ABA Announces New Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Members

Nine booksellers have been selected to join the American Booksellers Association’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (DEIC), which serves as a sounding board and advisory council on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, representation, and access facing the bookselling industry and ABA.

Joining the committee are:

• Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Georgia
• Paula Farmer, Book Passage, San Francisco, California
• Lee Francis, Red Planet Books and Comics, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Morgan Haywood-Joy, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, New York
• Rosa Hernandez, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Washington
• Derek Holland, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colorado
• Audrey Huang, Belmont Books, Belmont, Massachusetts
• Candice Huber, Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Amanda Kranias, Blue Manatee Literacy Project, Cincinnati, Ohio

This new group represents micro, small, medium, large, and extra-large stores and includes booksellers who identify as neurodivergent, disabled, fat, Latinx/Chicano/Mexican, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, Chinese American, African American, Black, and Afro Caribbean/American, as well as booksellers and bookstore owners, ranging from two years in the business to 30, and from all bookseller regions.

This new group was selected by the current DEIC members and represents the first time nominations were accepted for the committee, rather than booksellers being appointed. Between nominations and self-nominations, ABA received 45 nominees.

“The DEIC worked hard to create a committee as diverse as possible in terms of all of the ways booksellers self-identify as well as in terms of region, store size, store format, and creating a mix of ages and store positions,” said ABA CEO Allison Hill. “We thank those who nominated people to the committee for their support of those booksellers and of the DEIC. We thank the committee for their dedication to the selection process.”

Three members are continuing on the committee:

• Melanie Knight of Books Inc. in San Francisco, California
• Michelle Malonzo of Changing Hands in Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona
• Sarah Hollenbeck of Women & Children First in Chicago, Illinois

“We thank Melanie, Michelle, and Sarah for staying on to help with the transition,” said Hill. “We thank the new committee members for volunteering to serve and be part of this important work. And, again, we thank the outgoing committee for their commitment over the years and for moving us all forward.”

Leaving the committee are Hannah Oliver Depp, BrocheAroe Fabian, Veronica Liu, Angela Maria Spring, and Jamie Fiocco, who all contributed greatly to the establishment of the DEIC (formerly the Diversity Task Force) and to ABA’s work around representation, inclusivity, equity, and diversity.

“It’s been a long journey for this committee, but we are all benefiting from the results of this group’s hard work,” said Hill. “ABA’s work around diversity, equity, inclusivity, and representation has grown thanks to their efforts, and the DEIC has become a pipeline to the ABA Board, with three DEIC members now also serving on the board. I have been honored to work with them and am inspired by their commitment to making our industry better.”