Wi6 Scholarship Winners Announced

Thirty-one booksellers have been awarded publisher-sponsored scholarships to the American Booksellers Association’s Sixth Annual Winter Institute, sponsored by the Ingram Content Group.

“Thanks to the generosity of our publisher sponsors, today we are able to announce an unprecedented number of Winter Institute scholarship recipients,” said ABA COO Len Vlahos. “We hope all ABA members will join us in thanking these publishers for their continuing support of independent booksellers.”

The publishers and the recipients of their 2011 Winter Institute scholarships, covering the cost of up to a four-night stay at the host hotel, transportation costs up to $350, and the Wi6 meal fee, are:

ABRAMS: Peri Danton, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA

Bloomsbury USA: Gillian Kohli, Wellesley Booksmith, Wellesley, MA

Candlewick Press: Krista Gilliam, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution: Jan Weissmiller, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA

Diamond Book Distributors: Bunny Hand, Mysterious Galaxy Books, Redondo Beach, CA

Disney Worldwide Publishing: Jennifer Green, Green Bean Books,
Portland, OR

Egmont USA: Sally Bulthuis, Pooh’s Corner, Grand Rapids, MI

Graywolf Press: Joan Grenier, The Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA

Grove/Atlantic: Sylla McClellan, Third Street Books, McMinville, OR

Hachette Book Group: Susan McBeth, Warwick’s, La Jolla, CA

HarperCollins Adult: Janet Chapman, Tome on the Range, Las Vegas, NM

HarperCollins Adult: Susan Porter, Maine Coast Book Shop & Café, Darmiscotta, ME

HarperCollins Children’s Books: Janet Bibeau, Storybook Cove, Hanover, MA

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Chad Leonard, Vero Beach Book Center, Vero Beach, FL

Hyperion: Laura Lucy, White Birch Books, North Conway, NH

Macmillan Adult: Doug Robinson, Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, GA

Macmillan Children’s Book Group: Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Avenue Books, Seattle, WA

MIRA: Margaret Adams, Horton’s Books & Gifts, Carrollton, GA

W. W. Norton: Andy Nettell, Arches Book Company, Moab, UT

Other Press: Jeff Waxman, 57th Street Books/Seminary Co-op, Chicago, IL

Penguin Adult: Jill Hendrix, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC

Penguin Young Readers Group: Ellen Richmond, Children’s Book Cellar, Waterville, ME

Perseus/Publishers Group West: Karen Hernandez, Normandale Community College Bookstore, Bloomington, MN

Random House Adult: Christine Onorati, WORD, Brooklyn, NY

Random House Children’s Books: Amy Baum, The Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, MN

Scholastic: Peter Moore, The Blue Marble Children’s Bookstore, Fort Thomas, KY

Simon & Schuster Adult: Kate Levinson, Point Reyes Books, Point Reyes Station, CA

Simon & Schuster Children’s Books: Ellen Scott, The Bookworm, Omaha, NE

Sourcebooks: Jonah Zimilies, [words], Maplewood, NJ

John Wiley & Sons: Peggy Durbin, Otowi Station Book Store, Los Alamos, NM

Workman: Marcia Harcourt, Mudsock Books & Curiosity Shoppe,
Fishers, IN

Several special scholarships were also awarded this year.

Emily Grossenbacher of Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi, won Candlewick Press’ CHIRP scholarship, which was open to booksellers who signed up for CHIRP-mail, the e-newsletter for the Candlewick Handselling Indie Recognition Program, before November 1.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that Emily Grossenbacher, children’s manager of Lemuria Books, was drawn as the winner of Candlewick’s CHIRP Wi6 Sweepstakes,” said Elise Supovitz, director of field sales for Candlewick Press. “Emily is an enthusiastic, young children’s bookseller who does it all – reads voraciously, tweets, blogs, writes book reviews, tirelessly promotes reading, and most importantly, handsells like the dickens. She embodies what Candlewick’s Handselling Indie Recognition Program is all about and we can’t wait to get to know her better at Winter Institute.”

In addition, last week ABA announced the winners of the Joe Drabyak Frontline Fellowship, sponsored by Workman Publishing, and the Avin Mark Domnitz Scholarship, awarded by ABA to a bookseller at a store that submitted financial data to the 2010 ABACUS Survey.

Emily Crowe of The Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is the winner of the fellowship honoring the late Joe Drabyak, master bookseller at Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and former president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Shelly Plumb of Harleysville Books in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, is the winner of the second annual Avin Mark Domnitz Scholarship, honoring the former ABA CEO’s wide-ranging contributions to independent bookselling.