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| Jamie Rogers Southern | |
Jamie Rogers Southern has been named executive director of Bookmarks, the literary arts nonprofit and independent bookstore in Winston-Salem, N.C. She had been interim executive director for the past six months and before that, was operations director for nine years. She started with Bookmarks as a volunteer at the 2009 Festival of Books & Authors.
Rogers Southern has also been an education coordinator with the American Booksellers Association, worked at the Alabama Booksmith, Birmingham, Ala., and ran her own events company.
Rogers Southern said that her main focus in coming months will be an all-ages and communitywide anti-racism initiative, which is part of Bookmarks' Books with Purpose programming. "Everyone deserves the chance to see themselves in books and to know that books exist for them to be inspired, entertained and educated," she said. "As an organization, we must continue and extend our outreach, getting books into the hands of children and adults, and connecting to people through the life-changing power of story."
The Book with Purpose anti-racism initiative will begin in mid-May and continue through the organization's 16th Annual Festival of Books & Authors, which is scheduled for September 25 and will feature a mix of in-person and virtual events. The festival was cancelled in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.