Mac's Backs Celebrates 30 Years on Coventry This Saturday

Mac's Backs — Books on Coventry is celebrating its 30th anniversary on Coventry Road this Saturday, Dec. 1.

Coventry Village has housed three of the independent bookstore's locations, which originally opened in Kent in 1978.

To recognize 30 years in Cleveland Heights, the store is offering specials, refreshments and a poetry reading.

Snacks and beverages will be available all day during the store's business hours, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Patrons who purchase $30 or more will receive a 30 percent discount on used books and a 10 percent discount on new works.

Poet Jeanne Bryner, author of Smoke: Poems, Breathless and Blind Horse, among others works, will read at 7 p.m. 

Mac's Backs has a history of hosting poetry readings. The tradition was introduced in 1984, when poets Daniel Thompson (the first poet laureate of Cuyahoga County) and Dennis McDonnell needed a new venue for a reading series they sponsored, according to a press release about the anniversary. The bookstore has offered readings on the second Wednesday of each month ever since.

Jim McSherry, who first opened Mac's Backs in Kent in 1978 and in Chagrin Falls in 1979, started the first Coventry location with current manager Suzanne DeGaetano in 1982.

The first space was above Dobama Theatre in two rooms. Two years later, the store moved to 1785 Coventry Road. The bookstore continued to expand and moved to its third and present location, 1820 Coventry, in 1993.

For more information about Mac's Backs, visit the store's website.