(WSB photo)

ORIGINAL REPORT, 3:15 PM SUNDAY: The Barnes & Noble bookstore chain has struggled for years and is currently reported to be in a “strategic review”. Rumors of its Westwood Village store closing have arrived in our inbox now and then. This time, it’s no rumor. After Lynne e-mailed us to report hearing via social media that the store is closing in January, we went there to ask. The on-duty store manager confirmed to us that the company headquarters has indeed informed them the store will be closing in January. No further comment; we’ll follow up with company HQ and the firm that manages Westwood Village, Madison Marquette, tomorrow. The 26,000-square-foot store opened in October 2005. While Westwood Village has more than half a dozen retail spaces listed publicly as “for lease” right now, so far as we can find, this is not (yet) among them. The next-closest B&N is at Pacific Place downtown.

ADDED 3:09 PM MONDAY: We asked B&N corporate media relations for comment on why the store is closing and what would happen to its employees. They’re not commenting on either of those questions and said this statement is “all they have”:

“We will be closing our Westwood Village, Seattle location in January. It has been our pleasure serving this community over the years, and we will continue to serve our valued customers at our stores at South Center (Tukwila) and Downtown Seattle.”

-Jim Lampassi, VP of Real Estate Development at Barnes & Noble

(WSB photo, September 2017)

Congratulations to Lyanda Lynn Haupt! The West Seattle-based author has just won the 2018 Washington State Book Award for nonfiction for “Mozart’s Starling.” She also was honored with the award in 2002 for “Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds.” The 2018 awards were announced last night at the Central Library downtown; they are given for “the strength of a book’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality” and eligibility requires either being born in Washington or having lived here at least three years. The full winners’ list:

2018 WSBA WINNERS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES

Fiction

· “This Is How It Always Is” by Laurie Frankel, of Seattle (Flatiron Books)

Nonfiction

· “Mozart’s Starling” by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, of Seattle (Little, Brown & Company)

Biography/Memoir

· “The Spider and the Fly” by Claudia Rowe, of Seattle (Dey Street/ HarperCollins)

Poetry

· “Water & Salt” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, of Redmond (Red Hen Press)

2018 WSBA WINNERS: BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES

Picture Book

· “Shawn Loves Sharks” by Curtis Manley, of Bellevue, illustrated by Tracy Subisak, of Portland (Roaring Book Press)

Books for Young Readers (ages 6 to 8)

· “Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows” by Asia Citro, of Issaquah (Innovation Press)

Books for Middle Readers (ages 9 to 12)

· “The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming” by J. Anderson Coats, of Everett (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Books for Young Adult Readers (ages 13 to 18)

· “The Arsonist” by Stephanie Oakes, of Spokane (Dial Books)

Also part of the honors, West Seattle-residing state Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna, as a contributor to “WA 129,” a collection of 129 poems by poets living in Washington, put together by her predecessor Tod Marshall.