Awards

MPBA to Honor Regional Book Award Winners The Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association will present its Regional Book Awards at a banquet at the Marriott Denver Tech Center in Denver, Colorado, on March 20. The 2004 MPBA Regional Book Award winners are:

Maria's Bookshop, owned by husband and wife Peter Schertz and Andrea Avantaggio, was recently named the Best Small Business of the Year by the Durango, Colorado, Chamber of Commerce. In announcing the award, the Chamber of Commerce cited Maria's dedication to the community and great customer service.

After Police Investigation, Bookstore Pulls Adult Magazines Following a police investigation after some residents complained that a Cullman, Alabama, bookstore had been displaying and illegally selling "obscene materials," the store, Books-A-Million, decided to clear its shelves of all adult magazines, as reported by the Cullman Times.

Dreaming big dreams is the link between the main characters of the two books winning this year's most prestigious prizes in children's literature: The Newbery and Caldecott medals.

"The first objective is to make the statement that poetry and poets are just as important as novelists," said Scott Griffin, the founder of the Griffin Poetry Trust, which awards two literary prizes annually for poetry written in English. The prizes are worth C$40,000 each. One will go to a living Canadian poet, the other to a living poet from any country, including Canada. Poets Billy Collins (U.S.

Griffin Poetry Prize Deadline Approaching

More Good New for Retailers from Ernst & Young, Consumer Confidence Index This past month, consumer survey after consumer survey has predicted that this will be a banner holiday selling season for retailers -- Ernst & Young's 2003 Holiday Sales Forecast is no different. It anticipates that the 2003 retail holiday sales increases for November and December will be 5.2 percent -- compared to a 3.4 percent increase for the same period last year.

Another Poll Predicts Happy Holidays for Retailers If predictions equal sales, then this holiday season will be an extremely profitable one for retailers. The Gallup Organization recently released a new Gallup Poll, conducted November 3 - 5, that indicated consumer optimism is now "at its highest level in more than 18 months" and that "consumer spending intentions are more positive than they have been at any point since 9/11."

Call for Nominations for the Lucile Micheels Pannell Awards