Boulder Book Store, John Mesjak Named PW 2018 Award Winners

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Publishers Weekly logoBoulder Book Store in Boulder, Colorado, has won this year’s Publishers Weekly Bookstore of the Year Award. In an announcement on Wednesday, March 28, PW also named Abraham Associates’ John Mesjak as its 2018 Rep of the Year.

Forty-five-year-old Boulder Book Store has been a pioneer in a number of industry initiatives, including being the first store to buy on Edelweiss and one of the first in setting up consignment sections dedicated to specific publishers.

Owner David Bolduc, who founded the bookstore in 1973, was also the cofounder of the country’s earliest local-first organization, the Boulder Independent Business Alliance, and cofounder of the Boulder County Farmers’ Market.

“David has been a leader in many facets of our community,” said Sean Maher, CEO of the Downtown Boulder Partnership. “We are thrilled that [Boulder Book Store is] part of our community.

John Mesjak, who joined Abraham Associates in 2007, was named PW Rep of the Year one decade after Roy Schonfeld, his colleague at the Midwest-based rep group, received that honor. Before joining Abraham Associates, Mesjak represented Publishers Group West.

In her nominating letter, Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, wrote: “John has consistently set the standard that all reps should aspire to. He sweats every detail, whether it’s sorting out a shipping confusion, or making sure the right bookstores know about the right books, or letting a publisher know that the cover they have in mind is in need of help. In the publishing and bookselling world, he is all in.”

The May 14 pre-BookExpo edition of Publishers Weekly will feature in-depth interviews with the 2018 award winners.

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