Winter Institute 2025, held February 23–26 in Denver, brought a colorful cast of characters to town. At author receptions and publisher dinners, booksellers talked with the stars of the bookshelves, lining up to meet such children’s and YA authors as Tracy Deonn (Oathbound) and Grace Lin (The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon), as well as many others in attendance. Musicians Emily Arrow (Dear Bookstore) and Tyler Hilton (Daddy: Live in Concert) introduced their picture book debuts, Kyle Casey Chu (The Queen Bees of Tybee County) transformed into glittering drag alter ego Panda Dulce, and editor and author Kwame Mbalia signed On Again, Awkward Again, his collaborative novel with two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly. PW’s correspondents collected a few visual highlights from the show (see our coverage here) and from Ignite, the half-day pre-con held exclusively for BIPOC booksellers, where Pam Muñoz Ryan and J.E. Thomas signed their books.


Pam Muñoz Ryan (l., El Niño, illustrated by Joe Cepeda, Scholastic Press) and Scholastic district sales manager Doris Allen at the Ignite pre-con authors and editors reception on February 22. WI2025 kicked off the next day with tours of local and regional bookstores and an evening reception.


J.E. Thomas promoted her middle grade read, The AI Incident (Levine Querido) during the Ignite pre-con reception. Shown here (from l.): Thomas; Levine Querido editor Irene Vázquez; and bookseller Morgan Haywood-Joy, people and culture manager at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn.


Tra Publishing in Miami, which publishes illustrated books for both adults and children, was one of the vendors inside the Meet the Presses exhibit area. Tra publishing director Jessica Faroy (c.) discussed the house’s offerings with Whitney Holmes, co-owner of Winnie & Mo’s Bookshop in Idaho Falls, Id. (l.) and Elese Stutts, lead buyer and manager at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, N.C. (r.) who told PW that Tra’s children’s books sell very well at her store.


WI2025’s Editors Buzz lunch featured a panel of editors—including some children’s editors—touting their authors’ latest books. Pictured (from l.) are Rakia Clark (HarperCollins), Ruqayyah Daud (Hachette Book Group), Christa Désir (Sourcebooks), Jennifer Greene (Nosy Crow), Carina Guterman (Simon & Schuster), Jen Sookfong Lee (ECW Press), Irene Vásquez (Levine Querido), and Han Zhang (Penguin Random House).


During the February 25 evening author reception, five debut authors spent time together. Seen here (from l.): Panda Dulce, a.k.a. Kyle Casey Chu (The Queen Bees of Tybee County, Quill Tree); Victoria Zeller (One of the Boys, Levine Querido); Jess Callans (Ollie in Between, Feiwel and Friends); James Robinson (Whale Eyes, Penguin Workshop); and Trisha Tobias (Honeysuckle and Bone, Zando/Sweet July).


From l.: Shira Sergant, children’s event coordinator at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City, Calif.; Nosy Crow president John Mendelson; and Brein Lopez, general manager at Children’s Book World in Los Angeles, socializing at the author reception.


Scholastic district sales manager Doris Allen (l.) and VP of publicity Seale Ballenger were having way too much fun as they held up books and waved at passersby, striving to draw traffic to their authors table during the author reception.


Kwame Mbalia (r.), co-author with Erin Entrada Kelly of On Again, Awkward Again (Amulet), talks with Chris Saccheri, the co-owner of Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, Calif. Mbalia was among 72 authors featured at the reception.


Tyler Hilton (r.), author of Daddy: Live in Concert (illustrated by Eugenia Nobati, Familius), ditched his seat at the table to get closer to booksellers like Randi Null, general manager of Brazos Bookstore in Houston, while he signed books during the author reception.


Indies Introduce children’s authors got together for dinner with some members of the Indies Introduce committee and Walker Books Group staff. At top l.: Gloria Huang (Kaya of the Ocean, Holiday House); also standing, center l. and r., are co-creators Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett (Trans History, Candlewick).


From l., authors John Schu (Ruthie Rose’s Big Idea, Candlewick), Samantha van Leer (The Extraterrestrial Zoo: Finding the Lost One, Pixel+Ink), Shawn Harris (Let’s Be Bees, Holiday House/Porter), and Emily Arrow (Dear Bookstore, Candlewick) gathered for a dinner, at which Harris led a noisy participatory reading of his picture book and Arrow—strumming a ukulele—led booksellers in a call-and-response sing-along.


The winner of Binc’s popular “Heads or Tails” fundraising game held before Brian Selznick’s closing keynote presentation on February 26 was Emilie Sommer, a buyer at East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C. Sommer donated her winnings back to Binc, which raised $7,128 to help booksellers in need. Seen here (from l.): runner-up Lauren Tiedemann, co-owner of Book Ends, Winchester, Mass.; Sommer; Binc’s Kathy Bartson, director of development, with executive director Pam French; and coin-tosser Amy Kaneko, director of sales at Arcadia Publishing.