Bookselling Without Borders, the scholarship program that sends American booksellers to international book fairs, is expanding. Next year the program plans to send 15 booksellers to three book fairs, in Turin, Frankfurt and Guadalajara. This year, it sent three booksellers to Turin, and last year, it sent one to Frankfurt.
The program also has more sponsors: founded by Europa Editions in 2016, then joined this year by the Other Press, the program has added Catapult, Graywolf Press and the New Press as sponsors.
The application period will begin in early 2018 and will be open to all booksellers in the U.S.
The scholarship is sponsored by the partner publishers, but additional funding is being sought through a Kickstarter campaign that runs through October 29. So far, nearly $13,000 has been raised toward a goal of $30,000. The campaign includes a range of rewards, including signed books, advance reading copies, a swag bag, a visit to a publisher, a literary agent's evaluation, a year's worth of titles from the sponsor presses and more.