Eileen Dengler, executive director of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and president of the Professional Booksellers School, will retire from NAIBA in December 2026 and from the School in 2027.

Eileen Dengler

Dengler started in the industry in 1984, at the American Booksellers Association, where she was director of meetings & conventions, in charge of the ABA Annual Convention as well as the ABA's extensive education calendar. She was responsible for the growth of what was called simply "the ABA," the biggest book industry event in North America.

After the association sold full interest in the convention in 1995 to Reed Exhibitions, which renamed it BookExpo America (BEA), Dengler became director of convention services at the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau, and then founded Reading Enterprises, an association and meetings management firm. In that role, she worked with NAIBA, the Southern California Children's Booksellers Association, the Sleepy Hollow Book Festival on its inaugural book festival, and the Harvard Square Book Festival on its inaugural book festival. She also managed many associations and conventions outside of the book industry.

In 1999, she was named executive director of NAIBA. As NAIBA noted, "Her 10 years with ABA and 26 years with NAIBA have been her most fulfilling. At both associations, she has creatively solved problems, built strong relationships, and was instrumental in their growth. Her passion for improving the lives of booksellers inspired her to create the Professional Booksellers School in 2020 with the full support of NAIBA."

Dengler commented, "I can't believe I got paid to do what I love."

NAIBA added that "Dengler's next projects include finishing the many manuscripts and stories that call to her from notebooks and Google Drives; reading novels in the morning; and continuing to help the book industry if called upon. She also plans to lose track of time, get lost in thought, and play with her grandbabies every single day."

NAIBA is beginning a search for a new executive director and plans to have a new person in place in January. During 2026, that person will be trained by the entire NAIBA team in every aspect of NAIBA operations to be ready take the lead at the end of 2026. For more information about the position, click here.

Some of us at Shelf Awareness have known Eileen since the days she headed the old ABA show, and we will miss her greatly. She has always been helpful, cheerful, thoughtful, funny, smart--and she has the best laugh. Luckily we have a year and a half to take in the news and make sure it won't be goodbye.

"With so much real-life horror, we could use a place where we can combat those fears in a safe space," said Lauren Komer, co-owner and founder of the Twisted Spine, a horror-focused bookstore and cafe that will open in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., this September.

Jason Mellow and Lauren Komer

The Twisted Spine will reside at 306 Grand St. in a 1,200-square-foot space and will carry a wide range of horror titles for children, teens, and adults. Komer explained that she and partner Jason Mellow will work with a "very broad definition" of horror and include titles for diehard fans as well as people new to the genre. 

The cafe will serve coffee during the day and beer and wine in the evenings, and the Twisted Spine's event plans include author readings and book clubs, along with horror movie screenings, live performances, and podcast recordings. The goal, said Komer, is to "really make it a home for horror in New York." 

To help get the Twisted Spine over the finish line, Komer and Mellow have launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $25,000. Money raised will go toward upfront costs like inventory, equipment, and renovations--Komer said the space is currently a "pink-walled former office." The campaign features a variety of backer rewards, including exclusive stickers, T-shirts, and tote bags with artwork by local NYC authors, tickets to the bookstore's opening party, and even the ability to have one's name featured on one of the tombstones that will decorate the Twisted Spine's graveyard-themed back patio.

One backer reward, Komer noted, is related to Twisted Tales, a horror chapbook that the bookstore will publish annually. Every year around Halloween, the Twisted Spine will commission a writer to craft a horror short story that features in some capacity the bookstore and New York City. Victor LaValle, author of the The Changeling and The Ballad of Black Tom, has agreed to be the first Twisted Tales author. His short story is available as a perk for the Kickstarter campaign in both epub and print, with a limited quantity of signed copies.

Expanding on the sorts of events she'd like to feature, Komer said she plans to host both silent and traditional book clubs, and as the store already has a partnership with a candle company, they might do candle-making classes as well. Touching on readings, she noted that in Britain there is a tradition of reading ghost stories around Christmas time, and she is considering reading A Christmas Carol every year during the holidays.

Being able to do live podcast recordings, she continued, is especially important to her, as podcasts were her "gateway to horror." Komer originally moved to New York City to complete her Ph.D. in neuroscience, which entailed a lot of "long hours in the lab." To keep herself awake and her mind occupied, Komer started listening to horror podcasts, and over time "really fell in love with horror." Listening to those podcasts led to reading more horror literature, and she was always kind of surprised that New York City didn't have a horror-specific bookstore.

After finishing her Ph.D., Komer started working at the National Institute of Health. During that time, the idea of a horror bookstore stayed in the back of her mind, and eventually she began talking to Mellow about the idea. She described him as a fellow horror fan, although more into horror movies than horror literature, and he was "totally on board" and very excited about the idea. 

In September 2024 they launched the Twisted Spine as a pop-up shop. They appeared at the Brooklyn Book Festival, collaborated with the Brooklyn Horror Society, and took part in a series of horror screenings called Dark Sparks at the Nitehawk Cinema, which featured an author introducing a horror movie that inspired them. All the while Komer planned to open a bricks-and-mortar store eventually, but did not think they would do so until 2028 at least. 

That was until February of this year, when the Trump administration illegally terminated her employment at the NIH. After some soul searching, Komer decided to "speed up the timeline," and she and Mellow signed the lease for the space at 306 Grand on May 1. The Kickstarter campaign is meant to make up for the fact that they are opening the store much earlier than planned, Komer explained.

So far, she continued, people have been "super excited" about the Twisted Spine. In particular, there's been some "wonderful outreach from the horror author community," Komer said. --Alex Mutter

The Nook recently celebrated its grand reopening at 314 Main Ave. in Brookings, S.Dak. The Brookings Register reported that the festivities occurred five months after a fire destroyed neighboring Brost's Fashion. Founded in February 2023, the Nook hadn't yet celebrated its second anniversary when the December 30 blaze damaged it and neighboring businesses.

"It was heart wrenching," said Laci Thompson, who owns both the Nook and downtown boutique Pasque. "You really felt for your fellow business owners. The things you can never replace are the energy you spent getting those locations up and running.... The dollars and product--that's something you can replace. It's not our homes, right? I really found an enhanced appreciation for people who've been through a fire in their homes. I can't fathom that. It was a surreal experience and one I hope none of us go through again."

Thompson added: "Our neighbors had water damage, but we were just saturated with smoke. As you can imagine, smoke infiltrates everywhere. There's no way to mitigate that. I feel very blessed to be where we are. I'm just so grateful to the first responders and firefighters--otherwise I might not have had a business to go to back to."

After the reopening, Thompson posted on Instagram: "!! T H A N K   Y O U !! Our Grand Reopening was nothing short of wonderful, and it's all because of you! To our customers + community. Thank you for showing up, cheering us on, and showing us once again just how special this community is. From the bottom of our hearts, we are grateful for your support, your kind words, and your shared excitement. To the team. Thank you to the Nook team for keeping the energy and life of the Nook going while we were in a different space. Your ability to keep the brand alive, work alternate hours and stay focused on our mission is always appreciated. A note of thanks to the Pasque team for supporting the Nook products while in a shared space.... To our Downtown Brookings neighbors. Thank you for your endless encouragement and sharing our story. We feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so much support and kindness. We're so happy to be home at 314 Main. Here's to fresh starts, familiar faces, new friends, and everything ahead! With a full heart + so much gratitude."

Thompson told the Register that during the time the store was closed, the bookseller "took the opportunity--a silver lining per se--to really re-think what the store could look like. Even though we're still fairly new, you've got to take these moments to see how it's an opportunity to think differently.... I'm sure my fellow business owners who were more greatly impacted would say, you do have to take an adjustment period. You do have to go through all the cycles of emotions. But it's allowed us to brainstorm."

This coming Friday, June 13, 1-1:45 p.m. Eastern, ReadingGroupGuides.com will host its 14th annual Book Group Speed Dating Event--virtually. Representatives from eight publishers will share, via video, selections from their lists, giving booksellers, librarians, and book group leaders an inside look at new and upcoming titles that book groups will want to know about and discuss. E-galleys will be available to be requested for select titles via Edelweiss and/or NetGalley, as well as print galleys from some of the publishers. Leave-behinds will be made available in PowerPoint and Excel formats. Advance signup is required and can be done here.

News editor, author, and historian Stanley Nelson, who was "best known for his reports on criminal injustices and cold cases from the civil rights era," died June 5, the Natchez Democrat reported. He was 69. A longtime Concordia Sentinel editor, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for "his reporting in 2011 to unravel a 1964 murder case in Ferriday [La.] and related unsolved murders."

Stanley Nelson

During the past two decades, Nelson dedicated himself to telling stories of murder victims of the Ku Klux Klan and wrote hundreds of accounts of those killings, which were published in two books: Devils Walking: Ku Klux Klan Murders Along the Mississippi River in the 1960s (2016) and Klan of Devils: The Murder of a Black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff (2021). 

Author Greg Iles posted on social media: "The inspiration for one of the beloved characters in my Natchez Burning trilogy has unexpectedly passed, and his death is a great loss to the South. I'm working on a small piece about journalist Stanley Nelson for our newspaper, but this is some of what has appeared so far. The great reporters of that era have been chiming in since yesterday. It's a dark day for justice."

Vidalia Mayor Buz Craft told the Natchez Democrat that Nelson was a well-read journalist and was respected by all who read his work: "He knew a wealth of information about local history and I think a lot of people took that for granted for a long time. He has been missed from the pages of the Sentinel. I'd met him years ago when I was in the banking business and he was a good guy and always a joy to be around. He'll be missed."  

Roscoe Barnes III, cultural heritage and tourism manager at Visit Natchez, said, "Nelson was a man of conviction. He was bold, determined, and fearless in his reporting. I am personally convinced that his journalism, his books and his lectures have made an indelible mark on our area in such a profound way that his name will be remembered for generations to come." 

Andrew Maraniss did a series of community events to launch Beyond the Game: Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone, illustrated by DeAndra Hodge, the fourth title in his Beyond the Game: Athletes Change the World illustrated biography series from Viking Books for Young Readers. Indigenous professional runner Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone, who uses her platform as an athlete to advocate on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, appeared with Maraniss at events that brought together members of the diversity-in-running community, sexual assault prevention community, Native American readers and artists, children, and families. Pictured: Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone and Andrew Maraniss at a standing-room-only appearance at Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn.

"Happy #PRIDE from all of us at Author's Note! The window display is up and we're here with queer book recs all year long," Author's Note Bookstore, Medina, N.Y., posted on Instagram, adding: "Don't forget, we'll be collecting donations for The Trevor Project for the whole month of June. A donation of any amount enters you to win a tote bag full of LGBTQ+ books or a $50 Author's Note gift card!"

Looking for a great gift (or bookstore display) idea for Father's Day? Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C., shared photos on Facebook of the bookshop's sales floor display, noting: "Father's Day is Sunday, June 15! Need some book recs before then? Ask our dads!"

Carolyn Pittis has been promoted to v-p, digital operations, at Hachette Book Group. She joined the company in 2021 as director of enterprise transformation. Earlier she was v-p of operations at Sterling Publishing and spent more than 20 years at HarperCollins, where she held multiple senior leadership positions, including senior v-p of publishing transformation and senior v-p of global marketing strategy and operations.

Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson (Scholastic Press).

Tomorrow:
Today: Matt Groark, author of The Meat Teacher Cookbook: The Ultimate Backyard BBQ Guide for an A+ in Pitmastery (Harper Influence, $36, 9780063288416).

The View: Bob the Drag Queen, author of Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert (Gallery Books, $27.99, 9781668061978).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Prabal Gurung, author of Walk Like a Girl: A Memoir (Viking, $32, 9780593493274).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Glennon Doyle, co-author of We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life's 20 Questions (The Dial Press, $34, 9780593977644).

MGM+ has released the first trailer for The Institute, an eight-episode series based on the 2019 Stephen King novel. Deadline reported that the project, which premieres July 13 on the streaming network, comes from director Jack Bender (From), writer Benjamin Cavell (Justified, The Stand), and MGM+ Studios.     

The Institute stars Joe Freeman (Luke), Ben Barnes (Tim), Mary-Louise Parker (Ms. Sigsby), Simone Miller (Kalisha), Fionn Laird (Nick), Hannah Galway (Wendy), Julian Richings (Stackhouse), Robert Joy (Dr. Hendricks), and Martin Roach (Chief Ashworth).

King executive produces alongside director Bender; Cavell, who wrote the teleplay; and Gary Barber, Sam Sheridan, and Ed Redlich. 

Kathryn Faulke won the £10,000 (about $13,560) Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Prize for Every Kind of People. The award honors the best debut by an author over 50 years old.

Chair of judges Jacqueline Wilson commented: "The stylish shortlist shows what a variety of entries we've had. Any would have been worthy winners, but we were united in thinking Kathryn's Every Kind of People simply had to be at the very top of the list. It's a riveting book that treats elderly, infirm and irritable people as the lively and extraordinary human beings they really are. Kathryn Faulke is a shining example to us all, though she's self-deprecating and touchingly hard on herself. Every Kind of People is truly heart-warming and will be in pride of place on my bookshelf of very special books."

Faulke said, "I'm so honored. I wanted people to see that it doesn't matter how old you are, or how what illnesses you have--you are still a human being, and you can still engage. You're still funny. You're still interesting. You're still lively. I really want people to see care as a profession, as something that's skilled and positive, and as something that's enjoyable. I just think it's so important."

Victoria Zeller is a trans writer born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., where she still proudly resides. A former football player and lifelong fan, her initial focus was sports journalism before she made a pivot to writing about queers who can't stay out of trouble. One of the Boys ($19.99, Levine Querido) is her debut novel.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A headstrong trans girl rejoins her old high school football team to make one final push for a state championship.

On your nightstand now:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White. I've been in a bit of a reading slump as of late, and I saved this book for just such an occasion. White's books are violent, off-putting delights, and every time I pick one up, I get mad I'll never write sentences so perfectly disgusting.

Favorite book when you were a child:

It's tough for me to pick just one, so I'll toss out a few series that meant a lot to me in elementary school: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps, Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House, Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventures, and the many works of Matt Christopher. When I was in middle school, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians became my first true obsession.

Favorite book to read to a child:

I'm not out here reading books to children in my day-to-day, but I'd default to anything by Shel Silverstein. His poetry collections were formative for Young Victoria's sense of humor, and The Giving Tree is a perfect picture book.

Your top five authors:

Casey Plett: She's my go-to answer for my favorite author and has been for years. I'll talk more about A Safe Girl to Love below but know that I adore all Plett's published works and I'm eagerly awaiting more.

Andrew Joseph White: As I said above, White creates worlds I can only call Brilliantly Vile. Compound Fracture makes me feel like I'm covered in bugs (complimentary).

Casey McQuiston: I'm not typically a romance reader, but I'm always captivated by McQuiston's worlds. Their supporting characters feel alive in a way that few other authors' do, and even my romance-skeptic self is not immune to the smoldering chemistry in Red, White & Royal Blue or One Last Stop.

Jon Bois: He's not a "capital-a" Author, but his mid-2010s sports blogging alone would be enough to put him on my personal writer Mount Rushmore. Add in [the serialized multimedia narrative] 17776 and there's no way I'm keeping Bois off this list.

I'm having a really hard time coming up with just one more spot in my top five, so I'm gonna do a lightning round of authors that I haven't shoehorned into this piece in other places: James Baldwin, James Acker, Flannery O'Connor, Rory Power, Emily Brontë, Angie Thomas. I could go on all day, but I'm stopping myself there.

Book you've faked reading:

Oh, man. I didn't have good habits as a student, so there are many, many options to pick from (sorry, teachers!). The first big one that I can remember was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, assigned in my 10th grade English class. I did not have the tools in the bag for that one when I was 15.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei! An absolutely stunning young adult novel, one of the very best I've ever read. Great sports, great romance, and some of the best depictions of mental illness I've ever read in any book, not just one for teens. If you take one thing away from this column, it should be that this book is must-read.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. My relationship to this book is definitely atypical, as I never had to read it for an English class and only picked it up because I found a paperback at a used bookstore and the cover captured me. Turns out, it's also one of the best American novels I've ever read. Sometimes the classics are classic for a reason (sorry to the Holden haters).

Book that changed your life:

I'll return once again to Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, which I first devoured in sixth grade. I had more "profound" experiences with books later in my life, sure, but above all else, Percy Jackson made me want to write. Riordan's prose in these books is conversational, dynamic, and above all, fun. Some of my very first written works (if you can call them that) were horrifically poor imitations of Riordan.

Favorite line from a book:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." --Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

Five books you'll never part with:

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei--See above!

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.: An eternal favorite of mine, and one I own several copies of (it has so many beautiful covers, and I wanted to have as many of them on my shelf as possible).

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders: This was assigned reading in my first college English class, and it permanently altered both my brain chemistry and prose forever. I was, like many creative writing students before me, trying to do an off-brand Saunders when I wrote my first short stories.

A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett: I discovered this book the summer after I came out as trans and it hit me like a shotgun blast to the chest. I'd never felt seen by a book the way that A Safe Girl to Love saw my dirtbag 20-year-old self. A wonderful, wonderful collection of stories.

Nevada by Imogen Binnie: All these years after its initial release, I still think Nevada holds its ground as the best trans novel ever written, which is saying something! I could've easily put Nevada down for the evangelist prompt, too, because I tell everyone to read it. It's quick and devastating and beautiful, the literary equivalent of taking a punch to the solar plexus (again, complimentary).

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

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski! I've never quite had an encounter with a book like I did with this one. I read it slowly over the course of a few weeks and really let it linger on the palate, something I almost never do with novels, and the experience was truly singular. Even if horror or experimental fiction aren't your usual cup of tea, I'd recommend giving House of Leaves a try, just to say you've done it.

Lindsay H. Metcalf (Outdoor Farm, Indoor Farm) dissects the question of whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable in her alliterative, pun-filled nonfiction picture book, Tomatoes on Trial. Metcalf, referencing a 19th-century Supreme Court battle over produce taxes, lays out the evidence on both sides of the argument with humor and panache. Her playful text and the "blotted line and color wash" illustrations crafted by Edwin Fotheringham (Those Rebels, John and Tom) together make a deliciously fun historical "food fight."

In 1886, "produce king of New York" John Nix wanted to beat his competition and bring in the spring's first tomatoes. Bringing tomatoes from Bermuda to the United States resulted in a 10% vegetable tax. However, the U.S. government taxed fruits lower than vegetables--the Customs House collector believed that "farmers grew fine tomatoes all over the United States every summer. If Nix wanted to haul them in from overseas, he would have to pay up." Nix argued that the tomatoes should be considered fruits: "Exhibit one: fruits have seeds (ahem, tomatoes). Exhibit two: fruits grow from flowers (yep, TOMATOES!)." Neither side would budge, so Nix sued the collector. "The Nix v. Hedden case simmered slowly through local and state courts.... After six years of stewing, the case boiled over into the US Supreme Court" where both sides made their arguments for the proper definition of a tomato.

Fotheringham's delightful, realistic illustrations, executed in the blotted line technique created by Andy Warhol, depict a competitive atmosphere of culinary amusement as figures and produce contrast against solemn background images of government buildings. Metcalf's poetic prose ("Nix burned red. These imported morsels were fruits!") banters and blusters as it renders this fascinating history about one of the country's most popular foods. Back matter offers readers additional information on the practice of debate, fruit and vegetable definitions, other words pertinent to the story, and additional tomato fun facts, such as Arkansas having the tomato as both its state fruit and state vegetable.

Regardless of which team readers find themselves on--Team Fruit or Team Vegetable--Tomatoes on Trial serves up a healthy portion of legal process with ample sides of entertainment and insight. Future debaters, lawyers, or simple tomato lovers will find plenty to enjoy here. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: The Supreme Court battle over the definition of a tomato plays out in a humorous children's picture book which is most certainly guilty of being a remarkable read.