Once a year, book-lovers of Indianapolis flock to the city’s independent bookstores for the Indy Indie Book Crawl. There are 27 locally owned bookstores across the city participating in this year’s crawl March 19-22, plus ten more booksellers hosting pop-up shops at The Stutz.
You can use the official book crawl map to plan your route.
How to win prizes
Each participating store will hand out book crawl bookmarks with all of the shops listed. When you visit a store on the list, ask them to stamp your bookmark — whether you made a purchase or not.
Another chance to win prizes is the book crawl bingo card, with challenges like “pre-order a book you’re excited about.” Many of the challenges encourage crawlers to explore local literary organizations like the Indiana Historical Society and Ray Bradbury Center.
At the end of the crawl, you fill out an online form with all the stores you visited and all the bingo challenges you completed.
Each stamp on your bookmark is one entry into a drawing for three prize packages including bookstore gift cards, merch and books.
Each row of the bingo card you complete is an entry into the separate bingo drawing. Those prizes include a night at the Bottleworks Hotel or Propylaeum, bike service at Bike People, and Speakeasy Soccer league passes.
What’s new this year
Two names are missing from this year’s lineup: Dream Palace Books and Red Dog Books both closed their doors this year. But there are a few new shops joining the event, too.
Garden of Readin’ is a small eastside bookstore run by the mother-daughter duo Bre’Anna Lander and Anna Hall. They moved into a new space at 8601 E. 10th St. in June 2026, with three rooms packed with books and merch — plus a “selfie room” in the back.
Indy Liberation Store is a social justice-focused bookstore in Fountain Square, where sales support the Indianapolis Liberation Center.
Indy Type Shop in Garfield Park is also new to the crawl, specializing in vintage typewriters and rare books. The shop will host a typewriter pop-up with Snail Gram and Indy Trinket Trove during the crawl, 1-3 p.m. Friday, March 20. 2621 Shelby St.
Special events
Loudmouth Books also has a special event during the crawl. Stop by the Black & Bookish Mixer 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, March 19. It’s at Loudmouth Books, 212 E. 16th St., and you can RSVP online.
On the north side, Kids Ink Books teamed up with restaurants on their block to feature “bookish drink specials” at Byrne’s Grilled Pizza and lunch specials at Illinois Street Food Emporium. They’ll also have their own raffle and a Junk Journal craft night 6-8 p.m. Friday, March 20. It’s at 5619 N. Illinois St., and there’s no need to RSVP.
Other special events sold out quickly: A lock-in with Silent Book Club at Tomorrow Bookstore March 14, the official kick-off party at 8th Day Distillery March 18, and a Book Influencer Party March 21, hosted by Tomorrow Bookstore with local book influencers Josie Bullard and Nathan Shuherk.
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Gwen Ragno is Mirror Indy’s web producer who also writes about art sometimes. You can reach her at gwen.ragno@mirrorindy.org.
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