New Voices New Rooms, the partnership between the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance kicked off the 2024 fall trade show season with a high-energy show held August 8-11 in Arlington, Va., and jam-packed with networking opportunities, author presentations, education sessions, and, of course, books.

This year's NVNR conference marked the second in-person fall gathering of the two regional organizations, which began collaborating during the pandemic with virtual conferences. Once again, the gathering was held in the Crystal City Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va. Approximately 500 people were in attendance including 250 booksellers, 87 authors, 137 exhibitors, and about 25 others. Bookseller attendance was up 25%, with much of that being a spike in SIBA bookseller numbers over last year. NVNR booksellers were almost evenly divided between NAIBA stores (130) and SIBA stores (110); almost half of the booksellers (120) were first-timers.

Early arrivals at the conference on August 8 were treated to a joyful sight: bookmobiles parked in the hotel driveway. Attendees could also tag along on three different tours of seven Washington, D.C., metro indies, supplemented by education sessions led by each host bookstore’s staff that focused on one thing at which that bookstore excelled. “Loyalty [in Silver Spring, Md. and Washington, D.C.] talked about how they measure the success of their displays,” explained NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler. “Everyone was like, Wow, I never thought I could do this.” The day’s program also included a tour of the Library of Congress and ended with a reception.

Books Save Lives

The conference officially kicked off on August 9 with a breakfast keynote, "Centering the Book: A Conversation," that began with poet and performance artist Tony Keith, Jr. (Knucklehead, Quill Tree Books, Feb. 2025) performing his poem, "Poetry to the Rescue," which included such lines as, "I’m just a superhero / With a cape made of metaphors / Trying to use my words / To simply save you / And yes / At some point in time / I may need a little bit of saving."

A conversation then followed between Keith and two authors of literary memoirs, Sarah Chihaya (Bibliophobia, Random House, Feb. 2025); and Glory Edim (Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me, Ballantine, Oct. 2024), about the impact of books upon their lives, even when the characters—like Jo March in Little Women, one of both Chihaya and Edim’s childhood favorites—did not look like them. Prompted by the moderator, SIBA board chair Julia Davis, owner of the Book Worm Bookstore in Austell, Ga., the three opened up about how exposing their deepest vulnerabilities through writing these books grounded them while giving them confidence. Chihaya noted that writing her memoir “made someone who felt invisible feel visible,” while Keith recalled publishing his debut collection of poetry and realizing that “there is an audience for these vulnerable stories.” Edim disclosed that reading Bibliophobia made her feel as if she and Chihaya “were in a conversation” with one another.

Friday was a day of education with more than a dozen panels, including a session on improving cash flow, led by American Booksellers Association executives, who will bring this session to all of this year's fall trade gatherings. Another panel, “New Bookstore Models Redefine Success,” featured Candice Huber of Tubby & Coo’s in New Orleans; LaTanya Devaughn of Bronx Bound Books in the Bronx; and Daniel Rowe of Book + Bottle in St. Petersburg, Fla. discussing how they define success within their nontraditional business models, which emphasize mission and sustainability. “I’m an anti-capitalist in a capitalist system,” Huber explained. “Success has never been for me about money; it’s how entrenched I am in the community.” Huber also suggested that booksellers “bring who you are into a space” in terms of mission and branding.

All three speakers discussed working with organizations that share their values and community base, such as purchasing eco-friendly products from suppliers “even if it costs more,” said Rowe. Devaughn also explained her commitment to recognizing and publicizing when organizations donate books to be distributed for free, noting, “Somebody paid for those books,” which prompted Huber to respond, “Books aren’t free, even when they’re free.”

So Many Books for the Taking

Saturday’s highlight was the exhibit hall, which bustled with activity all afternoon, as booksellers snapped up galleys from publisher reps, many of whom brought along plenty of spring 2025 ARCs along with their fall offerings. Sourcebooks had piles of spiralbound manuscripts of about a half-dozen late spring releases lined up on the floor in front of their booth. “We’re not going to see NAIBA and SIBA booksellers again until next August,” explained senior marketing manager BrocheAroe Fabian. “We’re doing this for all of the trade shows.”

While fiction by big names, such as Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner, Sept.), The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Maruki Harukami (Knopf, Nov.), and Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (Knopf, Feb. 2025), were quickly snatched up, fiction by lesser-known names were also big draws. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, a debut “social horror” novel by Clay McLeod Chapman (Quirk Books, Jan. 2025) disappeared within minutes of copies being set out, as did another debut, Brittany Newell’s Soft Core (FSG, Feb. 2025). Holly Wunsch of the Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, N.C., was excited to score a copy of Soft Core, as well as Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron, Mar. 2025), telling PW that she is “so excited—it’s next on my TBR list.” Her colleague at Country Bookshop, Mary Salazar, raved about This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead (Sourcebooks Landmark, Mar. 2025), explaining that she is a big fan of Winstead’s previous novels.

SIBA bookseller DJ Johnson of Baldwin & Co. in New Orleans, who traveled more than 1,000 miles to attend NVNR, said that it was “an easy decision” for him to fly out, as he considers booksellers to be “on the front lines of creating democracy in this country” and wants to support the efforts of his fellow indies, as well as the indie presses exhibiting at NVNR. Johnson was excited to pick up an ARC of John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg (S&S, Oct.), which clocks in at 700 pages. “He’s such an icon and a hero. I hope this book tells the full story of his service to this country,” he said, minutes before cheering with delight when University of Chicago Press rep Laura Waldron handed him a copy of On James Baldwin by Colm Tóibín (Brandeis University Press, Aug.).

NAIBA bookseller Kromeklia Bryant, the general manager of Solid State Books in Washington, D.C., was on the hunt for children’s books, explaining that she became a fan of MG fiction after reading the Harry Potter series. She was ecstatic about scoring the third volume in B.B. Alston’s Supernatural Investigations trilogy, Amari and the Despicable Wonders (Balzer + Bray, Aug.) and tucked it deep into her bag, “so that nobody tries to take it,” she said, addding “I’m always looking for representation and the protagonist is a Black girl.” Bryant also praised Scholastic for publishing “manga-style graphic novels."

The number of first-time exhibitors, especially indie presses, participating in NVNR demonstrates the growing importance of regionals in an industry that has lacked a national trade show since Book Expo’s demise. Sales director Casey O’Neil of Graywolf Press noted that the Minneapolis-based publisher has always attended Heartland Fall Forum, but now plans to rotate each year among all the other regionals. Cathryn Siegal-Bergman, publisher of Clevo Books in Cleveland, also attends Heartland Fall Forum, and says she plans on exhibiting at more regionals: “I feel like our advertising is not reaching booksellers and so I want to reach out to booksellers directly," she said. "This seems like the best way to do that.”