Sign Up Now For #MarginsBookstores Month

Booksellers can sign up now to be included in The Word’s first annual #MarginsBookstore Month, a community-led celebration of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodiverse-owned/managed bookstores. The deadline to sign up for the program is February 27.

This event is free to participate in. Booksellers may sign up if their bookstore is: owned by (or for which the main management) identifies as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, or neurodiverse and also includes among its main mission, values, ethos, and/or programming representation of marginalized communities and/or cultural support of marginalized communities.

The Word, a Storytelling Sanctuary, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building cultural equity through the literary arts. Its programming includes the annual Duende-Word BIPOC Bookseller Award, mentorship opportunities, the [margins.] literary conference, educational workshops, and community-building opportunities for writers and publishing creatives from marginalized backgrounds.

In 2021, The Word will work with Chronicle Books to put together an illustrated, interactive map of participant bookstores; work with Chronicle to bring to market a journal featuring the map and additional information about each bookstore, including some of the fun info booksellers can provide in the signup form; and plan in-store festivities for the fall, including exclusive stock of the #MarginsBookstores journal.

Members Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District Bookstores in Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Kathy Burnette, owner of Brain Lair Books in South Bend, Indiana, have contributed to the planning of this program.

For questions about The Word or about this program, contact Aida Lilly via [email protected].