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Ann Patchett calls out Amazon

In a speech at BookExpo America, the author and bookstore owner said Amazon 'wants to kill us.'

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Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Author Ann Patchett won the award for Most Engaging Author at this year's BookExpo America convention.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff writer

Author Ann Patchett had some choice words for book giant Amazon when she accepted an award at BookExpo America.

Patchett, who owns a bookstore in Nashville, won the Most Engaging Author award at the event and said in her acceptance speech, “Sometimes the little guy wins,” followed by part of a speech from “Henry V” by William Shakespeare.

“We band of brothers/ For he to-day that sheds his blood with me/ Shall be my brother,” Patchett said. Later in the speech, it became clear which conflict she was addressing.

“There should be a place for all of us, but Amazon aggressively wants to kill us,” Patchett said. Patchett opened Parnassus Books in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn., late last year after some larger bookstores closed and the city was left without a bricks-and-mortar bookseller.

BookExpo America is a publishing event held in New York City and ends today.

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