People

The Board of Directors of the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association has named Laura Ayrey to succeed Lisa Knudsen as executive director.

On December 1, seven staff members came together at Pegasus Downtown in Berkeley to read their own fiction and poetry to a full house.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher writes about his recent visit to Shenzhen, China, where he participated in the city’s 11th annual Reading Month festivities at the invitation of Shenzhen’s “Reading Month Committee.”

Thirty-one booksellers have been awarded publisher-sponsored scholarships to the ABA’s Sixth Annual Winter Institute, sponsored by the Ingram Content Group.

ABA has announced the winners of two scholarships to the Sixth Annual Winter Institute – the Joe Drabyak Frontline Fellowship, sponsored by Workman Publishing, and the Avin Mark Domnitz Scholarship, awarded by ABA to a bookseller at a store that submitted financial data to the 2010 ABACUS Survey.

Here’s a look, in words and photos, at some of the highlights from last night’s National Book Awards ceremony.

John Olsson, founder of the former Olsson’s Books and Records, died last Thursday, October 28.

On Friday, October 29, the Midwest Booksellers Association announced the appointment of Carrie Obry as its new executive director.

NRF sees hope in year’s first holiday survey; Jon Meacham to become executive vice president at Random House

This week, ABA announced that Karen Mills, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, and PBS’ Jim Lehrer will be the featured speakers at the opening, keynote event for the first day at Winter Institute 2011.

Carla Cohen, founder and co-owner of Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., died on October 11 of cancer. She was 74 years old.

At last month’s Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association fall show, author Jonathan Evison (West of Here, Algonquin) inspired booksellers with a presentation of his “Ode to Bookselling.”

James Patterson's essay contest, “Book Dollars for Scholars,” has garnered many participants since its launch on September 10 and remains open to all college-bound high school seniors until its deadline, on December 31, 2010.

Bob Phibbs, a nationally recognized expert on business strategy, customer service, sales, and marketing – and the author of The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business: A Step-by-Step Approach to Quickly Diagnose, Treat, and Cure (Wiley) – will be the keynote speaker on Thursday, January 20, at the upcoming ABA Winter Institute.

The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association has hired Deborah Leonard, a publishing and bookselling veteran, to be the organization's new executive director.