Publishers Weekly - 02.09.2019

Fall Regionals

● Diversity has long been woven into NCIBA’s fall show. Its
Mirrors & Windows dinner, celebrating diverse and inclusive
books, has been turned into a breakfast, making it the very first
event of the show. It will be emceed by Books Inc. bookseller-
turned-author Maggie Tokuda-Hall, who will talk about her
first YA novel, The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea (Candlewick).
Da Chen (Girl Under a Red Moon, Scholastic), Mitali Perkins
(Forward Me Back to You, FSG BYR, a Junior Library Guild
selection), and Gabby River (Juliet Takes a Breath, Riverdale
Avenue) are among the authors who will be joining her. Other
events are equally diverse, including the Friday author lunch
with Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (Children of the Land, Harper),

Jennifer Longo (What I Carry,

Random House BFYR), Monique

Morris (Sing a Rhythm, Dance a

Blues, New Press), and Laura

Taylor Namey (The Library of Lost

Things, Inkyard), among others.

● To make sure that adult pro-

gramming is just as diverse,

NCIBA has started a Mirrors &

Windows–style committee for

adult books. According to Crosby, the committee influenced

the author selection process and is working on a blog to pro-

mote diverse and inclusive adult titles. A presentation on the

romance genre, “Mythbusters: ‘I’m Too Sexy for This Romance’

Edition,” showcases diversity with the inclusion of YA and

LGBTQ romance in addition to more traditional romance. It’s

also evident in programming such as the Saturday breakfast

with Kira Jane Buxton (Hollow Kingdom, Grand Central), Saeed

Jones (How We Fight for Our Lives, S&S), and Walter Thompson-

Hernandez (The Compton Cowboys, Morrow). Diversity is front

and center in the buzz lunch later that day with Alice Waters’s

daughter, Fanny Singer (Always Home: A Daughter’s Recipes and

Stories, Knopf); Peggy Orenstein (Boys & Sex, HarperCollins);

and Shannon Pufahl (On Swift Horses,

Riverhead).

● While much of the focus is on authors

and education, including presentations on

Independent Bookstore Day and CalSavers

(California’s new individual retirement-

savings account for small businesses), one

issue of immense concern to NCIBA

members is whether the regional will offi-

cially join forces with SCIBA. The subject

is one of the topics slated for consider-

ation at Saturday’s annual meeting. “We

hope to have a firm direction afterward,”

Crosby says. “This is really about having

a stronger voice in California. We are the

fifth to the eighth [depending who’s

doing the figuring] leading economy in

the world.” From a business-efficiency

perspective, he would like to begin plan-

ning for the next stage by the start of

2020.

● Innovation has long been associated

with NCIBA, which was behind IBD

with SCIBA. Its latest project, with help

from Wanda Jewell at SIBA, is the newly

launched Indie Booksellers Marketplace,

a portal for booksellers to wholesale

Anna-Marie

McLemore

Monique

Morris

Marcelo

Hernandez

Castillo

Saeed

Jones

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