This week, September 15–21, is Prison Banned Books Week! 

Prisons in the United States severely limit incarcerated peoples’ access to books. But there are several bookstores and organizations working to change that! For example:

• Binnacle Books in Beacon, NY, started The Prison Book Project.
• A Room of One’s Own in Madison, WI, helped create Wisconsin Books To Prisoners and LGBT Books to Prisoners.
• Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA, is in the middle of a lawsuit against Gwinnett County Jail, whose mail policy would not allow Avid to mail books to residents. (Read this interview with Luis Correa, former Operations Manager of Avid Bookshop, to learn more!) 

Want to get involved? You can visit the Prison Banned Books Week website to learn more about book censorship in prisons. 

Next week, September 22–28, is Banned Books Week! 

Don’t forget to participate in our Banned Books Week Display contest for a chance to win up to $500!

Take a photo of your Banned Books Week display and post it to your store’s Instagram. Tag @AmericanBooksellers and @ABFEFreeExpression and use #BannedBooksDisplayContest and #BannedBooksWeek to enter. Visit BookWeb for the full contest details.

You can also take advantage of our Banned Books Week social media assets.

(We’d love to know your Banned Books Week plans! Fill out this survey to help us shout out the amazing work ABA members are doing and create bookseller-specific Banned Books Week resources.)

Congratulations to Kinsey Foreman (High Five Books), Beth Wagner (White Birch Books), Carrissa Larsen (Bridgton Books), Stacy Whitman (The Curious Cat Bookshop), and Mike Buglio and Debbie Sullivan (Indie Beacon Book Light) for winning the ABA raffle at NEIBA’s Fall Conference!

They will each receive a copy of The ABA Right to Read Handbook!

ABA will be appearing at each regional show. Stop by our table to say hello, ask questions, and enter the raffle.

Join fellow booksellers to discuss selected business books, ranging from retail strategy and customer engagement, to time management and workplace dynamics. The Book Biz Book Club meets on the third Wednesday of every month.

On October 16 at 3:00 pm ET, join booksellers in conversation about Microskills: Small Actions, Big Impact by Adaira Landry and Resa E. Lewiss.

National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) is here!

Check out this month’s Indie-to-Indie playlist from the Independent Publishers Caucus for a list of titles you can use for displays. 

You can also use the IndieBound Bookstore Finder to find and support Hispanic-owned bookstores near you! (Please note: The IndieBound Bookstore Finder's identity search will only include ABA member stores that have elected to share ownership identity information publicly.)

We’ll continue our National Hispanic Heritage Month coverage as the month goes on.

Spiral Circle, a metaphysical bookstore in Orlando, FL, will celebrate its 50th year of operation in 2025. Founded in 1975, the shop has long been a little haven near downtown Orlando.

Bookselling This Week met with owner Julie Wilder, and Christina Ray, intuitive reader and book buyer, to learn more about Spiral Circles’ past and future, as well as the unique challenges of running a metaphysical bookstore.