Carrie Obry, an acquisitions editor at Llewellyn Worldwide in suburban St. Paul, Minn., has been named the new executive director of the Midwest Booksellers Association, which is headquartered in suburban Minneapolis. Obry will replace Susan Walker, and will assume her new responsibilities on Dec. 27. Walker, who’s been director of MBA for 23 years, is resigning as of January to move back to her native North Carolina to care for her aging parents. After the holidays, there will be some overlap between the incoming and outgoing directors, as Walker will train Obry in her new role for two weeks, until Walker’s last day at MBA, Jan. 7.
The regional association of booksellers currently has 205 independent bookstore and 200 non-bookseller members in a 10-state region stretching across the Midwest.
Obry, 35, a Milwaukee native who lives in Minneapolis, has specialized in acquiring spiritual self-help and alternative health titles for Llewellyn for the past five years. Between 2002-2005, she worked for Sourcebooks in Naperville, Ill. as an associate editor, responsible for, among other things, managing its college admissions list. Previously, Obry worked for Aspen Publishers as a manuscript editor for two years, editing casebooks and study guides. She’s also undertaken freelance editing projects for the past decade, blogs about Twin Cities restaurants, and writes a column for a local food coop in the Twin Cities.
Chris Livingston, MBA board president and owner of the Bookshelf in Winona, Minn., who led the search for a new MBA executive director, told PW that Obry has never worked at an independent bookstore, but that is her “only learning curve.” She “brings a high energy” and is “very highly qualified” in other aspects of the position, he said. The MBA board intends to send Obry “as far afield as quickly as possible” to meet MBA booksellers across the region and to discuss their concerns.
