The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance spring conference convened on Monday at the Atlanta Crown Plaza Hotel, and was the first to feature the American Booksellers Association's new education session focused on bookstore diversity. Dubbed, “Bookstores—An Inclusive Place for Dialogue and Discovery,” the new session is the result of concerns raised at this year's Winter Institute in Minneapolis that independent booksellers needs to be more politically active under the Trump administration, specifically by providing a safe haven for potentially threatened groups.
The new session, which was closed to the press, focused on the idea that bookstores can become safe spaces for various groups many in the bookselling community feel are under attack by the new administration--those in the LGBTQ community, refugees, racial, ethnic or religious minorities. The session will be held ten times this spring, throughout the country, at other regional bookseller gatherings and will collate ideas for a final report to be presented to ABA members.
The occasion in Atlanta, dubbed SIBA Spring in the Springtime, attracted 48 booksellers and kicked off with a bus ride to children’s publisher Peachtree Publishers. At Peachtree, guests were treated to canapés and a tour of the company’s offices and warehouse.
Back at the hotel, an opening night “Okra Dinner” featured five authors presenting their new and forthcoming titles: Gina Kolata author of Mercies in Disguise (St. Martin’s Press), Michael Knight author of Eveningland (Atlantic Monthly Press), Patti Callahan Henry author of The Bookshop at Water's End (Berkley), Taylor Brown author of The River of Kings (St. Martin’s Press) and local favorite Joshilyn Jackson. In discussing her new book Almost Sisters (Morrow Avon), Jackson joked that she might be viewed as the kind of woman who "has a dozen recipes for chicken casserole," but, in actuality, has a dark side. She said it was that dark side which led her to write books featuring "lots of kissing and shooting."
Tuesday’s agenda included several hours of open group discussion about SIBA’s annual Fall Discovery Show. Last year, SIBA had announced unexpectedly that the show would be moved to the Spring in 2018, to coincide with the now defunct Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS), a plan that appears to have been discarded.
Instead, SIBA executive director Wanda Jewell used the meeting solicit advice and ideas for the future and format of the fall show. SIBA is traditionally the first of the fall regional bookstore fairs, and takes place over three days. It usually moves from city to city around the South. This year’s event will be held in New Orleans from September 15-17.
The morning session was followed by the ABA's closed-door diversity forum, which was led by ABA CEO Oren Teicher. For the talk, booksellers were divided into small groups and given 20 minutes to discuss any one of the following terms they felt most aligned with their values: activism, community, diversity, empathy, outreach, or sanctuary. Afterwards, booksellers were asked to provide actionable ideas which came out of their talks.
Teicher, who barred PW from reporting on the session, said he did not want press coverage of the meeting because he feared booksellers would be reluctant to share their feelings if they thought they might be quoted. After the event, he said that "booksellers shared lots of really interesting ideas and, perhaps not surprisingly, these words meant different things to different stores."
Privately, several booksellers told PW that while they applauded the ABA's effort to advance the agenda of "diversity" and "inclusion," they feared the issue was threatening to co-opt too much of the ABA's energy and attention. They felt the "diversity" question was more of an ethical, social or political concern and the trade organization should be focused on core business issues, such as wage inflation or battling Amazon.
Among those in attendance were multiple booksellers attended from Georgia stores, including employees of Eagle Eye Book Shop, Little Shop of Stories, A Capella Books, and Charis Books & More (all located in Atlanta) as well as Bookmaker in Marietta, Ga, and Avid Bookshop in Athens. Among the others who made the drive included Kimberly Daniels, manager/buyer for The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, N.C.; Star Lowe of Star Line Books in Chattanooga, Tenn., Kelly Justice of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virg., Renee Clark, owner of Bookish in Cashiers, N.C; Jamie Fiocco, general manager of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, N.C. and Linda Marie Barrett is the General Manager of Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café in Asheville, N.C.
