Wi14: Notes from the Floor

At Collected Works' Wi14 party: Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, owner Dorothy Massey and Councilor Signe Lindell.

Bookstores near the sites of Winter Institutes usually welcome visiting booksellers, particularly during the bookstore bus tours on the day before the official program starts. This year, special credit is due to Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse in Santa Fe, which went all out for more than 100 attendees who took busman's holidays last Tuesday to the store, about an hour north of Albuquerque.

Owner Dorothy Massey spent several months planning, persuading the city to provide free bus transportation to several sights in Santa Fe, devising walking tours, obtaining discounts from other retailers, preparing goody bags, getting Mayor Alan Webber to appear and welcome booksellers, and hosting a reception for booksellers to meet local authors. Our hats are off to her!

 

Denise Chávez with some of the Wi14 donations.

During Wi14, Denise Chávez of Casa Camino Real Bookstore, Las Cruces, N.Mex., led a refugee book drive to benefit parents and children from Central America and Mexico that is being administered by Border Servant Corps. Booksellers in attendance brought Spanish-language books to her spot next to the registration desk. Although those books were picked up on Saturday, booksellers can continue to donate by sending Spanish-language titles to Chávez at Casa Camino Real, 314 S. Tornillo St., Las Cruces, NM 88001. Check out suggested titles here.

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With Nancy Rohlen front and center, the Ingram crew watches Jeopardy.

In an unusual side attraction, some Ingram staffers gathered on Thursday night at the Doubletree bar in Albuquerque to cheer on their colleague Nancy Rohlen, wholesale sales manager, who competed on Jeopardy! that evening (in a taped episode). As IngramSpark director Robin Cutler said, "She made us all proud with her humor, poise and smarts!"

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At Winter Institute, Publishers Weekly announced its finalists for the bookstore and rep of the year:

Bookstore:

  • A Likely Story, Sykesville, Md.
  • Classic Lines Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa.
  • hello hello books, Rockland, Maine
  • Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Mich.
  • Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kan.

Rep:

  • Colleen Conway of PRH/Penguin Young Readers
  • Judy DeBerry of Hachette Book Group
  • Cindy Heidemann of PGW/Two Rivers
  • Kurtis Lowe of Book Travelers West
  • Patricia Nelson of University Press Sales Associates: The MIT Press, Princeton University Press and Yale University Press
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