This year’s Winter Institute, which runs Sunday–Wednesday, February 23–26, in Denver, will be a momentous occasion. The American Booksellers Association is marking its 125th anniversary as a trade organization advocating for and supporting independent booksellers, and the conference itself is turning 20. To celebrate, WI2025 will offer a diverse lineup of keynote talks and presentations, featured speakers, more than 100 authors, and access to more ARCs than any bookseller could possibly read in a year.
“Booksellers have much to look forward to in Denver,” says ABA CEO Allison Hill. “Beautiful blue skies even in the middle of winter. The majestic Rocky Mountains. Robust public transit. Great public art. And amazing indie bookstores all over the Denver and Boulder metro areas.”
WI2025 will be a far cry from the very first Winter Institute—a two-day affair in Long Beach, Calif., in 2006 that drew almost 400 attendees and predated the iPhone, the Kindle, and Twitter. In this issue, PW looks back at the history of ABA and looks ahead to the evolution of Winter Institute and the launch of Ignite, a pre-conference program on February 22 exclusively for BIPOC attendees (see “Ignite Catches Fire,” p. 6). We preview ABA’s full- and half-day bookstore tours, which will transport busloads of WI2025 attendees to stores around central Colorado (see “Colorado Is Indie Country,” p. 43). And we’ve got a guide to the authors to meet at the show’s receptions, the Indies Introduce lunch, and the romance publishing afterparty.
Ocean Vuong (The Emperor of Gladness, May) delivers the Monday breakfast keynote, “Alternative Truths,” about “the bookstore and library as sites of counterknowledge, play, inquiry, and freedom.” (For our q&a with Vuong, see p. 27.) Tuesday’s breakfast keynote, “From Resistance to Resilience: The Legacy and Future of Black-Owned Bookstores,” features journalist Char Adams (Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore, Nov.) moderating a conversation between Maura Cheeks of Liz’s Book Bar in Brooklyn; Jake Cumsky-Whitlock of Washington, D.C.’s Solid State Books; DJ Johnson of New Orleans’s Baldwin & Co.; and Janet Webster Jones of Detroit’s Source Booksellers. (For our q&a with Adams, see p. 15.) Children’s author Brian Selznick (Run Away with Me, Apr.) delivers Wednesday’s closer.
At Monday’s lunch, editors will introduce their top titles and give their takes on publishing now and in the year to come. ABA has invited Rakia Clark of Mariner; Ruqayyah Daud of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Christa Désir of Bloom Books; Jennifer Greene of Nosy Crow; Carina Guiterman of Simon & Schuster; Jen Sookfong Lee of ECW Press; Irene Vázquez of Levine Querido; and Han Zhang of Riverhead. Additional editors will appear at Ignite and on the show floor, among them Aline Dolinh of the University of California Press, Maya Marshall of Haymarket Books, and Rakesh Satyal of Amistad. And industry analyst Brenna Connor, from Circana, will peer into the consumer data crystal ball and deliver her market trends report.
While WI2025 emphasizes networking—with editors, publishers’ reps, and, of course, authors and other booksellers—the show also provides plenty of educational panels for newbie and seasoned booksellers, on topics ranging from marketing strategy and tips for operating pop-ups to de-escalation techniques for dealing with angry customers. As usual, platforms including Anthology, Batch, and Edelweiss will lead sessions on their latest tools and updates.
“I’m excited to have the book industry descend on Denver,” says Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association executive director Heather Duncan. “I love seeing my town through visitors’ eyes, and the indie bookstore scene in this area is thriving and diverse. MPIBA’s membership includes at least 10 stores that have opened in the last several years or are opening in the next couple of months. The future of bookstores in Colorado, and especially Denver, is bright.”
Read more from our Winter Institute Preview feature
WI2025: Colorado Is Indie Bookstore Country
New bookstores are thriving alongside beloved older stores.
WI2025: BA Offers Pre-conference Program for BIPOC Booksellers
The ABA’s new pre-conference program strives to make the industry more inclusive for booksellers, publishers, and authors of color
WI2025: Adult Authors to Meet
This year’s authors range from debut stars to award-winning industry regulars, writing books in a range of categories and all certain to fly off bookstore shelves.
WI2025: Children’s Authors to Meet
The forecast for Denver includes a wintry mix of childrens and YA creators, with a flurry of picture books, middle grade reads, and teen novels.
Bookselling is Resilient: PW Talks with Allison Hill
ABA CEO Allison Hill says booksellers will always be there for each other.
Memory and Loss: PW Talks with Ocean Vuong
PW Speaks with Ocean Vuong about Labor, Loneliness, and the American Dream.
Black Bookstore Power!: PW Talks with Char Adams
The journalist unearths the history of Black bookselling.
Coyote Is Among Us: PW Talks with Julian Brave NoiseCat
We Survived the Night, a nonfiction debut, blends family history, reportage, and Indigenous storytelling.
Beyond (S)kin Deep: PW Talks with Ibi Zoboi
Ibi Zoboi’s debut YA fantasy novel draws on Caribbean folklore and her own life experience.
Catching a Buzz: PW Talks with with Shawn Harris
Characters chirp, rattle, and roar in Let’s Be Bees.
