As announced by the American Booksellers Association at Winter Institute 12 [6] and referenced in ABA President Betsy Burton’s letter to members [7] last week, in response to concerns expressed by booksellers at the recent Town Hall Meeting [8] in Minneapolis, ABA has undertaken two diversity-related initiatives: an increase in the number of members on the association’s Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) and the creation of a Diversity Task Force.

The BAC provides the Board with a broad cross-section of views from within the community of independent booksellers on a wide range of topics; members serve for a two-year term. The newly instituted task force will provide recommendations to the Board about issues relating to diversity.

The booksellers appointed by ABA President Burton to the task force and to the BAC are:

Booksellers Advisory Council Appointments

• Aaron Curtis of Books & Books [9] in Coral Gables, Florida
• Ill Hoereth of Pegasus Books [10] in Oakland, California
• Janet Jones of Source Booksellers [11] in Detroit, Michigan
• Susan Hans O’Connor of Penguin Bookshop [12] in Sewickley, Pennsylvania
• Noelle Santos of the The Lit. Bar [13], in planning for the South Bronx, New York
• Lacy Simons of hello hello books [14] in Rockland, Maine
• Joan Trygg of Red Balloon Bookshop [15] in St. Paul, Minnesota

Diversity Task Force Appointments

• DeAndra Beard of Beyond Barcodes Bookstore [16] in Kokomo, Indiana
• Denise Chavez of Casa Camino Real Book Store & Art Gallery [17] in Las Cruces, New Mexico
• Hannah Oliver Depp of WORD [18] in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey
• Lane Jacobson of Flyleaf Books [19], Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Melanie Knight of Books Inc. [20] in Berkeley, California
• Veronica Liu of Word Up Community Bookshop [21] in New York, New York
• Erica Luttrell of Chevalier’s Books [22] in Los Angeles, California
• Melanie McNair of Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café [23] in Asheville, North Carolina
• Angela Maria Spring of Duende Books, in planning for the Washington, D.C., area
• Paul Yamazaki of City Lights Books [24] in San Francisco, California