ABFFE Board Welcomes Kaplan & Peters

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has announced the appointment of two new members to its Board of Directors: Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, and Will Peters of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon. Kaplan and Peters will serve three-year terms.

Kaplan, a former president of the American Bookseller Association, has been a bookseller for almost 30 years. He founded Books & Books in South Florida in 1982. The business currently includes locations in Coral Gables, Miami Beach, and the Bal Harbour Shops. Plans are set for a fourth store to open in November in Camana Bay's Town Centre, a community development on Grand Cayman.

Kaplan has been involved in human rights work throughout his career, and he is the recipient of honors from the Florida and Miami chapters of Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Will Peters has been a bookseller for more than 25 years. In 1992, Peters joined the staff of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon. He is currently the store's manager and book buyer.  Peters is a former president of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) and the former chair of PNBA's Free Speech Committee.

Prior to joining Annie Bloom's, Peters was a store manager and a district manager with the now defunct Crown Books chain.  As a publishers' sales rep in the late 1980s, he sold books from more than 20 small publishers to independent bookstores in the Midwest.  

Kaplan and Peters replace Zachary Marcus of Maverick Media Projects in Shushan, New York, and Amy Thomas of Pandora's Books in Berkeley, California, on the ABFFE Board.