BTW News Briefs

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Children’s Book Council Announces ABA Institutes Scholarship Winners 

The Children’s Book Council (CBC) has named Natalia Remis and Francesca Lampert as the winners of CBC’s 2017 publishing staff scholarships for the American Booksellers Association institutes.

Remis, an assistant editor at Scholastic, is the 2017 CBC Diversity Scholarship winner and will attend ABA’s Winter Institute in Minneapolis this month, while Lampert, a development associate at Little Pickle Press, was named the 2017 CBC Early Career Scholarship winner. Lampert will attend the Children’s Institute in Portland, Oregon, in April.

The scholarships include airfare and hotel. Remis and Lampert will work at the CBC/Every Child a Reader table at the events along with a CBC staff member to sign up booksellers for Children’s Book Week.

“Natalia and Francesca’s applications jumped out as the clear winners, but there were a dozen very, very close seconds, and we will be working to get these passionate publishing staffers to other shows with us, from ALA Annual to the fall bookseller shows,” said CBC Executive Director Carl Lennertz. “We are very excited by the motivation of these new and diverse editorial, marketing, sales, design, and production employees thriving in our beloved children’s book world.”

NAIBA Renames Sales Rep of the Year Award in Honor of Kristin Keith

Following the recent death of Kristin Keith, the beloved regional sales rep for W.W. Norton, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) has announced it will rename the William Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year award as the Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award.

The first Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award will be presented in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on October 7, 2017. The sales rep of the year award was first given in 1987 to Bev Chaney, and was named after the beloved William Helmuth of Book Travelers to recognize the sales rep “who is the sort of person who does their homework all the time, is patient and tolerant of customers and colleagues, who makes mistakes from enthusiasm, then owns up to them.”

Keith, who died on January 3 at age 45 after a battle with myelofibrosis, won the Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year award in 2013 for her dedication and enthusiasm for the book industry and book people. In renaming the Sales Rep of the Year award for Keith, the organization aims to “immortalize Keith’s dedication, enthusiasm, and heart to a new generation of book people.”

National Book Foundation Launches Mission to Eradicate “Book Deserts”

The National Book Foundation (NBF) has launched the Book Rich Environment Initiative (BRE) to help transform public housing communities from “book deserts” to book-rich environments.

Partnering with the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Urban Library Council, and the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, NBF has collected more than a quarter of a million book donations in its goal of bringing diverse, high quality books and other literacy tools into the hands of the four million children and their families living in HUD-assisted housing.

The National Book Foundation worked with several publishers, including Penguin Random House, Hachette, and Macmillan, to secure donations of books that are appropriate across age/grade levels, with titles that are representative of the diversity within the individual communities participating in the program.

Book distribution will launch in March 2017 and include three local distribution events in each participating community throughout the year. NBF executive director Lisa Lucas said the BRE’s goal is to collect more than 300,000 books by the end of 2017.

WWA Seeks Entries for Independent Booksellers Western Book Display Contest 

Western Writers of America (WWA) is challenging booksellers to create a window or shelf display that highlights books about the western frontier and the authors and musicians who write about the American West in anticipation of the WWA‘s annual convention from June 21-24 in Kansas City, Missouri. The store judged to have the best display will win $500 and signed copies of the 2017 WWA Spur Award-winning books.

Between April 4 and June 1, participating booksellers are asked to post photos of their displays to Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram, or to e-mail the organization directly. Booksellers should also be sure to tag WWA on Facebook and on Twitter @Western_Writers. The winning bookstore will be announced on Friday, June 3, and winners will be invited to the WWA Spur Award banquet on Saturday, June 24.

Full contest details are available at the WWA website.

2017 Pacific Northwest Book Award Winners Announced

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) has named the seven winners of its 2017 Pacific Northwest Book Awards:

  • Barkskins by Annie Proulx (of Carnation, Washington), published by Scribner
  • Bitch Planet, Book One: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick (of Portland, Oregon), published by Image Comics
  • Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith (of Portland, Oregon), published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor (of Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia, Canada), published by Simon & Schuster
  • Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman by Lindy West (of Seattle, Washington), published by Hachette Books
  • Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie (of Seattle, Washington), published by Little, Brown and Company
  • To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey (of Palmer, Alaska), published by Little, Brown and Company

 A volunteer committee of independent booksellers chose the winning titles from more than 300 nominated books published in 2016. The committee’s comments on the winning titles are available to view on the 2017 Book Awards page of the PNBA website, where booksellers can also download printable shelf-talkers and a promotional web banner.

Original essays from each winning author will be featured on the NWBookLovers blog beginning Friday, January 13. In addition, local celebratory plaque presentations will be shared on the blog and promoted by host bookstores and on author websites.

Finalists Announced for 2016 Story Prize

Three authors have been named as finalists for the 13th annual Story Prize, which was established in 2004 to honor the author of a collection of short fiction written in English and first published in the U.S.

The finalists, chosen from 106 entries representing 72 different publishers or imprints, are:

  • For a Little While by Rick Bass (Little, Brown and Company)
  • Goodnight, Beautiful Women by Anna Noyes (Grove Press)
  • They Were Like Family to Me by Helen Maryles Shankman (Scribner)

The winner will be announced on March 8 at the Story Prize’s annual awards ceremony at the New School’s Auditorium in New York City. During the event, Bass, Noyes, and Shankman will read from and discuss their work with prize director Larry Dark. The winner will receive $20,000, and the two runners-up will each receive $5,000.