Asked for one-word vibe checks at the American Booksellers Association’s 20th Winter Institute in Denver, booksellers and exhibitors reached for similar language. Connected. Hopeful. Energized. Thorough. Informative. A few called the meeting an oasis, with independent booksellers from across the U.S. and Canada largely sharing a common mission of anti-racism, anti-censorship, and support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

ABA CEO Allison Hill stated at the February 26 community forum that, regardless of Republican efforts to undermine diversity at a national and state level, “the ABA is 100% still committed to DEI. If anything it motivates us to be even stronger in our mission and in our work.” Still, despite Hill's words, tensions boiled over at that same community forum, shaking the conference's otherwise resilient mood with evidence that there remain divisive matters that need be resolved.

The forum opened with the board members seated on the edge of the stage for a welcome from board president Tegan Tigani. Board member Brein Lopez, of Children’s Book World in Los Angeles, followed an introduction from Tigani with a salute to Black ABA members, who have “blazed a path for the diverse spectrum of Latinidad, Asian, Indigenous, Muslim, and Queer booksellers and owners. You have lifted your voices, shared your journeys, and most importantly claimed your space in this association—space and access that was yours to claim from the very beginning.”

Lopez’s remarks celebrated the first Ignite pre-conference meeting for BIPOC booksellers, and his call to action was echoed later in a comment from Rick Griffith of the Shop at Matter in Denver, who said, “This gathering gives me tremendous hope,” adding: “Strap in, look around you. The midterm elections are not far away.” Griffith also suggested the ABA's legal team work on making independent booksellers “stewards of a protected class of business” with access to “better banking terms in times of need.” He added: “We are the champions, and many of our legislators know it.”

Room for Growth

When questions from the floor began, several bookstore owners once again protested the ABA board’s failure take a clear stance on Israel’s war in Gaza. Booksellers at Winter Institute 2024 in Cincinnati had demanded a board statement condemning the ongoing violence in Gaza, prior to a conversation about increasing visible, material support for BIPOC booksellers. By developing Ignite, the ABA began rising to the challenge of the second demand, while leaving the first unaddressed in a full membership setting.

Linda Sherman-Nurick of Cellar Door Books in Riverside, Calif., noted that the ABA had expressed needed support for transgender people yet had remained silent on Gaza. “Where has the voice of the ABA been?” Sherman-Nurick asked. As she spoke, three other booksellers—Emily Autenrieth of A Seat at the Table in Elk Grove, Calif., Andrew Pineda of 27th Letter Books in Detroit, and Carolina Valencia of Word Up Community Bookshop in New York City—held up signs reading, “Your solidarity has holes in it" and “Where is Interlink?”, referring to the Palestinian-owned independent publisher in Northampton, Mass., which did not attend this year’s show. They asked the membership to rise in support, and most people in the large crowd stood.

Board members Lisa Swayze of Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y., and Christina Pascucci-Ciampa of All She Wrote Books in Somerville, Mass., came to the ABA’s defense, recalling how the organization supported them after their stores were targeted by hate groups. “We do have each other’s backs,” Swayze insisted. Pascucci-Ciampa likewise said the ABA is responsive: “They’re here for you all.”

CEO Hill acknowledged the “huge geopolitical and humanitarian issue” of the violence in Palestine and across the Middle East, and expressed her grave concern about the recent arrest of two booksellers at East Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop. “The erosion of the right to read impacts every bookseller,” Hill said. “We’re seeing it happen here, in Israel, and around the world.” She also noted the ABA’s 501c6 status as a trade association requires it to represent a range of members’ viewpoints.

Members urged genuine transparency, saying silence undermines the safe space the ABA wants to foster. Past ABA board member John Evans—the former owner of Diesel Books in L.A., who now operates Camino Books in San Diego—voiced his support for including more BIPOC booksellers’ interests and concerns in conference programming. He added that the ABA should share a public stance on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in order to reinforce the rights of bookstores to express their views and carry material concerning the conflict. “It is not anti-semitic to provide books to people who want them,” he said.

Jazzi McGilbert, of Reparations Club in Los Angeles, reminded attendees that "perfectionism is a white supremacist hallmark" and that, rather than trying to achieve perfection, the organization needed to "work it out." Booksellers later asserted to PW that when the board wants to affirm or deny a request it considers controversial, it should explain its reasoning to ABA membership promptly, noting that delay in communication erodes trust.

At the start of the community forum, Lopez had alluded to these unresolved tensions in his comments. “Our collective responsibility as associated members is to not just hear each other, but to actively listen to each other with open ears, open minds, and open hearts,” Lopez read from his prepared statement. "Some of your brothers and sisters in this room are facing concerted acts of erasure and harm in their communities and homes at this very minute and still stand up for others across the globe who also face erasure and death. It is all of our responsibility to actively listen to each other, to see each other, and respond to each other with understanding and communion.”

Hope Through Hardship

This year's gathering began winding down on Wednesday afternoon. Binc's traditional heads-or-tails game netted the organization more than $7,000; this year's winner, Emilie Sommer of East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C., donated her $500 prize money back to Binc.

Brian Selznick's closing keynote presentation reinforced the recurring themes of this year's gathering of booksellers, as he spoke of his evolution as a bookseller at Eeyore's Bookstore for Children in New York City, and an artist, while coming out in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the AIDS epidemic. Selznick noted that he wrote Run Away With Me (Scholastic, April), "his very first gay YA novel," in part to defy the current attempts to erase gay history.

"A book celebrating queer love helps me reconcile my own relationship with my past, with my youth, and it has given me a rock to stand on right now in this extremely unsettling world," Selznick declared. "It's important to have books that represent all of us, that show that our lives and loves matter."

Thanking the booksellers for welcoming him to WI2025, Selznick added: "We all have a very long road ahead of us, but we will survive. I know you've got my back and I've got yours. Lifting all those boxes has made us strong, but the stories inside those boxes make us even stronger."

The next Winter Institute will take place in Pittsburgh, Pa., February 23–26, 2026.

This story has been updated with further information and the three booksellers holding up signs at the Community Forum have been correctly identified.