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The Children’s Book Council CBC Diversity Initiative has launched the “It’s Possible” blog series, featuring five publishing professionals sharing their memories of working with Walter Dean Myers, the late children’s book author and advocate for literary diversity.

Debut novels by Porter Square’s Josh Cook (An Exaggerated Murder, Melville House) and Turnrow’s Jamie Kornegay (Soil, S&S) are among the titles on the March 2015 Indie Next List, which previews this week.

Phoenix Books to open third location; BookPeople of Moscow to take readers to Italy; Idaho booksellers offer favorite picks on local TV; Old Firehouse Books wins signing with Neil Gaiman; La Casa Azul Bookstore awarded $150,000 Mission Main Street Grant; Ken White to leave Books Inc.

This month, ABA welcomed two new staff members whose skills will help ABA in its mission to provide the best services, information, and education to member booksellers.

Stuart Michael Gersen, the co-owner of Portland, Maine’s Longfellow Books, died of lung cancer on January 17, 2015. He was 64 years old.

Nonprofit organization makes offer for Explore Booksellers; The Fountainhead Bookstore to expand; Chittenden bids farewell to Eight Cousins; Pomegranate Books to add café; Dudley’s Bookshop Café grows with the addition of a new business partner

Morin becomes president and COO at Ingram; Survey finds rise in writers’ fear of government surveillance; Como sales rep retires; Binc Foundation elects president, new board member; IDW Publishing acquires Top Shelf Productions

“S.M. Hulse has written a wonderful novel that weaves together classic Western themes of family, obligation, love, anger, forgiveness, and music,” said Luisa Smith of Book Passage. Here, Hulse talks about the inspiration for her debut novel, her research, learning to fiddle, and more.

John McNamee, past president of the European and International Booksellers Federation, died suddenly on January 4, 2015.

BookCon opens ticket sales; J.K. Rowling’s Harvard speech to go to print in 2015; Arizona anti-nudity law on hold; BA’s Tim Godfray honored; Brian Murray named PW Person of the Year

Amazon wins control of .book domain name; AMIBA offering buy local resources in Spanish; Indies Introduce author wins 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize; National Readathon Day to support NBF’s literacy efforts; First Amendment Groups express concern over Kings Canyon School Board review process; Courtney Muller named executive vice president at Urban Expositions; 2014 National Outdoor Book Award winners announced

Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction; First Amendment groups challenge Idaho school’s parental consent form; Eric Schwartz joins Columbia University Press as editorial director

Books Inc. to relocate Fourth Street store in 2015; Between the Covers owner honored as entrepreneur of the year; Brazos, AFA inspire music through essay contest; Quail Ridge video features highlights of 30th anniversary celebration

Robin Talley, the author of Lies We Tell Ourselves, talks about the inspiration for her story about the integration of a Virginia school in 1959, the challenges of researching LGBT experiences of the ’50s and ’60s, and more.

The newest addition to the list of keynote presenters for the 10th anniversary of the Winter Institute is Azar Nafisi, author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, the winner of the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Award for nonfiction.