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NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler and SIBA executive director Linda-Marie Barrett flank incoming NAIBA executive director Liz Hottel |
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New Voices New Rooms, the well-run joint New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance conference, concludes today in Baltimore, Md., after several busy, busy days.
The program has included an awards dinner last night at which retiring NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler was presented with the association's Legacy Award, a deeply emotional event as many friends and colleagues spoke about all that they cherish and will miss about her. Other highlights: tours of the Baltimore area's many striking bookstores, wide-ranging educational sessions, a busy trade show floor, many rep picks and author signings, some excellent parties and dinners and other social events. The mood has been energetic and positive. We'll have more reporting in Shelf Awareness over the next few days.
Booksellers and authors mixed and mingled Sunday evening prior to the early bird reception and literary trivia night.
Monday's horror panel, "No Place Like Home: Making Local Settings Terrifying," featured moderator Cristina Nosti (Books & Books), with authors Mathilda Zeller (It Looks Like You in the Dark, Tor Nightfire, Oct.), Maria Tureaud (Beneath, It Sleeps, Kensington, Jan. 2027), Katherine Daniel (When the Night Comes Knocking, Berkley, Oct.), and Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Imps!, Zando/Tin House, Feb. 2027).
"Making Spaces Safer" offered practical strategies and resources for preventing harassment and creating safer stores and events for staff and customers. Shawna Potter, author of Making Spaces Safer (AK Press), and Carolyn Godavitarne of Politics & Prose led the session.
Emma Wood (Main Street Reads, Summerville, S.C.) and Rachel A. Shelden, author of The Political Supreme Court (W. Hodding Carter III Books/U. of North Carolina Press; Oct.).
John Mutter, editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, signed copies of his forthcoming World War II thriller Fortune and Glass (Left Field Publishing, Oct. 6) for NAIBA's Eileen Dengler and Binc CEO Pam French.
Elizabeth M. Young (Commonplace Reader, Yardley, Pa.) and Daniella Mestyanek Young, author, with Amy Reed, of The Culting of America (Otterpine), during Monday's Indie Press Author Reception.
Tails it was! Kim McNamara of Read It Again Bookstore, Suwanee, Ga., won Binc's Heads or Tails fundraiser and donated her $250 prize back to Binc. The fundraiser brought in more than $1,600. From l.: caller Kathy Ellen David; McNamara; Binc's Pam French; and expert coin tosser Kristianne Huntsberger of Shelf Awareness.