August is Margins Bookselling Month

#MarginsBookselling Month is an initiative coordinated by The Word to celebrate booksellers and bookstores centering BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Disabled, and Neurodiverse communities. The celebrations include the Duende-Word BIPOC Bookseller Award; safe spaces for booksellers to connect, educate and restore; a month-long consumer awareness campaign in August; an interactive bookstore map; curated author events; bookseller-focused workshops.

The August calendar features a number of previews of forthcoming diverse books from publishers including Dutton, Melville House, Tiny Reparations, and Steerforth Press.

So far, the #MarginsBookselling initiative showcases about 100 bookstores. Booksellers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and/or neurodiverse can sign up to be involved:

Store owners and managers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and/or neurodiverse can submit their store to be included on the #MarginsBookselling Map

The 2023 Virtual Conference (September 8, 2023) also offers many useful workshops for booksellers interested in finding new ways to connect with and support their own local diverse communities.

Change happens from the ground up. Supporting -- and more to the point, participating in -- initiatives like #MarginsBookselling may seem like small steps, but they are part of that swelling tide that raises us all.