2011 Domnitz Scholarship Winner Named

This week, the American Booksellers Association named Fran Keilty, owner of The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, Connecticut, as the winner of the Avin Mark Domnitz Scholarship to the Seventh Annual Winter Institute. The scholarship was open to booksellers at ABA member stores that submitted financial data to the ABACUS 10 Survey. ABA’s Winter Institute, sponsored by the Ingram Content Group, will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from January 18 - 20, 2012.

The Avin Mark Domnitz Scholarship was created in 2009 to honor ABA’s former CEO and his many contributions to independent bookselling. Keilty, who was informed of her win this week, told BTW that she was surprised and excited by the news and was looking forward to attending Wi7.

Last week’s snowstorm, which hit the Northeast hard, had left Keilty’s home and bookstore without power for several days, and “in the midst of feeling a bit unlucky, this is certainly a huge bonus,” Keilty said. “I’m thrilled to have received it.”

Regarding her participation in the annual survey of ABA member bookstores’ financial operations, Keilty said she uses the ABACUS data for benchmarking. “I look at it all the time to see where we stand,” she said. “It’s been enormously helpful in terms of talking to the bank about our business. I think it’s a very valuable tool.”

The Domnitz scholarship covers the Wi7 meal fee, up to a four-night stay at the Astor Crowne Plaza, and travel expenses up to $350.

Watch for an announcement of the winners of publisher-sponsored scholarship to Winter Institute 7 in next week’s edition of Bookselling This Week.