The regional independent bookseller associations are pleased to invite you to a conversation about the intersection of bookselling and free expression. Understanding that it’s a complicated issue, we wanted to create a space for education and dialogue from a wide array of viewpoints. The goal is for everyone to come away with a framework to use when thinking about what free expression means for our stores (and ourselves).
This event will be moderated by Jonathan Friedman, Director of Education at PEN America, and the panel will include PEN’s Free Expression Education Manager Summer Lopez, along with booksellers and authors from around the country. After the discussion, there will be an opportunity to talk through what you’ve heard and learned in smaller breakout groups.
Presentation Moderators:
Jonathan Friedman, Director of Education, PEN America
Summer Lopez, Senior Director of Free Expression Programs, PEN America
Panelists:
Kenny Brechner, DDG Books, Farmington, Maine, children's book specialist, recipient of the2014 Pannell Award and the 2015 Maine School Board Association Business Friend of Education Award. Writes the Thursday Shelftalker children's book blog for Publishers Weekly
Vicky Titcomb, Titcomb's Bookshop, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, past co-chair of the New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council
Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Georgia, member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the American Booksellers Association and a SIBA Influencer
Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts, author The Least We Can Do: White Supremacy, Free Speech, & Independent Bookstores
Kiese Laymon, Ottilie Schillig Professor in English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi, author of the novel Long Division, Heavy, and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
Breakout Moderators:
John Cavalier, co-owner and founder of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, LA. SIBA board president
Julia Davis, owner of The Book Worm Bookstore in Powder Springs, GA, SIBA board member
Nicole Sullivan, owner BookBar Denver, The Bookies (new owner), BookBar Press, and BookGive, Denver, Colorado, MPIBA board member/past president
Beth Wagner, general manager, Phoenix Bookstores, VT and NEIBA Board President
Kelsy April, general manager, Savoy and Bank Square Bookstores, RI and CT, NEIBA board director
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