People

American Booksellers for Free Expression Director Chris Finan is leaving the American Booksellers Association to become the National Coalition Against Censorship’s new executive director.

Janet Lund, a children’s bookseller at The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, died on June 9, 2017, after a long illness.

Wanda Jewell, executive director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, is relocating to the West Coast; Linda-Marie Barrett has left Malaprop’s to become assistant executive director.

Her Bookshop on the move; Wesleyan University bookstore opens; River Lights Bookstore to mark 10 years; Bartleby’s Books debuts anti-hate banner; Carol Spurling joins local chamber of commerce board

ABFE Director Chris Finan looks back at some of the many cases in which Michael Bamberger, general counsel of Media Coalition and the first recipient of the Joyce Meskis Free Speech Award, has defended the free speech rights of booksellers.

Barbara Theroux, the founder of Fact & Fiction in Missoula, Montana, is retiring at the end of June, after 40 years in the bookselling business.

Authors Guild online auction underway; Museum Store Association to launch holiday campaign; Ingram signs five publishers; Reading Group Choices releases title lists of readers’ favorites; Margarita Engle named Young People’s Poet Laureate; International Dylan Thomas Prize, Albertine Prize winners announced

Brick & Mortar Books to open in Washington; New owner for Winston Smith Books; McLean & Eakin, Broadway Books to mark 25 years; Queens Bookshop Initiative lands storefront; New staff at Kramerbooks, [words] Bookstore

ABA’s inaugural Joyce Meskis Free Speech Award will be presented to Michael A. Bamberger, the general counsel of Media Coalition, on May 31 during the Celebration of Bookselling at BookExpo.

Former bookseller Roberta Rubin serves as board co-chair of the new American Writers Museum, the first national museum to honor American writers, which opened on May 16 in Chicago.

Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will make a special appearance at BookExpo 2017 on Thursday, June 1.

The ABA Board of Directors has moved to fill a vacancy on the Board that is the result of the recent election of Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books as ABA’s incoming president.

In his remarks at the April 25th PEN Literary Gala, PEN Publisher Honoree John Sargent spoke about the importance of defending free speech.

The results of balloting by bookstore members to elect a new president, vice president/secretary, and three directors to serve on the ABA Board are now official.

Flashlight Books to open in California; Brazos Bookstore announces plans for Summer of Jane Austen; Politics & Prose co-owner Lissa Muscatine to publish Hillaryland