SIBA lost a beloved bookseller this week, Dr. Erica Atkins, owner of Birdsong Books in Locust Grove, GA. Her murder has deeply distressed our community. SIBA and the SIBA Board have been in touch with the family to see how we can support them. We are grateful to Binc for also stepping up right away to offer assistance.

Dr. Atkins’ daughter, Jasmine, has shared that she plans to keep the bookstore going to honor her mother’s legacy:

"My mother started the bookstore because her parents met at a bookstore. She's always had a fascination with books and it was just something that stuck with her. My mother was the smartest woman I know. She wanted to get children to start reading again and put down the phones after the pandemic because she knew that was important."

Her top request is mentors who can guide her in the business of bookselling. Georgia-based SIBA Board member Julia Davis is the contact person to add your name to Jasmine's mentor circle: shopthebookwormpowdersprings@gmail.com. Mentors from the Atlanta area are especially encouraged to help. People can also help by donating to the Erica Atkins Memorial Gofundme campaign created by the family to support the continuation of her legacy.

(Photos courtesy of Jasmine Atkins)

Lunch speakers:

A former academic and adjunct, Alix E. Harrow is a New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning writer living in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids. She is the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction.

Hannah Pittard is the author of four novels. She is a winner of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, a MacDowell Colony fellow, and a graduate of Deerfield Academy, the University of Chicago, and the University of Virginia. She also spent some time at St. John’s College in Annapolis. She is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington with her boyfriend and stepdaughter.

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Lunch speaker:

Dr. Eric Crawford, Editor, is a Gullah Geechee scholar and Associate Professor of Musicology at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He is the former director of the Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University. He is the author of Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands.

Gullah Culture in America chronicles the history and culture of the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the American South. This book, written for the general public, chronicles the arrival of enslaved West Africans to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia; the melding of their African cultures, which created distinct creole language, cuisine, traditions, and arts; and the establishment of the Penn School, dedicated to education and support of the Gullah freedmen following the Civil War. 

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Happy Spring! Have you looked at your holiday messaging and calendar?

Retail businesses in the United States tend to associate the word "holiday" with the fourth-quarter surge in gift-buying. At this point most stores are practiced in using non-demoninational language around what is known, which no explanation needed, as "the holiday shopping season."

Holidays, festivals, and celebrations occur year round, of course, but spring is a season especially significant in many religions. The Diversity Calendar published annually by Cultures Connecting lists more religious observances in February/March/April than in any other quarter of the year.

Americans may associate March with St. Patrick's Day, but it is also the time when Jewish people observe Purim, when Hindus celebrate Holi. It is the time of the Persian and Zoroastrian New Year, Nowruz, and the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan.

These observances may require practicing staff or customers to be absent or need time off, or be unable to participating in certain activities because of religious restrictions or requirements. Now is the time to check your store calendar and note if any of your events or in-store activities will impact people who observe these faiths. Let your staff know you can make accommodations for them, and be mindful of how your store's schedule may affect your customers.

At lunch, booksellers will meet Tracey Enerson Wood, author of The President's Wife, Rachel Hauch, The Best Summer of Our Lives, and Sarah Penner, whose new novel is The London Seance Society.

Tracey Enerson Wood is a published playwright whose family is steeped in military tradition. She is the author of two other novels: The Engineer's Wife and The War Nurse. The story takes place in Washington, DC and the author lives in Florida. 

Rachel Hauck is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She is a double RITA finalist, a Christy and Carol Award winner, and the recipient of a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement award. Her book Once Upon a Prince, first in the Royal Wedding Series, was adapted into an Original Hallmark movie. A retired member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Executive Board, she teaches workshops at the annual conference. Rachel lives in central Florida with her husband. Learn more at RachelHauck.com.

Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary which will be translated into forty languages worldwide and is set to be turned into a drama series by Fox. Sarah spent thirteen years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. She and her husband live in Florida. To learn more, visit SarahPenner.com.

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For booksellers who go above and beyond in their local community!

The Katie Trocheck Abel Award, created to honor the daughter of author Mary Kay Andrews, will award $500 to a SIBA bookseller who has gone above and beyond in their local community. (Read the full announcement here)

The award has widened the category of people who can nominate to encompass the members of the greater bookselling industry. Booksellers can self-nominate, and nominations are also welcomed from bookstore customers, owners, employees, managers, fellow booksellers, publishing professionals, or authors..

The winner will be chosen by Mary Kay Andrews and her co-hosts from Friends & Fiction: Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Patti Callahan Henry.

The Nomination Deadline is May 1, 2023 and a winner will be announced on July 3, 2023

Nominate here

The 21-Day Challenge: What's Next?

For our closing event of the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, Jerod Grant of Cultures Connecting will facilitate a 90-minute session on Zoom on February 28 at 1:00 PM ET, 12:00 PM CT:

21-Day Racial Equity Challenge. Triumphs, Trials and the "What's Next?"

Register here

Designed to provide space to process what people have learned and how they can turn it into positive action, this event is open to anyone who is taking the Challenge, or has taken it in the past. 

About the facilitator: 

Jerod Q. Grant is a father, a writer, teacher, youth basketball coach, and life partner to Rashanah.  He has over sixteen years of experience in higher education. Jerod has worked with K-12, colleges/universities, nonprofit, government, and corporate organizations. He currently is a consultant for Cultures Connecting where his work is centered in equity, justice, and belonging. Jerod is also an adjunct faculty in the School of Education and Educational Leadership at City University in Seattle where he teaches the Social Justice, Diversity, and Equity course. Jerod has had the opportunity to speak and facilitate workshops across the U.S. and internationally.

SILAS HOUSE, MARY LAURA PHILPOTT, ANTWAN EADY AND GRACEY ZHANG (ILLUS.) WIN 2023 SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE

(Asheville, NC) As a "valentine" to people who love Southern Literature, Southern indie booksellers and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance are pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Southern Book Prize (SBP).

This year’s winners are Lark Ascending by Silas House (Algonquin Books) in Fiction, Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott (Atria) in Nonfiction, and Nigel and the Moon by Antwan Eady and Gracey Zhang (illus.) (Katherine Tegen Books) in Children’s. Winners receive a donation in their name to the charity or nonprofit of their choice.

The Prize, representing Southern bookseller favorites from 2023, is awarded to “the best Southern book of the year” as nominated by Southern indie booksellers and voted on by their customers. Winners were chosen by popular vote from a ballot of finalists in fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Over 1800 ballots were cast making each Southern Book Prize winner a true Southern reader favorite.  Readers who submit a ballot can choose to be entered into a raffle to win a collection of the SBP finalist and winning titles. This year’s raffle winner is Donna Bausch, a customer of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Authors:

“This award is particularly special to me because it comes from Southern indie booksellers and readers--the two main groups that have given me a writing career for more than twenty years now,” said Silas House. “I cannot thank them enough for everything. To me Lark Ascending is a warning about what is already happening but it's also a meditation on the way hope survives, and how we must always fight back. For those reasons I am especially grateful for it to receive the increased visibility this recognition will provide.” House requested that his donation go to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, “as a tribute to Seamus, the good beagle in Lark Ascending who has found a place in the heart of many readers.”

Mary Laura Philpott said “Oh, wow! What could mean more to a writer than an award granted by readers and booksellers, the people who know and love books more than anyone? I couldn’t do this work if I didn’t believe that when my books leave my head, they land in the hands and hearts of such thoughtful human beings. It’s an honor to play a tiny part in the grand and ever-evolving Southern literary tradition―not to mention to be in the company of this year’s brilliant fellow nominees. Thank you so much.” Philpott chose to have her donation go to the Epilepsy Foundation.

“Thank you all for receiving Nigel into your hearts and homes, and may dreamers of all ages feel seen, heard, and loved," wrote Antwan Eady. "Nigel, as we know him today, would not exist without the incredible, hardworking team from Katherine Tegen Books at HarperCollins Children's Books, the über talented Gracey Zhang, and the people who've championed us along the way: our agents, families and friends. We've given Nigel a story, but all of you have given him a life.”  Eady has asked for his donation to go to Readers to Dreamers, while Gracey Zhang has requested hers be given to AKUT, an NGO currently doing search and rescue in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.

What Southern Booksellers Have to Say About the Winning Books:

2023 SBP Children’s Winner:
Nigel and the Moon, by Antwan Eady and Gracey Zhang (Illus.)
Katherine Tegen Books, February 2022

“Nigel and the Moon will make your heart swell in the best way! Sure to be a beloved book, Nigel’s story resonates deeply with those who are scared to share their dreams.” ―Lauren Kean from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC

2023 SBP Fiction Winner:
Lark Ascending by Silas House
Algonquin Books, September 2022

“The urgency of the opening chapters is breathtaking, and then the source of it is laid bare: this is the imagined not-so-distant future resulting from the chaos and painful transformational change similar to what we’re going through right now in our world. A haunting story, one that makes you really think about the trajectory of our collective lives.” ―Cathy Graham from Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida

2023 SBP Nonfiction Winner:
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
Atria, April 2022
“It’s more tempting than ever to want to build a bomb shelter and retreat from the upheavals of life. But with this memoir, Mary Laura Philpott convinces us that, like Frank the turtle, we have to poke our heads out from time to time, confront the challenges, and keep going.” ―Lady Smith, Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

An indie bookseller-curated, reader-chosen award, The Southern Book Prize showcases books that have been favorite “hand sell” titles of southern booksellers and establishes indie booksellers as a knowledgeable, trustworthy source for avid readers looking for their next great read.  Raffle winner Donna Bausch, calls her local bookstore, Prince Books, “a carefully curated bookshop located in a beautiful historic building...an increasingly rare treasure in the 21st century. The joyful serendipity of finding a 'must read' you didn’t even know about while browsing the shelves, attending interesting author talks and enjoying a cup of tea or a quick bite at the cafe all make a visit to Prince Books special. All that and warm, well-informed staff and free gift wrap, too! Prince Books is a Norfolk landmark for good reason.”

The Southern Book Prize, formerly known as the SIBA Book Award, has been awarded annually since 1999. SIBA launched the public ballot in 2019 to encourage stores to engage their customers in the important question of what books deserve to be called “the best Southern book of the year.”  For more information, visit the Southern Book Prize home at The Southern Bookseller Review.

LEARN. REFLECT. ACT....REFLECT

We are at the halfway point of the first week of the 21-Day Anti-Racist Challenge. Today's morning email theme is on The Expression of Racial Diversity in Your Bookstore.

Every Challenge Morning email is divided into four parts -- "Learn," an overview of the morning's theme, "Reflect," some questions to consider, "Act," a series of steps to take, and finally a "Dig Deeper" section of more resources to look at.

For many people it is tempting to skip right to the "Act" section. It gives something concrete to do (today's suggestions is to write an Anti-Racist statement for your store). And doing something makes us feel like we are, well, doing something. Something positive towards making a better world.

But it is perhaps the "Reflect" section that is the most important part of each morning's Challenge. Those questions it asks are questions that we can keep asking, in all sorts of situations. In fact, the point of the entire Challenge is to question our assumptions and (more to the point) get into the habit of questioning our assumptions.

This morning's REFLECT questions ask us to take a hard look at the books we stock, the books we promote, and the books we choose to read for ourselves:

• Are your reading choices, and what's displayed on your staff picks’ shelf inclusive of BIPOC authors?
  
• Are you buying books and gifts that reflect white authorship/white audience?
  
• What is the BIPOC representation in your online and in-store displays?
  
• What is the BIPOC representation in your author event programming?
  
• Could you and your store culture be actively supporting white superiority, even if unconsciously?
  

Replace "books" with other words of things you like or support -- music, sports, charities, local causes, newspaper columnists, television series you like to binge watch -- and all those questions above are still relevant, still worth asking, worth reflection.

Registration for the 21-Day Challenge remains open. Earlier posts can be seen anytime on the Challenge blog.

For booksellers who go above and beyond in their local community!

In February 2022, beloved New York Times bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews lost her 39-year-old daughter, Katie Trocheck Abel. Katie had a huge heart for community outreach, lending countless hours of support to organizations such as No Kid Hungry, Atlanta's Free99Fridge, and Atlanta's Helping Mamas, which has named a car seat donation program in her honor. Katie was also a fierce supporter of her mom, and of the many booksellers who supported her.

In Katie's honor, and to celebrate the often unheralded acts of kindness that take place all the time in our bookselling world, SIBA will award $500 to a SIBA bookseller who has gone above and beyond in their local community. Booksellers can nominate other booksellers or self-nominate. Application deadline is May 1, with the winner announced July 3.

The winner will be chosen by Mary Kay Andrews and her co-hosts from Friends & Fiction: Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Patti Callahan Henry.

Nomination Deadline is May 1, 2023
Winner to be Announced July 3, 2023

Nomination Form