BTW News Briefs

GLIBA Awards Six Buy Local Grants

The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) has announced the recipients of Buy Local grants ranging from $100 to $500 and underwritten by the sponsorship of Bookazine.

The six recipients are:

• Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois, for promotion of IndieBound Naperville's Independents Week in July.
• Bookbug in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for an "Indie Kids Kalamazoo Summer Savings Passport"
• Carmichael's Book Store in Louisville, Kentucky, for creation of an online database of Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) members
• Great Northern Books & Gifts in Oscoda, Michigan, for the Oscoda/Ausable Downtown Business Owners Association's Buy Local Shopping Bag project
• Three Sisters Books in Shelbyville, Indiana, for MainStreet Shelbyville's "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" campaign
• Treehouse Books in Holland, Michigan, toward producing a printed directory of Lakeshore Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) members.

The deadline for the next round of GLIBA grants is May 31; details and an application form are available on the GLIBA website.

Watchung Booksellers to Host NAIBAhood Gathering

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association is inviting booksellers to its first spring NAIBAhood Gathering from 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 22. The event will be hosted by Margot Sage-EL and the booksellers of Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey.

NAIBA noted that the agenda of the meeting will be driven by the booksellers in attendance. In addition, Sage-EL will give participants a tour of the bookstore and share insights on local author support programs, book and non-book merchandise selection, and print and online newsletters. In return, Sage-EL would like to hear what others have to say about merchandising, store "personalities," and events.

Simon & Schuster authors Alan Katz (Karate Pig) and Mary Elizabeth Williams (Gimme Shelter) will also participate, and the publisher is sponsoring dinner at a locally owned restaurant following the gathering.

Booksellers planning to attend are asked to RSVP to NAIBA at (516) 333-0681 or [email protected].

Future NAIBAhood Gatherings are planned for Tuesday, April 14, in Syracuse, New York; Sunday, April 26, at breathe books in Baltimore, Maryland; and Wednesday, May 6, at Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.

Netherland Wins PEN/Faulkner Award

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (Pantheon) was named the winner of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction on Wednesday, February 25. The New York Times noted that Netherland, "though widely praised, was shut out in the National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle awards."

O'Neill will receive the Pen/Faulkner Award, which includes a prize of $15,000, at a ceremony on May 9.

BEA to Feature Author Stages on Exhibit Floor

Among the new features at this spring's BookExpo America will be two stages on the exhibit floor designed to attract attention to the many authors participating in the show. "The new platform will be a terrific way for our audience to meet and get close to more authors and for the authors themselves to influence the influencers who sway book buying habits," said Lance Fensterman, vice president and show manager for BEA in a statement.

The stages, which will be located at opposite ends of the show floor, will feature interviews with two or three authors at a time arranged according to subject matter. "The goal is to capitalize on the vast array of writers who attend BEA by packaging their talent and knowledge in a digestible and accessible format so that all attendees, and, in particular, the media may gravitate naturally to a presentation or discussion in their own area of special interest," noted a statement from BEA.

Approximately 100 seats will be set at each stage, and a schedule of events will be available on the BEA website and in the stage area, as well as other locations in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Authors at BEA will be identified as Featured Event Author or Author in Attendance; a Featured Event Author may also be identified as an Event Panel Author or Show Floor Author. All of BEA's marketing materials will reflect the authors' roles at BEA.

Algonquin Offers Free Mudbound to Book Groups

To celebrate the paperback release of Hillary Jordan's Mudbound on March 17 and in hopes of creating a viral book club campaign, this week Algonquin Books announced that it would make free copies of Mudbound available to 100 book clubs across the country.

Mudbound first received good word-of-mouth from independent booksellers at last year's Winter Institute. It was selected for the March 2008 Book Sense Picks; appeared on the Fall '08 - Winter '09 Indie Next List for Reading Groups; and is on the 2008 Indie Next Highlights List.

Algonquin will provide up to seven complimentary copies of Mudbound per store to give to a book club that agrees to read it between April 1 and June 30, 2009. The participating book club must agree to share with the publisher, in a brief letter or e-mail, their reading experience and discussion of the novel.

Booksellers with a book club that is interested in participating are asked to contact Algonquin's Lindsey McGuirk via e-mail with the following information: Name of store, staff contact, store address and phone, book club contact name and e-mail address, and number of members in the book club. Requests to participate must come directly from the bookstore and must be received by March 30.

Small Press Month Events Calendar Online

March is Small Press Month, a celebration of the contributions of independent publishers. An array of literary events are scheduled at locations ranging from New York City to Portland, Oregon; Coral Gables, Florida, to San Francisco; Rutherford, New Jersey, to Anchorage, Alaska.

A detailed schedule of daily events can be found at www.smallpressmonth.org, and more information is available from [email protected].

Small Press Month is co-sponsored by: the New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP), the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), and Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Additional sponsorship is provided by American Booksellers Association/IndieBound, Association of American Publishers (AAP), BookExpo America, ForeWord Magazine, Gival Press, Hanging Loose Press, Ingram Publisher Services, National Book Foundation, Small Press Distribution (SPD), and Thomson-Shore.

Resources for NEA's Read Across America Day

On Monday, March 2, communities across the country will be celebrating Read Across America Day, sponsored by the National Education Association. The 12th annual event will focus on motivating children to read and helping them master basic skills.

To help schools, libraries, bookstores, other organizations, and individuals mark the event, the NEA website offers activity ideas, booklists, public relations tools, downloadable "certificates of achievement," and more.

Among NEA's goals on March 2 is to have every child reading in the company of a caring adult.