon’s youngest readers.
Good News for Spanish Literature Lovers
The introduction of Spanish language books began in the children’s book department.
Andrea and Mark have recently embarked on a new way to serve its literary loving community by introducing Spanish language adult and children’s books to its shelves.
What started as a commitment to include Spanish stories in the children’s section has recently expanded to adult literature – fiction and non-fiction. Stanza’s customers can now find English language books translated into Spanish, as well as popular books from Spanish speaking countries. The new offering covers books for every child’s age group and can be found on the shelves at the beginning of each age category.
Why Now?
The Spanish language initiative is a response to customer queries and suggestions. Andrea recently told us, “We have customers who come in and ask for Spanish language books, and we have staff who are Spanish speaking. We felt this was an opportunity to respond to the wishes of our customers who enjoy reading in their native language.”
There’s an assortment of books for non-native readers, too. Andrea, a Latin American literature minor in college, explained, “I know enough Spanish to read it but not to confidently speak it. And I think there’s probably a lot of people like me. One of my favorite things to do is to find bilingual poetry editions for our shelves so readers can enjoy translations of Spanish poetry to English side-by-side—like this copy of Pablo Neruda’s Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada.”
A Rich and Growing Assortment
Just some of the Spanish language books on offer at Stanza Books.
Stanza Books began with a small assortment of Spanish language books, but those titles started flying off the shelves, making Andrea and Mark realize they needed to enlarge their offering. Expect everything from translations of Danielle Steele bestsellers to original language classics like Isabel Allende’s House of Spirits (La Casa de Los Espiritus) with a beautifully giftable special edition cover. Alongside these are contemporary bestsellers such as the timely Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora, a major American hit that tells the story of a nine-year-old boy’s journey from El Salvador to the United States to reunite with his family there. Readers of classics, romance, mystery, history, poetry, and magical realism won’t be disappointed.
The owners both see bi-lingual story hour and events in Stanza’s future. Until then, with more than 9,000 English and now Spanish titles on the shelves—and open seven days a week—Stanza Books has already proved itself to be a bona fide community-focused business.
Top Recommendations
We asked Andrea if she could share her current top Spanish in-store recommendations. Here’s what she told us:
“In addition to adoring and respecting the classics like Ficciones, by Borges, and Love in the Time of Cholera/ El amor en los tiempos del cólera, by Marquez, I'm excited to feature newer and more contemporary Latin-American authors like Samanta Schweblin, from Argentina, whose gothic tales are so smart and imaginative you won't even mind the nightmares they give you; or Julia Alvarez, whose latest, The Cemetery of Untold Stories/El Cementerio de Los Cuentos Sin Contar, which we read (and loved) for our store's Literary Fiction book club. Or even Christina Henriquez, a US-based author of Panamanian descent, whose latest novel, The Great Divide/ Entre Dos Aguas, fictionally retells the making of the Panama Canal from a variety of characters' perspectives.
“The publishing world works at its own pace when it comes to translation. For example, we're featuring Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch/El Jilguero, which came out in English 10 years ago but has only just been translated into Spanish in paperback in July of 2025, ten years later.”
Stanza Books, 508 Main Street, Beacon, New York.
So, if you’re a Spanish language reader or just want to brush up on Spanish literature, stop by Stanza Books at 508 Main Street and ask them about this exciting new development.
Until next time…
The Beacon Beacon🧡