The Press Kit Webinar with Maribeth Pelly is now available to view. Pelly uses real store press kits to demonstrative the best practices when creating what could be the single most important piece about your bookstore you can give to publishers. Press
kits are required for stores attending the NVNR Publicity Speed Dating event on March 1-4.
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance created the Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund in honor of its much-beloved former Executive Director who retired in 2020. The scholarship,
which is funded by authors, provides financial support for bookseller professional development through education and networking at in-person SIBA-sponsored events. This scholarship is meant to help defray the costs of travel, lodging, meals, and other
expenses. As part of our commitment to continued training and staff development, we hope to help a dedicated bookseller who wants to attend, but otherwise couldn’t. We urge booksellers from typically underrepresented groups to apply.
Please write a letter of need and desire and email to lindamarie@sibaweb.com Deadline to apply is April 1
The American Booksellers Association has partnered with the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) to create logos and assets in support of Black-owned businesses (either yours or those of others) and celebrate diversity. Download resources.
Where are the Black-owned businesses in your area?
Creating a display, posting a sign, or sharing social media posts are all simple actions of support to take, but if a customer came in to your shop and asked you where to go to shop at local Black-owned businesses, would you be able to answer? The first step to supporting Black-owned businesses in your own area is to know who they are and where they are. One of the resources provided above by AMIBA and the ABA is a list of links to some directories of businesses and professional associations. But your own Chamber of Commerce will have more detailed information about your community. The US Chamber of Commerce provides links to eight online Black-owned business directories which may be useful.
Read This Next!, the seasonal list which highlights forthcoming books receiving exceptional SIBA bookseller buzz, is now a monthly event! Southern indie booksellers have selected five books, their hand-sell favorites for the upcoming month, as February 2022 Read This Next titles.
The chosen books all release in February and represent the full range of reader interests of the southern bookselling community. Each of the selected titles has the enthusiastic support of southern booksellers, making Read This Next! the ultimate "You've got to read this!" reading list for avid readers looking to discover great new books.
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
(Anchor) Fiction
There are so many captivating things about this novel...the insight the reader gets as to what it takes to be a classical musician, the background on the history of violins (and one violin in particular) and how they're made, the main character's determination in the face of struggle, family dynamics and expectations, racial issues that rear their ugly heads, and a mysterious theft of a priceless instrument. Brendan Slocumb effortlessly keeps his story flowing, leaving the reader rooting for Ray McMillian while trying to put the pieces of the theft together. Such a great read! . –Mary Patterson from The Little Bookshop in Midlothian, VA
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
(Philomel) Young Adult
Ruta Sepetys tackles the little-known subject of communist Romania with the gut-wrenching, suspenseful story of Cristian. He dreams of writing but instead is blackmailed to turn on everyone he loves. His story explores the endurance of the human spirit even in the toughest circumstances. –Chelsea Stringfield from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN
Nigel and the Moon by Antwan Eady, Gracey Zhang (illus.)
(Katherine Tegen) Childrens
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. When Nigel looks up at the moon, anything is possible; but in school he's hesitant to share. Career week in school is tricky when you want to be an astronaut, dancer, and a superhero! I loved Nigel and his story, and applaud Antwan Eady on this superb debut!. –Lauren Kean from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
(Berkley) Fiction
This is a truly lovely and joyful romance between two women that weaves together conversations of sacrifice, family, and friendship in such a beautiful way. Delilah and Claire are true champions of queer joy, and it was wonderful to read a story where queer women were the only characters. With a focus on second chances in a small town, reckoning with your past, chosen family, and of course, the way falling in love can turn you inside out, folks who enjoy Louise Miller's novels or Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop will fall in love with Delilah and Claire. –Gaby Iori from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, NC
Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals by Laurie Zaleski
(St. Martin's Press) Memoir
Once you open this book, this story will never leave your heart. Laurie Zalenski tells of her mother’s love as the family escapes an abusive husband and father and attempts life with zero money. As the family scrapes by, they adopt and care for others including neglected animals. The love of people and animals shine on every page as the tale leads to the Funny Farm and the 600 abused and neglected animals that thrive on the New Jersey farm. You will fall in love with Laurie, the many animals, and the book as you plan your trip to see for yourself the Funny Farm. –Nancy Pierce from Bookmiser, Inc. in Marietta, GA
Mesha Maren’s thrilling follow-up to Sugar Run takes us from missionaries to wrestling matches to a luxurious cartel compound, and deep into the psychic choices that shape our identities. A sweeping novel that tells us as much about our perceptions of the United States and Mexico as it does about our own natures and desires. Mesha Maren will be in conversation with host Wiley Cash, NYT Bestselling author.
Mesha Maren is the author of Sugar Run. Her work has appeared in the Oxford American, the Guardian, Tin House, the Southern Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Ucross Foundation. She is an assistant professor at Duke University and also serves as a NEA Writing Fellow at the federal prison camp in Alderson, West Virginia
This week over 450 independent bookstores in the southeastern United States received invitations to participate in the inaugural 2022 SIBA Census. The census was created by SIBA in order to document and respond to the changes in its membership and in the book industry.
“The last two years have seen unprecedented changes for our bookstores,” said SIBA Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett. “They have had to re-invent themselves, coming up with new and innovative business models, to meet recent challenges. I’m in awe of the many creative ways our members have found to stay open and successful.”
The 2022 SIBA Census asks for more detailed information about store demographics and operations than is usually required from SIBA member stores. Just as the national census creates a portrait of the country, SIBA's 2022 Census is designed to create a better picture of its membership.
The SIBA Census will be used to
Develop innovative and meaningful events and programming.
Design creative marketing and promotional opportunities for bookstores.
Advocate on behalf of independent bookstores to industry businesses and organizations.
Target member communications and news to make them even more valuable.
Strengthen SIBA's core commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The 2022 SIBA census is open to every bookstore in SIBA Territory (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA) Bookstores do not need to be current members of SIBA to participate. Stores that complete the census are entered into a drawing to receive Supper on SIBA! Ten stores will receive $100 to treat their staff to supper (or breakfast or lunch!)
Candice Huber (they/them) is a sixth generation New Orleanian who owns New Orleans’ premier geeky, queer, progressive, and genre-focused bookstore, Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop, named after their grandparents. Candice serves on the national Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee, Science Fiction & Fantasy Task Force, and the Independent Bookstore Day Advisory Committee for the American Booksellers Association and is a writing, editing, publishing, and virtual event consultant. They are also helping to develop and an instructor for the Store Operations module for the Professional Bookseller Certification program. In the before-times, they hosted The Writers’ Forum on WRBH Reading Radio, focusing on interviewing science fiction and fantasy authors. Candice established TALES Publishing in 2018, which has thus far published three books, with the fourth coming, a role-playing game supplement called Carnival of Creatures focusing on Louisiana monsters of myth and legend.
While creating New Voices New Rooms (NVNR), the virtual meeting space for SIBA and NAIBA, the two organizations took the opportunity to ask questions and reinvent their regional conferences. Covid protocols stripped away business habits and patterns. Now NVNR is moving their Fall Conference to the Summer, and adding a Spring event to provide crucial title introductions for publishers and booksellers.
“Summer is when booksellers are focused on their holiday buying, and it made sense to host an event at that critical time in the process,” says Eileen Dengler, executive director of NAIBA. “Once we shared this idea with booksellers and publishers, people started nodding their heads and wondering why we hadn’t done this a long time ago.” Linda-Marie Barrett, executive director of SIBA, is also enthusiastic about the switch to summer, “A summer conference is ideal for SIBA booksellers, who live in a region where football and challenging weather, along with bookfairs and the holiday season, compete for attention. Summer can be slow for southern booksellers, so our new timing could bring even greater attendance.”
The two 2022 conference events are scheduled for May 17 & 18 and August 8 -11. Each conference will be structured differently. The May event focuses on bookseller/author connections, introducing booksellers to authors through panel programs, keynote presentations, and breakout rooms where authors and small groups of booksellers will enjoy get-to-know-you talks. The very popular pick of the list and editor buzz sessions return, and publishers’ studio spaces will promote their upcoming releases, provide galleys, and share promotion details. This information will remain available to booksellers for an extended period after the two-day event.
The August conference will feature a week of education, bookseller retreats, author presentations, new and upcoming titles, and publisher studios, similar to NVNR from the past two years.
The VIndies awards (recognizing store-made videos that embody the spirit and voice of indie bookstores, and highlight exactly why indie booksellers are the heart and soul of their communities) will be a stand-alone event on Thursday, Oct 13. Michael Triebwasser, director of operations at Politics & Prose will return as the master of ceremonies.
NAIBA and SIBA, on their NVNR platform, will also host publicity speed dating March 1-4 and a new owners retreat Oct. 25-27. Separately, both organizations are planning in-person events in April and October, if pandemic protocols permit.
New Voices New Rooms popular Publicity Speed Dating event returns for 2022!
This year the event will be held Tuesday, March 1 through Friday, March 4. Over the course of three and a half days, 72 bookstores will get their (approximately) fifteen minutes in the spotlight to pitch their stores to publicists and
make their case why they would be a good fit for future author tours and event programming.
There will be morning (9:30am-12:30pm) and afternoon (1:30pm-4:30pm) time blocks for speed dating each day. Friday morning will be dedicated to children's books. Bookstores will have one 15-minute appointment time to introduce themselves and the features
of their store’s event programs to a Zoom room of publicists.
The 72 available slots are being divided among the two regions; 36 for NAIBA and 36 for SIBA. Six bookstores from each region can opt for the children’s slot on Friday morning. Children’s-only bookstores will get priority in that assignment.
Booksellers
(Registration is handled by SIBA. Non SIBA members should use the "guest
registration" option.)
Cost for bookstores is $35 per slot. Booksellers sign up for either a morning or afternoon slot on whatever day they choose. NVNR will assign the specific time for each presentation and let stores know when they will be presenting. Because space is very limited, stores are only allowed one presentation. Stores with active children's programs can also sign up for a spot on Friday the 4th, dedicated to children's books. Please note: Children's-only stores will be given priority.
After registration, bookstores will need to upload their press kit to NVNR, which will be shared with all the publishers. NVNR staff will share store press kits live on-screen during each speed dating appointment.
Publishers
Publicists are encouraged to sign up for as many blocks that fit into their schedule that week. We encourage and hope multiple publicists from all publishers will attend blocks of speed dating that week.
Be Prepared!
Booksellers who register for Publicity Speed Dating can make the most of their almost-fifteen-minutes by preparing well ahead of time:
If your store attended NVNR's 2021 Fall Conference and added your press kit to the Bookstore Row Directory, NVNR can use that as your press kit for this event.
SIBA’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge February 14-March 7, 2022
SIBA's 21-Day Racial Equity Challengeis returning for 2022. This year's Challenge will
take place from February 14th to March 7th. A self-guided program open to any member of the book industry, Challenge participants receive daily emails that contain prompts for reflection, discussion, and action. The prompts are also posted at a dedicated
blog, along with resources and links in support of each day’s prompt and topic. Resources are actively curated to be relevant to contemporary issues.
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) stands against Racism. SIBA is committed
to amplifying and supporting BIPOC voices in our membership and industry, and to offering DEI educational programming to members, SIBA staff, and Board.
21-Day Challenge Kick Off Keynote Event:
In Pursuit of Racial Justice: A Conversation between Laura Coates and Steven Wright
The Challenge’s Keynote Launch event will occur on February
7th at 7:00 PM EST: In Pursuit of Racial Justice: A Conversation between Laura Coates and Steven Wright. Laura Coates, the author of Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness, is a CNN senior legal analyst,
SiriusXM host, and adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law. She'll be in conversation with Steven Wright, a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, where he co-directs the Wisconsin
Innocence Project.
SIBA’s 21-Day Challenge is designed specifically for its member booksellers and draws its format and many of its resources from the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challengecreated
by Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a regional collaborative network organized to support the emergence and continued viability of a New England food system that is a resilient driver of healthy food for all, racial equity, sustainable farming and
fishing, and thriving communities. We are so grateful for their extraordinary work creating this program and making it available to other organizations.
SIBA would like to thank Kenrya Rankin, author of Words of Change: Anti-Racism, Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas and her publisher, Sasquatch Books, for providing most of the daily quotes and images of activists. SIBA also thanks Sourcebooks for their contributing sponsorship.
For more information about SIBA’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, contact Linda-Marie Barrett, Executive Director, at lindamarie@sibaweb.com
SIBA Schedules Quarterly New Bookseller Orientations
Welcome to SIBA! All booksellers who have recently become members (or any member who would like a refresher on all our association has to offer), is invited to join SIBA Board and Staff for one of its quarterly orientation sessions. Sessions will cover important upcoming programs and go into detail about member benefits. Meet the SIBA staff and members of our Board of Directors, learn all about our events and programs, connect with other new members, and ask questions. There will be plenty of time for questions!
The first orientation will be held Wednesday, January 12 at 1:00 PM. REGISTER NOW
For more information, contact Linda-Marie Barrett, SIBA Executive Director, at lindamarie@sibaweb.com
SIBA Establishes Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund for Bookseller Professional Development
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has created the Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund in honor of its much-beloved former Executive Director who retired in 2020. The scholarship, which is funded by authors, provides financial support for bookseller professional development through education and networking at in-person SIBA-sponsored events.
“I’m so humbled by this scholarship in my name," said Jewell when she was told, "it truly means the world to me. And to have many of my favorite writers stepping forward to fund this is simply the best gift. So much gratitude to SIBA and writers and booksellers I cannot express.”
Initial funding for the scholarship comes from the four author co-hosts of "Friends & Fiction" —Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Kristin Harmel and Patti Callahan Henry. In their statement they said "We are pleased to fund the inaugural Wanda Jewell Scholarship. When we created our community almost two years ago, our original mission included the phrase “to support independent bookstores” and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate Wanda Jewell’s contribution to SIBA than by honoring her with this scholarship. Through SIBA, Wanda has supported us and our work for years now, and we are thrilled in turn to support booksellers in their professional development.”
Scholarship applications will open February 1, 2022. Anyone wishing to make a donation in honor of Wanda Jewell may do so here
For more information, contact Linda-Marie Barrett, SIBA Executive Director, at lindamarie@sibaweb.com
Robin joins SIBA as its new social media coordinator, taking over the position from Lucy Perkins-Wegel, who has gone on to be the Assistant Manager at Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida. Robin will manage all of SIBA industry and consumer-targeted social media accounts.
Robin is principal of Punctuate Communications, LLC, a public relations consultancy specializing in helping small businesses and nonprofits communicate effectively using a full range of public relations and marketing channels. Additionally, she is a frontline bookseller and social media manager for Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West. Prior to founding Punctuate in July 2013, Robin held a variety of communications posts for companies, associations and PR agencies. She likes to read SFF, across adult, YA and MG, has a growing collection of bookstore t-shirts, shares her home with two rescue terriers (and her spouse, Kathleen) and occasionally kayaks. Find her on Instagram @robinlooksatbooks.
(Asheville, NC) The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 Nancy Olson Bookseller Award. Frontline booksellers Dajah Williams of The Book Worm Bookstore in Powder Springs, GA and Christine Lavigna of Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC will each receive $2000 in honor of Nancy Olson, the late and much-beloved owner of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC
Christine Lavigna is a book buyer who celebrated her 15th year with Malaprops in 2020. She says "I'm so grateful to receive this generous award. Since my first bookselling gig in college (at the long-defunct Gertrude Stein Memorial Bookshop in Pittsburgh, PA), I've loved the thrill that comes with finding the perfect book for the perfect customer."
Dajah Williams is a full-time bookseller with The Book Worm Bookstore where she handles inventory and customer service and does the store's window displays and sidewalk signs. She loves mythology "and anything Rick Riordan." She says "I'm both surprised and thankful for winning the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award. Being able to work at The Book Worm has hardly felt like work at all and has been full of great experiences, so having what I do be recognized by both Julia [Davis, store owner] and SIBA is something I'll always be grateful for."
Williams and Lavigna were selected by a panel of judges including Sarah Goddin of Quail Ridge Books, Jim Olson, husband of Nancy Olson, and Linda-Marie Barrett, the executive director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
“These were particularly hard choices as there were so many outstanding nominations this year," the judges noted in their statement. "We were impressed by the dedication and professionalism of the winning booksellers. In thinking about Nancy's legacy, we were reminded of her eagerness to help those who were starting out in the industry, whether as booksellers or authors, and her belief that bookselling could be a profession for life. After raising two children she started her own bookstore and through perseverance and dedication built it into an award-winning store. She spent 28 years doing something she loved. We are happy that the winners include both a bookseller who is fairly new to the profession and one who has been working and loving her job for many years. Both Dajah and Christine stand out as booksellers who love not just books, but their customers, their stores, authors, and the impact of a bookstore on its community."
Barrett added that SIBA and the judges are very grateful to the anonymous donor for bestowing these awards in Nancy Olson’s name and making such a big difference in the lives of booksellers.
Last week's panel on bookselling and free expression was a long, in-depth conversation that was both thoughtful and passionate. The recorded event is now available to watch on YouTube. You can also read the recaps inShelf Awareness and Publishers Weekly which are extensive and detailed.
Read This Next!, the seasonal list which highlights forthcoming books receiving exceptional SIBA bookseller buzz, is now a monthly event! Southern indie booksellers have selected five books, their hand-sell favorites for the upcoming month, as January 2022 Read This Next titles.
The chosen books all release in January and represent the full range of reader interests of the southern bookselling community. Each of the selected titles has the enthusiastic support of southern booksellers, making Read This Next! the ultimate "You've got to read this!" reading list for avid readers looking to discover great new books.
The Maid is a cozy mystery the way cozies should be written. It is beautifully written, extremely entertaining, has a great mystery, twists you don’t see coming and most of all one of the most endearing and interesting characters you will ever meet. This was one of the most delightful books I have read in ages and the mystery was top notch. –Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
(William Morrow) Fiction
These chapters sang, sad and sweet, full of compassion and urgency. An aggrandized version of COVID-19, (or at least, a relatable pandemic), has crippled the world, affecting myriad characters who all share a similar desire to remain in this world, to continue to love and to live. A beautiful parallel to current events. –Aimee Keeble, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz
(Random House) Memoir
An exquisite view into the inextricable relationship among love, grief, and hope, Kathryn Schulz’s Lost & Found is a masterpiece. It’s been a while since I’ve underlined so many sentences and created marginalia—from page one, it felt as if I myself was part of Schulz’s story. –Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
(Minotaur) Fiction
Stacy Willingham’s debut novel is an intense psychological thriller to the very end. The brilliance of the twists and turns is in the use of the main character’s narrative point of view. Entertaining, energetic, and unforgettable. In my opinion, a must read! –Sharon Davis, Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, Georgia
Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, Jason Griffin
(Atheneum/Caityn Dlouhy Books) Young Adult
A beautiful and unconventional book capturing what the year 2020 felt like to the youngest child of a fictional Black American family, told in three long sentences and a notebook's worth of art. Haunting and gorgeous, the unnamed narrator's observations speak powerfully to a wide range of emotions, from the despair felt watching the world crumble and seeing the country's betrayal of its Black citizens, to the balm that family connections can provide in the darkest times. –Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Posted By Nicki Leone,
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Have you been profiled?
SIBA runs "Meet the bookseller" profiles in its weekly newsletter, and excerpts in the reader-targeted The Southern Bookseller Review. These profiles are a way to both raise the visibility of bookstores within the industry and their own communities, and also to introduce booksellers to their colleagues and share some of the good ideas they are implementing to make their businesses successful. After all, booksellers are the best experts about their own businesses!
Booksellers are invited -- indeed, encouraged -- to be profiled. Click here to fill out the form:
Profiles are not limited to owners or managers. Any current SIBA member bookseller is eligible. In fact, they are a great way for store owners to introduce their key staff members to the book industry. Profiles will be edited for publication and sent to the bookseller for final approval before they run.
Catalyst Press started Reading Africa Week in 2017 as an annual celebration of African literature. Each year, during the first full week of December, they ask book-lovers of all kinds to use the hashtags #ReadingAfrica or #ReadingAfricaWeek across social media on posts that spotlight African literature.
African literature is as diverse as the countries that make up the continent. From mystery to romance, from poetry to memoir, from graphic novels to children’s literature, African authors are creating valuable and important work across genres.
#ReadingAfrica seeks to champion and elevate that diverse work. This year will mark the campaign’s fifth year. From December 5-11, 2021, Catalyst invites publishers, authors, librarians, literary organizations, bookstores and book-lovers of all kinds to share the best in African literature across social media. Using the hashtag #ReadingAfrica, participants share their favorite books from new releases to classics. Last year, independent publishers across the globe participated as well as readers eager to share their own booklists, to-be-reads, and old favorites.
This year’s event will run from December 5-11, 2021
The Holiday Catalog landing on doorsteps this week is one of the most beautiful SIBA has ever produced. It is also the most diverse in terms of representing books by and about under-represented groups. Fully 42% of the books in the Winter Catalog feature BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors, characters, or subjects.
Diversity representation was a priority for SIBA in creating this year's catalog. Suzanne Shroger, the head of RAMP, which produces the holiday catalog for several regional associations, noted that "The 2021 SIBA holiday catalog features the most diverse collection of titles in the catalog’s history. SIBA bookstores, board members, and staff recommended and lobbied hard for a wide array of title options that publishers were excited to promote. From BIPOC authors to LGBTQ+ main characters to books featuring other forms of diversity, we couldn’t be happier to say “all are welcome” in the SIBA holiday catalog this year."
The late Nancy Olson was a legendary bookseller, a first-class wit, a remarkably gentle soul, and a tireless supporter of writers, especially new writers looking for a chance in the publishing world. Simply put, she was one of the best folks to ever work in the book business, and her Quail Ridge Books was—and is—a literary institution. An admirer of Nancy’s, in conjunction with SIBA, awards two $2000 gifts in her memory each December. All SIBA booksellers—but not owners—are eligible for the awards. Writers, readers, and/or storeowners may submit a name and any helpful information via email to SIBA at lindamarie@sibaweb.com. Also, individual booksellers may nominate themselves. While the emails should explain why a particular nominee deserves to be selected, there are no hard and fast rules or requirements or guidelines for the submissions—the hope is to simply honor Nancy and recognize special booksellers. The winners will be selected from these nominations by Sarah Goddin from Nancy’s Quail Ridge Books, SIBA’s Linda-Marie Barrett, Nancy’s husband Jim, and the donor of the gifts.
RSS
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance created the Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund in honor of its much-beloved former Executive Director who retired in 2020. The scholarship,
which is funded by authors, provides financial support for bookseller professional development through education and networking at in-person SIBA-sponsored events. This scholarship is meant to help defray the costs of travel, lodging, meals, and other
expenses. As part of our commitment to continued training and staff development, we hope to help a dedicated bookseller who wants to attend, but otherwise couldn’t. We urge booksellers from typically underrepresented groups to apply.
Please write a letter of need and desire and email to 
Shop Black-Owned Businesses in February 2022
Reader Meet Writer with Mesha Maren, author of Perpetual West
Mesha Maren is the author of Sugar Run. Her work has appeared in the Oxford American, the Guardian, Tin House, the Southern Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Ucross Foundation. She is an assistant professor at Duke University and also serves as a NEA Writing Fellow at the federal prison camp in Alderson, West Virginia
The two 2022 conference events are scheduled for May 17 & 18 and August 8 -11. Each conference will be structured differently. The May event focuses on bookseller/author connections, introducing booksellers to authors through panel programs, keynote presentations, and breakout rooms where authors and small groups of booksellers will enjoy get-to-know-you talks. The very popular pick of the list and editor buzz sessions return, and publishers’ studio spaces will promote their upcoming releases, provide galleys, and share promotion details. This information will remain available to booksellers for an extended period after the two-day event.
The August conference will feature a week of education, bookseller retreats, author presentations, new and upcoming titles, and publisher studios, similar to NVNR from the past two years.
The Challenge’s Keynote Launch event will occur on February
7th at 7:00 PM EST: In Pursuit of Racial Justice: A Conversation between Laura Coates and Steven Wright. Laura Coates, the author of Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness, is a CNN senior legal analyst,
SiriusXM host, and adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law. She'll be in conversation with Steven Wright, a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, where he co-directs the Wisconsin
Innocence Project.
SIBA would like to thank Kenrya Rankin, author of Words of Change: Anti-Racism, Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas and her publisher, Sasquatch Books, for providing most of the daily quotes and images of activists. SIBA also thanks Sourcebooks for their contributing sponsorship.
SIBA welcomes Robin Wood to the team!
Christine Lavigna is a book buyer who celebrated her 15th year with Malaprops in 2020. She says "I'm so grateful to receive this generous award. Since my first bookselling gig in college (at the long-defunct Gertrude Stein Memorial Bookshop in Pittsburgh, PA), I've loved the thrill that comes with finding the perfect book for the perfect customer."
Dajah Williams is a full-time bookseller with The Book Worm Bookstore where she handles inventory and customer service and does the store's window displays and sidewalk signs. She loves mythology "and anything Rick Riordan." She says "I'm both surprised and thankful for winning the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award. Being able to work at The Book Worm has hardly felt like work at all and has been full of great experiences, so having what I do be recognized by both Julia [Davis, store owner] and SIBA is something I'll always be grateful for."
“These were particularly hard choices as there were so many outstanding nominations this year," the judges noted in their statement. "We were impressed by the dedication and professionalism of the winning booksellers. In thinking about Nancy's legacy, we were reminded of her eagerness to help those who were starting out in the industry, whether as booksellers or authors, and her belief that bookselling could be a profession for life. After raising two children she started her own bookstore and through perseverance and dedication built it into an award-winning store. She spent 28 years doing something she loved. We are happy that the winners include both a bookseller who is fairly new to the profession and one who has been working and loving her job for many years. Both Dajah and Christine stand out as booksellers who love not just books, but their customers, their stores, authors, and the impact of a bookstore on its community."
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