Much like the faiths the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit serves, this year's annual trade show for Catholic, Episcopal, and other liturgical booksellers will address both contemporary issues and timeless ones. Nearly 100 exhibitors will feature not only classics and backlist titles but also books on everything from the new liturgy translations and newly beatified Pope John Paul II to using new media.

This year RBTE celebrates its 20th anniversary, and while the number of attendees and exhibitors has declined the past few years, it's still considered the most important trade show of the year for reaching independent stores that serve this market.

"Our goal is to provide an educational and inspirational as well as business environment," says RBTE cofounder and current president Bob Byrns, also director of marketing and sales for Paulist Press. With speakers, liturgies, and plenty of informal get-togethers, the show is an opportunity for publishers to take stock of the changing churches and the changing book and religious goods market as well as taking orders. Publishers' and booksellers' associations hold their annual meetings at RBTE, and attendees benefit from workshops and seminars.

Authors on Tap

While booksellers discuss how to use the Internet to sell books (and e-books), several authors will explore its use to find spiritual connection amid the isolation it can foster. Adam Thomas, one of the first Episcopal priests of the Millennial generation and author of The Digital Disciple: Real Christianity in a Virtual World (Abingdon, May; profile in this issue), will speak at a luncheon at the three-day event held May 31–June 3 at suburban Chicago's Pheasant Run Resort and Convention Center.

Catholics, too, are writing about all things virtual. Brandon Vogt's The Church and the New Media: Blogging Converts, Internet Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet (Our Sunday Visitor, Sept.) features chapters by wired Catholic movers and shakers.

Genres That Work

But the liturgical market is also literary, publishers say, so RBTE is a good place for them to highlight memoirs, novels, even poetry. Memoir remains strong in this market, especially when authors are honest or humorous, or both—like ex-lawyer, former alcoholic, and Catholic convert Heather King. In her third spiritual memoir, Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux (Paraclete, Sept.), King describes her year with one of the most popular saints.

While the audience for poetry may be small, Paraclete associate publisher Jon Sweeney believes The Sin-eater: A Breviary by National Book Award finalist Thomas Lynch (Sept.)—a new hardcover collection of poems paired with black-and-white photographs by his son—will attract attention at RBTE.

Likewise, Catholic fiction might be a relatively small category, but a new novel by a big-name author like Joseph Girzone, whose Joshua series has sold millions, will interest this crowd. The Homeless Bishop (Orbis, May) tells the story of a bishop who lives among the poor and embodies a spirit of love, humility, and service. "It's a departure for us," says Orbis publisher Robert Ellsberg. "It's the first novel Orbis has ever published. But we don't think of it as beginning a fiction line so much as having a beloved author whose novels fit very comfortably in the spirituality offerings on our list."

A Cardinal Speaks

Fictional bishops won't be the only members of the episcopate making an appearance. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is scheduled to speak; his new book, God in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World (May), will be Image's lead title at the show.

Though a number of Catholics have been frustrated with the response of the hierarchy to the sex abuse crisis, titles by and about members of the hierarchy have done well for Random House imprint Image, says Trace Murphy, editorial director. "There are many Catholics who want to know that what they're getting is reliable, that it's consistent with tradition while also offering insight that comes from wisdom," he says.

For example, The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition (Image, Feb.) by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Mike Aquilina helps Catholics go more deeply into the liturgy while also discussing the upcoming Mass changes set to begin in Advent 2011.

The new Mass prayers will be included in a revised Daily Roman Missal (July) from Our Sunday Visitor, which also will be highlighting three revised Bibles in the updated New American Bible translation as well as two books by Pope Benedict XVI. Holy Women (June) and Great Teachers (Mar.) are both collections of the pontiff's weekly Wednesday audiences.

Remembering John Paul II

But more showgoers will probably be talking about the previous pope, as the beatification (a first step toward sainthood) of Pope John Paul II is scheduled for a month before RBTE. The End and the Beginning (Image, Sept. 2010), the second volume in a two-part biography of JPII by George Weigel, is selling "steadily," says Murphy.

Loyola Press also has a number of backlist titles about the late pope, but this is the third year the Chicago-based publisher won't be at RBTE, though some staff still attend. "We love RBTE, but it's a matter of resource allocation," says acquisitions editor Joseph Durepos.

Others insist the show cannot be missed. "It remains our most important trade show of the year," says Paraclete's Sweeney. Adds Ellsberg of Orbis: "There's no better way for us to reach those independent stores."

Titles at the RBTE

Abingdon Press

Digital Disciple: Real Christianity in a Virtual World by Adam Thomas (May)

The Common English Bible (Aug.)

Why? Making Sense of God's Will by Adam Hamilton (Apr.)

Don't Make Me Come Up There! Quiet Moments for Busy Moms by Kristen Welch (Mar.)

A Time to Heal by Barbara Cameron (Quilts of Lancaster County series book 2; Mar.)

The Christian Year: A Guide for Worship and Preaching by Robin Knowles Wallace (May)


Paraclete

The Sin-Eater: A Breviary by Thomas Lynch (Sept.)

Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux by Heather King (Sept.)

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor by Jana Riess (Nov.)

Praying in Black and White: A Hands-on Prayer Practice for Men by Sybil and Andy MacBeth (Nov.)

Prayer Book of the Early Christians, trans. and edited by John A. McGuckin (Oct.)

Creating with God: The Holy Confusing Blessedness of Being Pregnant by Sarah Jobe (Oct.)


Orbis

The Homeless Bishop: A Novel by Joseph Girzone (Sept.)

The Emerging Catholic Church: A Community in Search of Itself by Tom Roberts (Oct.)

Lazarus, Come Forth! How Jesus Calls Us Out of Death and into the New Life of Peace by John Dear (Nov.)

Called to Happiness: Where Faith and Psychology Meet by Sidney Callahan (Oct.)

The Other Face of God: When the Stranger Calls Us Home by Mary Jo Leddy (Oct.)

The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone (Oct.)

Our Sunday Visitor

Daily Roman Missal, Revised (July)

The New Catholic Answer Bible (New American Bible Revised Edition; Apr.)

Holy Women by Pope Benedict XVI (June)

The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Internet Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet by Brandon Vogt (Sept.)

Engaging a New Generation: A Vision for Reaching Catholic Teens by Frank Mercadante (Sept.)

Streetwalking with Jesus by John Green (Mar.)

Image

God in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World by Francis Cardinal George (May)

The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition by Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mike Aquilina (Feb.)

Our One Great Act of Fidelity by Ronald Rolheiser (June)

The Invisible World by Anthony DeStefano (Mar.)

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre (Feb.)

The End and the Beginning by George Weigel (Sept.)