Winners have been announced for the annual BIPOC Bookseller Awards, sponsored by Duende District and the Word and celebrating and uplifting the BIPOC independent booksellers whose dedication to indie bookstores and their Black, Indigenous, and POC colleagues and communities have touched and influenced countless lives. Each winner receives $1,000.
Activism Award winner: Dr. Artika R. Tyner, "a passionate educator, author, sought-after speaker, and advocate for justice," who is the CEO of Planting People Growing Justice Press and Bookstore (PPGJ). PPGJ publishes and promotes books that encourage and empower Black children to find joy in reading... In furtherance of her philanthropic efforts, she founded Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute, a nonprofit organization committed to promoting literacy and diversity in books."
Innovation Award winner: Carolann Jane Duro, of Maara'yam and Kumeyaay descent, and founder of Quiet Quail Books, a California Indigenous independent pop-up bookstore that sells Indigenous-authored books around Southern California.
Leadership Award winner: Christine Bollow, co-owner and director of programs for Loyalty Bookstores, a Black, Queer, and Asian owned bookstore in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md., and serves on the DEI Committee for the American Booksellers Association. A biracial Filipina who is queer and disabled, Bollow is passionate about championing books by marginalized authors both at Loyalty and on her Bookstagram account @readingismagical.
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The shortlist has been unveiled for the 2024 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, awarded in memory of Hachette Australia's former CEO Matt Richell, who died in a surfing accident in 2014. The award is sponsored by the publisher and the Richell family, in partnership with the Emerging Writers' Festival and Simpsons Solicitors.
The winner, who will be named November 27, receives A$10,000 (about US$6,700), to be donated by Hachette Australia, along with a 12-month mentorship with one of the company's publishers. Hachette Australia will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript with the first option to consider the finished work and the shortlisted entries for publication. This year's shortlisted titles are:
Welfare Queens by Rebecca Douglas
Old Monsters by Matt Freeman
We All Fall by Chloe Hillary
Stroke by Myles McGuire
The Calm After the Storm by Averil Robertson
The Interpreter by Mariam Tokhai
Birthright by Becca Wang