HONOREES
Lerner Publishing
congratulates
PW Star Watch
nominee
Greg Hunter!
SLJ SLJ
Celebrating 60 years
BooklistBATCHHONOR BOOK
ELDER^ AWARDKirkusANDY PERHAM
Director of operations
Books Inc., San Francisco
N
ine years ago, after
interning with a con-
gressman and learning he
didn’t like politics, Perham
took a part-time job at Books Inc., thinking it would be a tem-
porary stop on his career path. Instead, it became the path. Now,
he oversees operations for Books Inc.’s 12 stores, one of which
opened about a year ago in Campbell, Calif. On November 1, he
will be named president and CEO of Books Inc., succeeding
Michael Tucker at the West’s oldest independent bookseller,
operating since 1851. “I’m thrilled at the opportunity to take on
leadership of this 168-year-old bookselling institution,” he says.
“It has been awesome to see a new generation of booksellers across
the country come into positions of leadership in established
stores, or starting brand new stores themselves, and all the dif-
ferent ideas and business models and positive energy we have in
the bookselling community.”
BETH PHELAN
Literary agent
Gallt & Zacker, South Orange, N.J.Y
ou can’t spell #DVPit without Beth Phelan. Okay,
yes, you can, but she’s the one who started the
popular Twitter event that showcases book pitches
from marginalized voices. The first #DVPit event
was in April 2016 and became a nationally trending hashtag.
The most recent was in April of this year. The result has been
well over 100 creators (authors, artists, illustrators) signed by
agents and dozens of book deals inked. And that’s not even
Phelan’s day job. She is an agent with Gallt & Zacker, where
she has been since 2017 after making her mark at the Bent
Agency. At GZLA, among the books she
has sold are Randy Ribay’s Patron Saints
of Nothing, a YA novel that sheds light on
the brutal real-life war on drugs in the
Philippines; Queen of the Conquered by
Stonewall Award–winning author Kacen
Callender; and the sci-fi adventure
Midnight on Strange Street by K.E. Ormsbee.