Last Friday at the Book Industry Study Group's annual meeting in New York, Sourcebooks publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah was honored with the Sally Dedecker Award for Lifetime Service. Her acceptance speech, a call to action, was so appreciated that she received the event's only standing ovation. Here Shelf Awareness offers the speech:

Award presentation: Dominique Raccah with incoming BISG chair Matt Kennell of Versa Press.

Good morning, friends, colleagues, and fellow book lovers!

Thank you, BISG, for this extraordinary honor--one that carries the name of Sally Dedecker, a woman who deeply believed, as I do, that every book deserves a reader, and every reader deserves that perfect book! Sally's legacy reminds us that progress in publishing is not just possible--it's imperative.

Standing here in New York--a city where stories are practically a public utility--I'm reminded of why I joined BISG nearly two decades ago, when Sourcebooks was just a spark of what it would become and the ebook revolution was just beginning. I wasn't looking for just another committee meeting (my calendar was quite full, thank you!). I was looking for kindred spirits--people who were also experimenting, who saw the future not as something to survive, but as something to shape. People who understood that books are bridges--and that the real magic happens where ink meets code, where metadata meets imagination, where an idea meets its reader at just the right moment.

Serving as BISG Board co-chair and chair from 2006 to 2012, and on the executive committee for nine years, I witnessed that magic unfold. Together, we navigated the complexities of the 13-digit ISBN transition--an act that quietly revolutionized our supply chain and commerce. We tackled the ebook revolution, strengthened ties across our ecosystem, and proved that even in a competitive industry, collaboration is still our greatest catalyst for growth. Sally taught us that no detail is too small, and no mission too ambitious, if it serves our readers and our authors.

And now--once again--the ground beneath us is shifting.

Today, we're living through another defining moment. AI is no longer on the horizon--it's in the room. Our supply chains are transforming in real time. Metadata has evolved from a back-office function to a front-line force in discoverability and sales. And data itself--how we collect it, structure it, interpret it--is no longer a quiet infrastructure. It's a creative engine, a compass, a powerful storytelling tool in its own right.

The questions we face now aren't just operational--they're existential. How do we preserve creative integrity while embracing efficiency? How do we leverage AI and data to elevate--not replace--the human genius that fuels publishing? to deepen the connection between authors and readers?

At Sourcebooks, we've chosen a path rooted in stewardship. We protect the integrity of every author's and illustrator's work while embracing AI to clear away the repetitive and the routine, giving our teams more space for the inspired. Starts with humans and ends with humans is the way we're currently talking about it. We see AI not as a threat to creativity, but as a force that--if guided wisely--can amplify our ability to serve readers, connect communities, and elevate voices that might otherwise go unheard. Make no mistake... we believe it is essential at this time to protect the livelihood of our authors and creative partners and protect this fragile ecosystem that's so important to all readers. Lest I be less than clear, we must participate in the decisions that are being made in order to create a future for books.

And that moment calls for bold leadership.

We must ask better questions--not just about what's possible, but about what's right. We must ensure AI is implemented with transparency (with full respect for authors' and artists' intellectual property and creative contributions), with ethics, and with equity. We must challenge ourselves to be not just faster or leaner--but better. More inclusive. More innovative. More aligned with the values that brought us into publishing in the first place.

And who better to lead that charge than BISG?

Tell me: what other industry places its bets on imagination? What other community shows up--day after day--to build bridges between cultures, generations, and futures still unwritten?

This room is full of people who believe that books matter. That stories matter. And BISG continues to prove that when we come together, even as competitors, we can reimagine the entire framework of this industry for the better.

That is the baton Sally handed us. And I have no doubt we will carry it further than even she dreamed possible.

To BISG's staff, board, committees, and volunteers--thank you for your dedication to progress. And really, thank you to Brian, Laura, Joe, Tom, Fran, Maureen, Phil, Jan, Mike Shatzkin, all the people who worked so hard... to make it possible for us to build today's supply chain. And to Sally--thank you for reminding us that the future of books is not only bright but beautiful, if we're willing to meet it with both imagination and integrity.

BISG didn't just make a difference in our community--it made a difference in who I became.

I've always hated the idea of a "lifetime achievement" award, because it sounds like the story is ending. It kind of says you're done. But none of us are done. This isn't a finale--it's an invitation.

An invitation to all of us, together, to keep dreaming, building, leading--and above all--believing that books (and the work we each do every day) can change lives.

Thank you.

Peter Miles Bergman and Cody Kasselman have purchased Quimby's Bookstore, Chicago, Ill., from previous owner Eric Kirsammer.

The 1,500-square-foot bookstore, at 1854 W. North Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood, focuses on independently published books, graphic novels, and zines. 

Kasselman is a self-described "lifelong bookstore lover and avid reader" and has experience in the publishing industry, as well as a background in helping small business owners "grow their operations and refine their long-term strategy." Prior to joining Quimby's, Kasselman supported the art and photo bookstore Earnest Paper in Denver, Colo.

Bergman has a background in commercial printing, and for the past 17 years has been a professor of art and graphic design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. For 13 years, Bergman has run the publishing imprint is Press; its titles have been sold on consignment at Quimby's.

Peter Miles Bergman and Cody Kasselman

"I'm proud to co-steward Quimby's next chapter alongside Peter," Kasselman said. "I'm most excited to preserve Quimby's artist and author-led legacy and continue providing a platform for the creative community."

"I'm overjoyed to take the helm of my favorite bookstore alongside Cody," Bergman added. "I'm most excited to provide a platform for you, and to add my small press publishing and printing skills to Quimby's mission."

Eric Kirsammer bought Quimby's from original owner Steven Svymbersky in 1996 and moved the store to its current home that same year. He announced he was selling the store in December 2024, telling Block Club Chicago that the departure of long-time manager Liz Mason was a major reason for his decision to sell.

Kasselman is already working full-time at the store, and Bergman will start in late May.

The "parklet" outdoor seating area in front of Rough Draft Bar & Books in Kingston, N.Y., was destroyed last Thursday, but "it was not immediately clear who or what caused the damage," the Times Union reported, adding that city police are investigating the incident and, along with the Department of Public Works, had cleaned up the wreckage.

"Outdoor seating has been hugely beneficial to us and popular with our guests--and guests of other local businesses--since the city made it possible in 2020, and we look forward to rebuilding and being able to offer this option again as soon as possible," co-owners Amanda and Anthony Stromoski said in a statement.

The owners shared a photo of the damage in a Facebook post on Friday, noting: "Woke up like this. These are the lengths some mega corporations will go to in order to sabotage #IndependentBookstoreDay weekend. (Edit: This sentence, and only this sentence, is a joke! We don't know who did this or whether it was intentionally, but KPD is investigating.).... But please buy some books, booze, and coffee so we can rebuild the parklet ASAP!"

In an update on Monday, Rough Draft posted: "Where we're at. First, we want to thank everyone for the outpouring of community support following the destruction of our parklet last week. It means the world to us that so many of you have come to love this space as much as we have, and that there have so many offers to help us restore it."

The owners also addressed some frequent questions they had received since the incident, noting that there are cameras outside and all around the location and more will be added in the future, but "in the meantime, police are using the footage they have and investigating."
 
Acknowledging the many people who reached out to offer assistance of all sorts--including financially--in rebuilding the space, the owners said the offers were "incredibly generous," but they are insured "and we have an amazing contractor--Alejandro--who has already started putting things back together.... Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has reached out. It means the world to us. Please keep coming in, sharing the space, grabbing a book, a coffee, or a pint, and we'll see you soon." 

Canadian bookseller Mabel's Fables Bookstore, which opened in 1988 at 662 Mount Pleasant Road location in Toronto, has launched a C$150,000 (US$108,000) GoFundMe campaign to help finance an impending move down the street, to 540 Mount Pleasant Road. The current location will close permanently on August 23. 

Mabel's Fables' current location

"A move is not our preference but out of necessity, as our landlord has informed us of their intention to build a condominium in the next two years," owner Eleanor LeFave wrote on the GoFundMe page. "Our building will be demolished. While our landlords say they will find us a temporary location during construction, we know that could be even harder to recover from."

The new store will be on one level, with extra room for events. Mabel's Fables 2.0 "will have the same feel, the same wonderful books, the same wonderful people and kids, and the same hard-working bookstore cat," LeFave noted.

Money raised through the crowdfunding campaign will go toward renovations to the new space; custom bookshelves, display furniture, signage and new computers; moving costs; and income that will be lost during the week the store is closed for the move.

In an Instagram post, Mabel's Fables noted: "While we are a little heartbroken to be saying goodbye to our original location of 37 years, we know Mabel's Fables 2.0 will be just as magical a place for families to come and develop their love of reading as Mabel's has ever been!"

"I just feel relieved that we've been able to move on the same street," LeFave told CP24. "I expect that everything will be a little exciting for a while, while everybody comes to see the new spot. We'll just carry on and we'll be looking after families for another generation or two."

British author Jane Gardam, who "was regarded by many as the unsung heroine of English fiction... and won a formidable array of prizes," died April 28. She was 96. Although Gardam "never achieved the popular acclaim of contemporaries such as Margaret Drabble or Penelope Lively, she attracted a select army of admirers... Her strengths lay in an old-fashioned skill for storytelling, an instinctive feel for period and an ability to get under the skin of her characters. These qualities attracted a wide and faithful readership; she was never out of print and became one of the few literary novelists to make a respectable living out of fiction," the Telegraph wrote. She was appointed OBE in 2009.

Jane Gardam

Gardam was perhaps best known for Old Filth (2004), which in a 2015 BBC survey was voted among the 100 greatest British novels. It featured a central character who reappeared in two follow-up novels, The Man in the Wooden Hat (2009) and Last Friends (2013).

Diana Athill, reviewing Last Friends in the Daily Telegraph, praised the author's skill in turning a "very funny story... with no resort to sentimentality, into a keenly moving study of old age." Gardam, she noted, "could indeed write well about linoleum if she wanted to, but what she excels at is writing about the human heart and mind."

Gardam's The Hollow Land (1981) won the Whitbread Award (children's book category), and she took a second Whitbread for The Queen of the Tambourine (1991) in the adult category. God on the Rocks was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1978. 

Her other books include A Long Way from Verona (1971), Black Faces, White Faces (1975), The Sidmouth Letters (1980), The Pangs of Love (1983), Crusoe's Daughter (1986), Showing the Flag (1989), Going into a Dark House (1994), Faith Fox (1996), Missing the Midnight (1997), and The Flight of the Maidens (2000). 

In 1999 she won the Heywood Hill literary prize for "a lifetime's contribution to our enjoyment of books," which prompted thoughts about her own mortality: "I have not perhaps given enough thought to stopping breathing," Gardam observed. "My will is more or less in order, though I am becoming sad that the bequests are getting fewer as friends drop from their perches and will never know I cared. I come from a very long-living family, all hypochondriacs but so enjoying their condition that they never seemed to grow old until they were suddenly gone."

She was one of the first novelists published by Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown. The Guardian noted that Richard Beswick, her publisher, said she was "hugely loved by us all. Her warmth, humor and wisdom are quite irreplaceable."

Europa Editions noted: "At the news of her passing, we at Europa celebrate this remarkable woman whose witticism and sharp, vivid take on British life will carry on for years to come."

"Book Prom 2025!! After Indie Bookstore Day we hosted Book Prom for our loyal book club members across all 6 book clubs we offer," Storyline Bookshop, Upper Arlington, Ohio, posted on Instagram. "We had character superlatives, Storyline Trivia, our prom photo wall, tons of pizza from @hobnobpizza, and we even crowned Book Prom King and Queen! Such a fun night re-living our prom days!!"

Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, Ore., shared a photo of the shop's seasonally appropriate sales floor display, noting: "It's that time of year again--gift ideas for moms, dads, and grads are on display up at the front of the store. And as always, if you need suggestions or aren't finding what you're looking for, ask us! We love helping you find the perfect gift--and if we don't have it on hand, we're often able to order it in!"

Kim Lauber is joining Macmillan Publishers in the newly created role of senior v-p, consumer insights, marketing & analytics, effective May 19. Lauber has more than 20 years of publishing experience and has led marketing teams at multiple publishing houses, including Chronicle Books, Random House Children's Books, and most recently, as v-p of marketing at Abrams. At Macmillan, Lauber will lead the consumer insights, marketing, and analytics team and collaborate with divisional marketing and corporate shared services groups to drive Macmillan's strategic evolution in consumer engagement and insights and all aspects of data-focused performance marketing.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Gallery Books).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Carley Fortune, author of One Golden Summer (Berkley, $19, 9780593638910).

The View: Jeremy Renner, author of My Next Breath: A Memoir (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250383532).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Jamie Oliver, author of Simply Jamie: Fast & Simple Food (Flatiron, $39.99, 9781250374004).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Zarna Garg, author of This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir (Ballantine, $30, 9780593975022). She will also appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Lyrical Media and Ryder Picture Company will adapt Sian Gilbert's debut novel, She Started It, into a movie. Variety reported that screenwriter Jessica Sharzer (A Simple Favor) is set to direct from the script she co-wrote with Sarah Masson. 

"Whenever I write a script, I'm directing it in my head and then translating what I see onto the page," said Sharzer. "With She Started It, I'm very excited to get the chance to see a movie all the way through production, from first draft to final frame. The movie is a genre mash-up with a very specific tone and, from the moment I read the novel, I knew I needed to direct it. I'm very grateful to be on this journey with RPC and the Lyrical team."

Ryder Picture Company's Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett are producing with Lyrical Media's Alexander Black. Lyrical is financing the development with Jon Rosenberg and Natalie Sellers executive producing. Casting is currently underway.

Winners have been announced for the 2025 Oregon Book Awards, sponsored by Literary Arts:

Ken Kesey Award for Fiction: We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons (Knopf)
Stafford/Hall Award For Poetry: ten-cent flower & other territories by Charity E. Yoro (First Matter Press)
Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction: The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren (Viking)
Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction: On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California by Jaclyn Moyer (Beacon Press)
Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult & Middle Grade Literature: Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier (Clarion Books/HarperCollins)
Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature: I'm Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People by Anne Broyles (Holiday House)
Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama: Still Harvey Still by Brianna Barrett

The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award: Laura Moulton, founder, Street Books, Portland, "in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon's literary community."
The Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award: Jelani Memory, founder, A Kids Co., Portland, "in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon's young readers."

"Each year for the past 38 years, Literary Arts has celebrated the incredibly talented and exciting writers from across Oregon," said Andrew Proctor, executive director of Literary Arts. "Not only does our writing community make an important contribution to the national conversation, but also to the regional and local conversations that shape our society. The awards also shine a light on organizations that connect with our community members from all walks of life, whether they are young or old, and regardless of socio-economic standing. These organizations are doing outstanding work to support an equitable future."

photo: Devon Warren

Patrick O'Dowd's debut novel is A Campus on Fire (Regal House, April 29), a literary thriller about a student journalist investigating a shocking death within an elite university's cult-like creative writing program. As a right-wing student movement gains momentum, she finds herself dangerously entangled in the chaos. O'Dowd lives in New Jersey, where he spends too much time watching movies.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A student journalist investigates a shocking death in an elite writing program, uncovering cult-like secrets as a rising far-right movement threatens to consume the campus.

On your nightstand now:

Daddy by Emma Cline. Her stories are razor-sharp dissections of power, desire, and quiet menace. Her novels The Girls and The Guest are two of my favorites as well.

Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein. A fascinating look at the rise of the modern right, which is especially relevant to the world of A Campus on Fire. I read this while writing A Campus on Fire, and it seemed like a good time to revisit it.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. The mysteries, the atmosphere, the sheer brilliance of Holmes--it was impossible not to get hooked. I still love mysteries, and my writing often reflects that love. I think it all traces back to those stories.

Your top five authors:

Ernest Hemingway: no one distills the raw, brutal truths of the human experience with such sparse elegance.

Hilary Mantel: a genius at bringing history to life with psychological depth.

Joan Didion: her clarity of thought and precision in language is unmatched.

Patricia Highsmith: the queen of psychological unease and moral ambiguity.

Kazuo Ishiguro: the quiet devastation of his novels is masterful.

Book you've faked reading:

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I really, really want to, but I just can't crack it.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper. A brutal, poetic neo-noir that strips the Hollywood mythos down to its bones. It's dark, sharp, and impossible to shake--exactly what noir should be.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Severance by Ling Ma. The eerie pink cover pulled me in, equal parts sleek and unsettling. It turned out to be an incredible mix of satire and dystopia--sharp, haunting, and oddly funny in the way it captures the slow, surreal collapse of normal life.

Book you hid from your parents:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I was too young, but its chaos and madness felt like a forbidden peek into a wild, untamed world.

Book that changed your life:

Postwar by Tony Judt. It shaped the way I think about history, narrative, and the long shadows of ideology. Judt doesn't just recount events--he dissects them, showing how ideas ripple through generations. It made me see history as something alive, constantly shaping and reshaping the world we live in.

Favorite line from a book:

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." --from Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner. It's a line that echoes through everything I write.

Five books you'll never part with:

White Noise by Don DeLillo. I first read it at a time when I felt overwhelmed by the noise of modern life, and it resonated in a way I didn't expect. DeLillo just gets it.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I find Tom Ripley endlessly fascinating--his cold calculation and the moral gray areas he navigates stick with me long after the book ends.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. This book was a revelation for me. The way Mantel brings history to life with such psychological depth made me fall in love with storytelling all over again.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. There's something about McCarthy's sparse, poetic style that sticks with you. It's grim, yet somehow hopeful, and I've never read anything quite like it.

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. Davis's writing is deceptively simple, but each story feels like a glimpse into something vast. I love how she makes the ordinary seem profound.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The slow, creeping revelation of its world was devastating in a way I'll never forget. I'd love to experience that quiet heartbreak all over again, not knowing what was coming.

If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?

Tom Ripley. I think he'd be fascinating to sit across from. It's hard to say if he'd be charming or unsettling, but either way, it would be an unforgettable evening. I'd make sure to check my wallet, though, before I left.

A cursed harpoon that can kill sea ghosts brings together a blacksmith's son and a forlorn spirit in the wondrous and enthralling middle-grade novel Graciela in the Abyss.

One hundred years ago, the "ruthless" fisherman Fernando Gonzalo and the "pitiless" blacksmith Ignacio Leon forged a weapon to kill sea spirits. Fernando, bent on harvesting the spirits' pearl teeth, sailed off with the harpoon and never returned.

Now, Ignacio's great-grandson, Jorge Leon, has found the weapon. The boy's unkind parents want to use it, but Jorge won't let them harm the spirits. Instead, he steals the harpoon with the intent to destroy it. However, Fernando, now a vengeful ghost, attacks, reclaiming the weapon and plunging Jorge beneath the waves.

During the struggle, Amina, a specter of the sea, is stabbed by the terrible harpoon, terrifying her best friend Graciela Lima. But Graciela--after dying at 13 and waking to a world where she does not have her sister--refuses to lose Amina too. So, when the severely injured Amina gives Jorge the ability to breathe underwater and asks Graciela to help him find and destroy the harpoon, Graciela plans to abandon the "wretched" boy in the abyss. Yet as she witnesses Jorge's determination to help, Graciela reconsiders Amina's admonition to "think bigger than yourself."

The awe-inspiring characters in this mesmerizing folkloric story exude a dazzling defiance against unjust power. Jorge, who thinks himself worthless, finds the might to disobey his parents despite how "the blaze of the forge had long ago burned away any gentleness" in his father and how even stray cats feared his mother. Similarly, in Graciela's life, her Papá "had deemed swimming unladylike" yet still she swam. Also uniting the pair is how each creates "something beautiful from what the world discard[s]"--Jorge invents toys, Graciela refines sea glass--which brilliantly parallels how both change over their time together.

Newbery Medal winner and 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Meg Medina (Merci Suárez Changes Gears) uses hypnotic prose to conjure an oceanic realm teeming with wonders that speak to the interconnectedness of land and sea (Shell Musicians filling conches with "ocean sounds"; messages ferried in bottles; spirits stuck in driftwood, their "screaming mouths... frozen in the shapes of knotholes"). Anna and Elena Balbusso, who have together illustrated more than 50 titles, create enchanting mixed media art featuring diaphanous shapes and layers of texture. The Balbusso twins' illustrations are as inky as the deep's dark waters. Seemingly insurmountable odds ("Nothing ventures there without being consumed") and grief ("This was the curse of the living.... No one really knew how much time was left") bring suspense to a supernatural underwater tale as immersive, majestic, and alluring as the deep sea itself. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

Shelf Talker: A sea spirit and a blacksmith's son must quash their differences and destroy a cursed harpoon in this mesmerizing, folkloric novel set against the majestic backdrop of the ocean's mysterious abyss.