Doris Kearns Goodwin to Host 2002 Celebration of Bookselling at BEA

ABA announced this week that the distinguished historian and writer Doris Kearns Goodwin will serve as host for the 2002 Celebration of Bookselling -- ABA's and Book Sense's annual reception for attendees of BookExpo America (BEA). Goodwin is the author of several bestsellers, including No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, as well as the memoir Wait Till Next Year. Currently, she is working on a biography of Abraham Lincoln, which will be published by Simon & Schuster. Goodwin's participation in the Celebration continues the precedent of well-known historians hosting the event.

The Celebration of Bookselling, which debuted in 1997, has become a festive focal point for independent booksellers and others in the industry attending BEA. A highlight of the Celebration will be the announcement of the winners of the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year.

Twenty-five titles in five categories have been nominated this year, and booksellers will be receiving ballots at the beginning of March. (Book Sense Book of the Year ballots will be mailed together with the ballots for the ABA Board elections, and an update on BEA programming.) KPMG will be tabulating the votes from independent booksellers, and the names of the winners will be kept secret until the announcements at the Celebration. It's expected that many of the 2001 Book Sense Book of the Year winners will be on hand to help present this year's awards.

"I can think of few writers whose titles independent booksellers have more respect for -- or whom they have more enthusiastically handsold to customers -- than Doris Kearns Goodwin," said ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz. "Anyone who has seen her on TV as a commentator knows, too, just how engaging and articulate she is. We couldn't be more happy or grateful that she has agreed to join us at the Celebration." Goodwin is a regular panelist on PBS's The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer and is a commentator for NBC. She has been a consultant and on-air person for PBS documentaries on Lyndon Johnson, the Kennedy family, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ken Burns's The History of Baseball. She was also the first woman journalist to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room.

The Celebration is only one of several Book Sense-related events at this year's BEA. Also on Friday, May 3, there will be a Book Sense 76 Author & Bookseller Luncheon at the Javits Center, which will give booksellers a chance to meet dozens of authors whose titles have been featured as Book Sense 76 Picks. Look for further details in next week's BTW.