Dear Booksellers,

We’re winding down this week with a few announcements:

Call for ABA Board Nominations
Members recently passed a bylaws change to further diversity, equity, and inclusion and to establish a more representative Board of Directors. As a result, the board will immediately increase in number from 11 to 13 directors with the appointment of two Black booksellers. 

The ABA Board is now calling for nominations from members, including self-nominations. Members may nominate Black booksellers for appointment to the board. The deadline for nominations is 11:59 PM ET on Tuesday, August 4. Qualifications and considerations are outlined in the “ABA Nomination and Election Guidelines.”

Call for BIPOC Bookseller Award Nominations
Today is the last day for nominations for the first annual BIPOC Bookseller Awards, sponsored by Duende District and The Word, to celebrate and uplift Black and brown independent booksellers who have contributed activism, innovation, and leadership to indie booksellers and their Black, Indigenous, and POC colleagues and communities. 

The Carolyn Kroll Reidy Memorial Scholarship Program
Simon & Schuster announced the Carolyn Kroll Reidy Memorial Scholarship Program in partnership with four publishing programs to promote diversity in the publishing industry in honor of S&S’s former President and CEO, Carolyn Reidy, and her commitment to diversity.

“Just mask for one.”
Thank you to The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC, and author and illustrator Matthew Myers (Hum and Swish) for coming up with these awesome posters to promote wearing masks and for sharing them with other indies. Stores can add their logo and download the signs for their store.

And I leave you with some thoughts from this beautiful piece that Janet Webster Jones and Alyson Turner of Source Booksellers in Detroit shared:

You have to read a lot of books to find your truth.

We’re all interconnected.

You have a literary life. Every person has a literary life and that’s the life you have to follow.

ABA is here for all of you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. Members can contact me directly or email the Membership, Advocacy, or IndieCommerce teams.

Best,
Allison