NEW YORK WRITER SELECTED FOR BARNES & NOBLE'S PRESTIGIOUS DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS PROGRAM

Mira Kamdar, Author of Motiba's Tattoos, Among Twenty New Writers in Discover's Fall Program

NEW YORK, NY: [SEPTEMBER 2000] Barnes & Noble, Inc., the nation's largest bookseller, announced that Mira Kamdar, author of Motiba's Tattoos: A Granddaughter's Journey into Her Indian Family's Past, published by Public Affairs, has been selected for inclusion in the "Discover Great New Writers" fall program. Ms. Kamdar's new book will enjoy a prominent position and signage in 551 Barnes & Noble bookstores across the country and receive an individual review in the program's seasonal brochure.

"It really only hit me that I'd written a book when I learned that Barnes & Noble had selected Motiba's Tattoos for its Discover program," said Mira Kamdar. "Until then, I was merely working on a manuscript. While I was writing, I'd see Barnes & Noble's ads for Discover books and for readings by Discover authors, and think there was no way my own book would ever appear there. I still can't quite believe it. Having Motiba's Tattoos selected for the Discover program has given me a huge shot of confidence. I'm getting right to work on my next book."

Motiba's Tattoos is the story of the Indian Diaspora--the great migration of Indians from their homeland to the New World--through one woman's memories of her remarkable family. Delving back into the world into which her grandmother was born in a tiny village in Kathiawar, India, Mira Kamdar begins a wondrous journey into the past. She follows her family's footsteps from the feudal, rural India of 1900 to the bustling streets of Rangoon in the 1920s and 1930s, then to Bombay, and finally to the United States. With rich, vivid anecdotes, she recreates the atmospheres of lost times and places, and explores the borderless world of Indian-Americans today.

Mira Kamdar is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute at New School University. She divides her time between New York's East Village and Portland, Oregon.

Since 1990, "Discover Great New Writers" has introduced book lovers to the works of new and emerging authors. A volunteer group of Barnes & Noble booksellers considered the works of more than 100 authors for the fall program. Mira Kamdar is one of twenty new writers handpicked for Discover's program highlighting the best fiction, short stories, memoirs and other select literary non-fiction to appear this fall.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) operates 551 Barnes & Noble and 379 B. Dalton bookstores, and, with its acquisition of Babbage's Etc. and Funco, Inc., is the nation's largest operator of video game and entertainment software stores. Barnes & Noble stores stock an authoritative selection of book titles and provide access to more than one million titles. They offer books from more than 50,000 publisher imprints with an emphasis on small, independent publishers and university presses. Barnes & Noble is one of the world's largest booksellers on the World Wide Web (http://www.bn.com), and the exclusive bookseller on America Online (Keyword: bn). Barnes & Noble.com has the largest standing inventory of any online bookseller. Barnes & Noble also publishes books under its own imprint for exclusive sale through its retail stores and Web site.