Have questions about death? Find the afterlife interesting? Join the death cafe at Dog-Eared Books on the first Tuesday of each month. 

Bailey Sterk, a manager at Dog-Eared Books, explained the group as anything people want it to be. 

“It’s very open-ended to whatever direction people want to take it in,” Sterk said. “It’s specifically not like a grief support group. But it can be anything from like what do you think happens after you die? How do you prepare for dying?”

She explained how there are death cafes hosted throughout the country. There is a handbook and organization that provides the parameters of what a death cafe should be. The official Death Cafe website states, “Our objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.”

A typical meeting has cake and consists of an unhurried discussion about any death-related topic.  

Liam Flake is who reached out to Dog-Eared Books to host a Death Cafe. Both parties agreed that the bookstore would be a good fit to host such an event.  

The cafe will be hosted for three months to gauge interest, and then go from there.

“My friend [Flake] has just always been interested in it, and I’m also interested,” Sterk said.  “I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m really curious about the kind of turnout, and also curious about what people are going to want to talk about. “

Dog-Eared Books also hosts various book clubs, most themed or genre-ed. They are all free to attend and do not require a purchase from the bookstore. Some clubs are over a specific book, and others are just open discussion spaces.

“We want to make things as accessible as possible,” Sterk said.  

Dog-Eared used to have a philosophical discussion group, and the Death Cafe will fill that hole.

“We haven’t done anything like this before,” Sterk said. “We’re always trying to make it [the store] a place where people can gather and talk and build community, and so discussing death kind of falls into that building community thing.”

A link to their website is here to learn more about the Death Cafe.