At Winter Institute 13 in Memphis, Tenn., Publishers Weekly announced the shortlist for the 2018 PW Bookstore and Sales Rep of the Year Awards. These awards single out outstanding contributors to the bookselling industry.
“Publishers Weekly is proud to have sponsored these two leading industry awards for more than a quarter century. This year’s finalists for the 2018 PW Bookstore of the Year Award are representative of the diverse stores that have contributed to today’s indie bookstore revival. Many have deep roots in a specific region, but they have also had a big impact on the book industry well beyond those borders. Each has found creative solutions to making bookstores meaningful in a changing world,” said Cevin Bryerman, executive v-p, publisher of Publishers Weekly.
This year’s bookstore finalists represent the diversity of independent bookselling, both small stores and large. The shortlist includes two of the country’s oldest stores, which date back more than one hundred years, as well as one of a new generation of bookstores, now in its fifth year. The list also includes one of the 105 remaining African-American bookstores in the U.S. Two of the finalists for sales representative are house reps; three are affiliated with independent rep groups.
The PW Bookstore of the Year Award has been given every year for the past 25 years. This year’s Bookstore of the Year and Rep of the Year Award winners will be named in late March and will be featured in the pre-BookExpo edition of Publishers Weekly magazine. The awards will be presented at BookExpo in New York City.
2018 PW Bookstore of the Year Shortlist
- Astoria Bookshop (Queens, New York)
- Boulder Bookstore (Boulder, Colo.)
- Gibson’s Bookstore (Concord, N.H.)
- Source Booksellers (Detroit, Mich.)
- University Book Store (Seattle, Wash.)
2018 PW Rep of the Year Shortlist
- Eileen Bertelli (Parson Weems’ Publisher Services)
- Judy DeBerry (Hachette)
- Frazer Dobson (Como Sales)
- John Mesjak (Abraham Associates)
- Bailey Walsh (University of Chicago)
