New Voices New Rooms
Arlington, Va., August 8–11
The second in-person collaborative annual show between the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) once again kicked off the fall trade show season. Booksellers returned to the Crystal Gateway Marriott, which has received positive reviews from attendees and may remain the NVNR venue indefinitely. Though the show has concluded, as a key (if early) part of the fall regionals, we include its highlights here.
Highlights
• A bookmobile rally in front of the hotel demonstrating the different ways bookmobiles serve their communities.
• An opening reception featuring a half-dozen authors, including Louis Bayard and Patti Callahan Henry.
• Tours of sevenWashington, D.C., metro–area bookstores and the Library of Congress.
• A breakfast keynote featuring poet Tony Keith Jr.(Knucklehead, Quill Tree, Feb. 2025), who honored poets and storytellers with a performance piece, followed by a conversation on the importance of books in one’s life with Keith, Sarah Chiyaha, and Glory Edim.
• A lunchtime conver-sation about women,
politics, and power, with Rebecca Graham and Juanita Tolliver.
• Evening receptions including one with nine romance authors (and a signature Hearts on Fire cocktail), and another with top editors from Blackstone, Cornell University Press, HarperCollins, Lantern Fish, Levine Querido, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Sourcebooks, and Street Noise Books.
• A bedtime story hour reception featuring more than a dozen children’s picture book and middle grade authors.
• A moveable feast with 20 authors on the menu.
New England Independent Booksellers Association 2024 Fall Conference
Newton, Mass., September 11–13
NEIBA’s 51st Fall Conference will take place at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel, and organizers expect to bring together more than 500 attendees from across the industry, plus dozens of authors, to celebrate independent bookselling in the region. An early bird education session will look at seasonal buying and preparing for tourist traffic during beach and skiing season. Before and after the conference, visiting booksellers and publishing pros will have an opportunity to visit some of the 50 independent bookstores in and around the Boston area.
Highlights
• An opening keynote with Tamara K. Lanier, author of From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy (Crown, Jan. 2025).
• A “Pre-order Campaigns 101” panel offering
techniques for successful
pre-order management.
• An “Art of Handselling” session, with tips on increasing sales through effective customer en-
gagement.
• A remainders workshop providing insights on boosting profits with remaindered books.
• An adult author breakfast, featuring Riley August, Sarah Chihaya, Nicole Galland, Torrey Peters, and Dava Sobel.
• A children’s author breakfast, featuring Winsome Bingham, Christopher Denise, Gayle Forman, and Adam Gidwitz.
• A reception showcasing more than 25 authors across various genres.
• Editor buzz panels with separate sessions for adult and children’s book editors.
• The New England Book Awards Banquet, which celebrates regional literary excellence.
• Affinity group breakout sessions with tailored discussions for various roles and communities, including owners and managers as well as LGBTQ and neurodivergent communities.
California Independent Booksellers Alliance Fall Fest ’24
Pasadena, Calif., September 17–18.
CALIBA will pack a lot of programming into two days at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel. Before the official start, booksellers can catch the September 16 welcome party at Vroman’s Bookstore and its in-house wine bar, the 1894. Trade show events begin the next morning, with education for first-timers and CALIBA veterans alike, plus author panels. Attendees with extra time can walk to Pasadena bookstores or drive to shops in Los Angeles, and folks who attend for one day have a variety of education sessions and author meet-and-greets to choose from.
Highlights
• A breakfast keynote with Nnedi Okorafor, author of Death of the Author (Morrow, Dec.).
• Education sessions on first-time trade show attendance, advanced inventory management, making the most of co-op, publishing 101, marketing, and nonprofit business models.
• Author Speed Dating with Robin Benway, Ada Calhoun, Ava Dellaira, Ezra Edmond, Liese Greensfelder, Christine Mari, Nayantara Roy, Jordan Thomas, and Julia Park Tracey.
• An Emerging Voices author panel with Jon Hickey, Nanda Reddy, and Edward Underhill.
• A “Finger on the Pulse” horror genre panel with authors Brian Asman, Alex Brown, CJ Leede, and Justine Pucella Winans.
• A pre–exhibit hall opening toast with Monday Night Mocktails author Jennifer Newens.
• A Rep Picks Bingo game show—with cash prizes—at Whimsy, a gathering place in Old Town Pasadena.
• A “Falling in Love with YA Romance” panel featuring authors Kiana Krystle, Shelly Page, and Katy Upperman.
• The All-Stars Lunch with children’s authors Matt de la Peña, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Patrick Ness, and David Shannon.
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fall Tradeshow
Portland, Ore., September 29–October 1
PNBA’s fall show gathers for a second year in a row at the Holiday Inn Portland along the Columbia River, a spacious venue outside the city with easy parking and highway access. After collecting feedback on past trade shows’ four-hour rep picks, late night events, and education programming, PNBA has rearranged the schedule to allow down time between Big Pitch sessions, education for first-timers and new booksellers on opening day, and a wider variety of programming with built-in breaks and chances to get acquainted with member-led affinity groups. Dozens of authors from the region and the nation will be on hand to sign books and meet attendees.
Highlights
• A kickoff education event with ethics and leadership expert Richard Kyte, author of Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way) (Fulcrum, out now).
• Back-to-back Big Pitch sessions, to meet reps ahead of the exhibition hall opening.
• Explore the Floor exhibit hall opening, with authors at publishers’ booths.
• A dinner featuring authors Jonathan Evison, Eowyn Ivey, Nnedi Okorafor, Karen Russell, and Lidia Yuknavitch.
• A Nightcapper autographing reception with 19 authors and illustrators.
• A breakfast and book signing with indie press authors from the PNBA member region, including Samantha Allen, Olufunke Grace Bankole, Stephanie Booth, Leyla Brittan, Faith Conlon, Zaynab Mohammed, Holly Searcy, Megan Williams, and Kelsey Yu.
• A Readers Recess event with children’s authors, including Natalie Lloyd, Emily Lloyd-Jones, and Aiden Thomas.
• The Signature Dish dinner, where 16 national and Northwestern authors table-hop to meet booksellers, featuring Kristin Cast, Alexis Castellanos, Elaine Cho, Dianne Dugaw, Trang Thanh Tran, Carole Boston Weatherford, and others.
• The late-show-style Reps Behind the Desk event, with rep picks, bookseller blurbs, and surprise authors appearances.
• A final day kickoff breakfast keynote with Brian Selznick, who will talk about his YA debut, Run Away with Me (Scholastic, Apr. 2025).
• A Books Around the Bend lunch and trade show closer, with a keynote by TJ Klune and appearances by authors Holly Brickley, Amanda DuBois, David Shannon, and others.
Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers Association FallCon
Denver, October 6–9
MPIBA FallCon returns to its perennial trade show location, the Renaissance Denver Central Park Hotel, with a schedule designed for attendees who stay for the duration or send staffers for a day at the show. MPIBA has arranged Pick of the Lists rep picks and Conversations with Colleagues opportunities ahead of the October 7 exhibition floor opening; set up The Expert Is In booths where booksellers can ask questions or listen to conversations on October 8; and scheduled education sessions on the final day of the gathering.
Highlights
• An opening mixer at Denver’s historic Station 26 firehouse turned brewpub.
• The Young Readers’ Fest keynote breakfast with Jorge Cham, Shannon and Dean Hale, Thyra Heder, Rex Ogle, Michael Sampson, and Brian Selznick.
• A Feast of Fiction lunch with authors including Alexis Castellanos, Amanda DeWitt, Shaylin Gandhi, Trang Thanh Tran, and others.
• A Novel Narratives keynote breakfast with Nickolas Butler, Johnny Compton, Jonathan Evison, Michael Idov, Nnedi Okorafor, and Karen Russell.
• A Buffet of Books lunch with Joanna Cacao, Megan E. Freeman, Sarah Gerard, Laurie Lee Hall, Pam Houston, Richard Kyte, Buddy Levy, Derek Lewis, Carole Lindstrom, and J.E. Thomas.
• Regional Author Roundup speed dating with 14 Mountains and Plains authors.
• MPIBA’s annual literary trivia challenge, a team sport for bibliophiles.
• The Authentic Voices keynote breakfast, with Rick Atkinson, Riley Black, Amy Gamerman, Debbie Levy, Stanley Milford Jr., and Zak Podmore.
• A Last Booksellers Standing raffle, with all the books from the Holiday Gift Guide Catalog.
Heartland Fall Forum
Milwaukee, October 6–9
As the Midwest Independent Booksellers and Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Associations move from Detroit’s epic gathering last year to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center, the two organizations have added an extra day to hold bookseller retreats. The thinking is that since both organizations have had spikes in membership, there should be even more of an emphasis on education. At press time, Heartland could not confirm keynote and other authors, but MIBA’s Carrie Obry promises another fabulous slate that is well worth the wait.
Highlights
• An opening day reception that will feature four or five authors interviewed onstage before signing books.
• An opening night party at the Milwaukee Public Library that will showcase Cream City’s literary scene and the MPL building’s iconic architecture, with a display of rare books selected by MPL’s team for MIBA and GLIBA booksellers.
• The Heartland Booksellers Awards, naming booksellers’ favorite reads and handsells, and the Voice of the Heartland Award, given annually to an individual who exemplifies the region’s bookselling scene, emceed by pop culture critic Ira Madison, author of Pure Innocent Fun (Random House, Feb. 2025).
• Quiz Bowl, which pits teams of booksellers and publishers’ reps against one another for literary and industry trivia bragging rights.
• A marquee author breakfast.
• A “moveable feast” featuring 40 authors rotating among the tables, introducing themselves and their books to booksellers.
• A happy hour sponsored by IPG, celebrating Malört, a wormwood-based liquor produced in Chicago, with author Josh Noel offering samples, along with copies of his Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit (Chicago Review, Sept.).
• A Spooky Happy Hour, with book swap.
• A downtown walking tour led by Anna Lardinois, author of Ghostly Tales of Milwaukee.
