Winter Institute to Feature Publisher-Sponsored After Parties

After busy days on Sunday, February 8, and Monday, February 9, at Winter Institute 2015, booksellers are invited to relax and socialize at publisher-sponsored parties.

Following the opening reception on Sunday at downtown Asheville’s The Venue, Winter Institute attendees can hop on shuttle buses back to the Grove Park Inn, where Wi10’s North Carolina publisher sponsors will be hosting The Carolina Speakeasy at Elaine's Dueling Piano Bar. From 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., booksellers will enjoy drinks, song, and Southern fun, courtesy of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; Duke University Press; John F. Blair Publishers; Lookout Books of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington; and the University of North Carolina Press.

On Monday night, also at 9:00 p.m., Scholastic’s popular Meet & Treat After Party returns to the Winter Institute. This year held at The Century Room (above Pack’s Tavern) in downtown Asheville, the party offers drinks and dessert (including a hot fudge sundae bar) and the chance to meet four authors whose books are coming from Scholastic this winter.

Hop on a shuttle bus from the Grove Park Inn to The Century Room on Monday night to meet and have books signed by:

• Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo (February 2015)
• Ally Carter, Embassy Row #1: All Fall Down (January 2015)
• Sarah Weeks, Glamourpuss (January 2015)
• Dan Gemeinhart, The Honest Truth (January 2015), an indie bookseller choice for the Winter/Spring 2015 Indies Introduce program

Winter Institute 2015 is made possible by lead sponsor Ingram Content Group and the support of more than 60 publishers large and small. For the complete Winter Institute schedule, click here.

Winter Institute registrants who are no longer planning to attend and/or who no longer need their reservations at the Grove Park Inn are asked to notify ABA at [email protected] as soon as possible so waitlisted booksellers can take their places. Anyone who would like to have his or her name removed from the waitlist for Winter Institute registration and/or the hotel waitlist is also asked to send an e-mail to [email protected].

Booksellers with rooms at the Grove Park Inn who are willing to share their accommodations with a fellow bookseller are encouraged to post that information to the dedicated forum on BookWeb.org. Forty roll-away beds are available to ABA members on a first-come, first-served basis at the cost of $40 per roll-away bed per night. The maximum capacity is four people to a room, with no more than one rollaway bed per room. Booksellers must notify ABA’s Maria Rodriguez about their room-sharing arrangements, so the hotel waitlist can be updated. Roll-away beds will be assigned in the order in which ABA is notified of a room share.

Those who have registered and secured their hotel reservations are encouraged to make their travel arrangements as soon as possible. Information about travel choices is available here.

Booksellers are also encouraged to explore the options provided by the Southern Hospitality Overnight Program (SHOP), developed by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. This program allows booksellers to stay overnight with a SHOP host and then carpool to and from the event. Visit the SIBA website for details, including host cities and suggested airports.

Winter Institute attendees who are making their travel arrangements should keep in mind that prior to the Sunday, February 8, evening Opening Reception, there will be several afternoon tours, including Historic Trolley Tours of Asheville, Biltmore Estate Tours, and free tours of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, as well as guided and self-guided tours of the Grove Park Inn. Sunday afternoon will also feature the Downtown Asheville Indie Retail Crawl. The Trolley Tours and Biltmore Estate Tours will also be offered on Thursday. Ticket purchases are required for these two tours.