Stefanie Corbin

Cape News highlighted Footprints Cafe, Books and Coffee in Buzzards Bay, Mass., which Stefanie Corbin opened in April, "the culmination of 20 years of dreaming.... an inclusive bookstore that puts authors of color at the front of the shelves."

When she started telling people about her idea, the newspaper wrote, Corbin said she received a lot of feedback that a bookstore focused on people of color would not work in a community that is 92% white. She disagreed.

"Customers say this is what they were waiting for," she said. "It's not just the social issue Black books that they're reading; they're also reading other books by Black authors. They want their children to have diversity in their reading. I think the community didn't realize that they needed it until I was here."

Footprints has large children's and YA sections, and Corbin is expanding her selection of children's books about women succeeding in science, math and technology, as well as generally expanding her selection of books about Latin American, Indigenous and Southeast Asian cultures.

She also plans to open a café this winter and host readings with local authors and other community events.

Over the weekend, the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, celebrated 44 years in business, and friends and colleagues from across the country gathered to honor co-founder Betsy Burton on her retirement. (In May, Burton sold her majority interest to Calvin Crosby, who at the time was the executive director of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.) Former American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher was among the speakers, and TKE marketing manager Rob Eckman served as the master of ceremonies.

Pictured: (top row. l.-r.) TKE booksellers Nathan Spottford, Sam Dutton, Annie Marks; Kaitlin Mahoney (Under the Umbrella Bookstore, Salt Lake City); Oren Teicher; Tony and Catherine Weller (Weller Book Works, Salt Lake City); Nancy (a friend of Betsy); Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association executive director Heather Duncan; Randy Hickernell (Hachette); Margarete Neville (TKE); Dan Christiaens (Norton); Ruth Liebmann (PRH). Bottom row (l.-r.): TKE booksellers Michaela Riding, Kurstin Spangle, Calvin Crosby, Jan Sloan; Betsy Burton; Gayle Shanks (Changing Hands, Tempe and Phoenix, Ariz.); and bookseller Sarah Ray.

The regional booksellers association trade shows and conferences are a mix of virtual, in-person and hybrid and will soon be in full swing. Here we offer highlights from the schedules.

This year's New England Independent Booksellers Association virtual Fall Conference runs Tuesday-Thursday, September 21-23. The opening keynote speaker is Susan Cain, author of Quiet. Among educational sessions are panels addressing online sales; a guide to children's and YA publishing for newer booksellers; several genre panels; how to avoid imposter syndrome; and how to talk with the media, whose panel members include Shelf Awareness's own John Mutter.

The conference also features buzz panels, a range of author events, sidelines presentations and more. The closing keynote will be given by W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz, authors of Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book for All.

The NECBA annual meeting will be held 11:30 a.m.-noon on Wednesday. NEIBA's annual meeting and town hall will take place from 1 to 2 p.m., Thursday.

The New England Book Awards, which are usually celebrated during the fall conference, will be announced at the NEIBA Masked Ball, an in-person event to be held Thurs., October 21, in Providence, R.I., "pending public health and local regulations."

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The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance are teaming up for the second year in a row for the virtual New Voices, New Rooms conference, which takes place Mon., September 27, to Fri., October 1. The theme is Opening Doors.

This year, bookseller education will be focused on Monday and Friday, the first and last day of the conference, while Tuesday-Thursday is devoted to publishers and authors, including new title discovery, author panels, editor buzz panels and rep picks.

The conference opens on Monday at 9 a.m. with the keynote Being Black in America: Past, Present, and Future with Jason Reynolds (Stuntboy, in the Meantime), Sesali Bowen (Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Feminist Trap) and Imani Perry (South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation). And Friday at 2 p.m. the closing keynote, Tales of Hope & Alliances, will feature Yuyi Morales (Bright Star), Peter Reynolds (Our Table) and Ben Hatke (Julia's House Goes Home). Panels will focus on, among other things, school book fairs, TikTok, special orders, online sales post-pandemic, and engaging the staff.

The conference will have virtual lunches without speakers so booksellers can chat at a "table" with other booksellers and have their own meetups on various topics, such as sidelines and used books. There's also a hospitality center, open all five days, for conducting meetups.

Events will have 10-minute interludes that feature authors highlighting their special talents, like Brendan Slocumb (The Violin Conspiracy) playing his violin.

SIBA's and NAIBA's annual meetings will be held concurrently on Thursday, 3:30-4:15 p.m.

LOC winners: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the Parents as Teachers National Center and the Luminos Fund.

Three organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading around the world were awarded 2021 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The recipients were announced on International Literacy Day (September 8). This year's honorees are:

David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.,
American Prize ($50,000): Parents as Teachers National Center, St. Louis, Mo.
International Prize ($50,000): Luminos Fund, Boston, Mass.

"Literacy develops the mind and the heart, engages the intellect and imagination, and builds wide-ranging knowledge of the world," said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. "Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, the Library of Congress is proud to honor and celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary organizations in their efforts to advance literacy and enable people to survive and thrive in the world."

In addition, the LOC is honoring 14 other organizations by giving each of them $5,000 "for their implementation of highly successful practices in literacy promotion."

Prize-winning Scottish children's author Cathy MacPhail died August 28. She was 75. The Bookseller reported that "her father died when she was two, leaving the child and her three sisters to be raised by their mother. MacPhail had to leave school at 15 to work in a mill."

Her son and fellow author David MacPhail and her literary agent Caroline Sheldon said: "Despite these early difficulties, Cathy joined a local writer's group, and later got to live her dream of becoming an author and comedy writer. Her BBC Radio 2 sitcom My Mammy and Me ran from 1993 to 1995. In 1994 she published her first children's book, Run Zan Run... inspired by her daughter Katie's experience with bullying. The book went on to win the Kathleen Fidler award and the Vergheretto in Italy." 

They also noted that "her trademark as a writer was to produce gritty and topical novels on important subjects that were totally accessible to her readers. She was a brilliant sharer of her work with children, indefatigably giving talks in schools and libraries."  

MacPhail's honors include the Scottish Children's Book Award, which she won three times, the Stockport Book Award, the Red Book Award and the Grampian Book Award. A film based on her novel Another Me was released in 2015, featuring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner. 

Posted on Facebook by Copper News Book Store, Ajo, Ariz.: "Stet is ready to greet everyone as they come get their new issue of the Ajo Copper News!"

At Chronicle Books:

Jennifer Nakamura has been hired as executive director, marketing & ecommerce.

Genny McAuley has been promoted to associate director, distribution sales.

Tracy Fortini has been promoted to senior distribution client manager.

Crystal Lee has been promoted to sales coordinator.

Georgiana Du has been hired as publicity assistant, adult marketing.

Olivia Monical has been hired as the new trade sales assistant.

Jonah Thedorff has been hired as international sales assistant.

Antonia: A Journey to a New Home by Dipacho (mineditionUS/A Maria Russo Book, dist. by PRHPS).

Today:
Today Show: Candace Bushnell, author of Is There Still Sex in the City? (‎Grove Press, $16, 9780802148865).

Good Morning America: Tarana Burke, author of Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement (Flatiron Books, $28.99, 9781250621733).

Live with Kelly and Ryan: Gabrielle Union, author of You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories (‎Dey Street, $27.99, 9780062979933). She will also appear tomorrow on the View.

Also on Live with Kelly and Ryan: Vallery Lomas, author of Life Is What You Bake It: Recipes, Stories, and Inspiration to Bake Your Way to the Top (‎Clarkson Potter, $29.99, 9780593137680).

The Real repeat: Sister Souljah, author of Life After Death: A Novel (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $27, 9781982139131).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Stephen Breyer, author of The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (Harvard University Press, $19.95, 9780674269361). He will also be on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Natasha Brown, author of Assembly (Little, Brown, $23, 9780316268264).

Tonight Show: Antoni Porowski, author of Antoni: Let's Do Dinner (Mariner, $30, 9780358395324).

National Basketball Association star Steph Curry and Erick Peyton's Unanimous Media will team with Netflix for a film adaption of YA sports novel Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Deadline reported that the book "was a part of Curry's Underrated Book Club, which is meant to focus on 'underrated' authors, stories and characters." Brian Tetsuro Ivie is overseeing the project for Unanimous.

"Jewell's Black Brother, Black Brother is a powerful story that addresses prejudice, colorism and bullying through an amazing sports lens," said Curry and Peyton in a joint statement. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Netflix, it is really the only place it belongs."

The ninth annual Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards included:

Best Food Book: English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks
Best Cookery Book: Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley
Best Drink Book: Wine Girl by Victoria James

See all the winners here.

In The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling (The Luminous Dead) skillfully blends medical and magical horrors in a deeply unsettling historical gothic fantasy. As the story begins, Jane approaches small-town doctor Augustine Lawrence with a proposal: a literal marriage of convenience in which she will manage his practice and he will provide her with the security she needs as a mathematically gifted young woman with limited prospects. Augustine spends his evenings at his family's abandoned home, Lindridge Hall, so Jane will sleep above his clinic and their relationship will be amicable but strictly professional.

Unfortunately, they quickly come to care for each other, bonding one day over the glistening, twisted intestines of a dying patient. And then, despite Augustine's prohibition, Jane has to spend the night at Lindridge Hall, kicking off a series of disturbing revelations and terrifying encounters. As it turns out, her new husband has a dead wife--and she's not a peaceful sort.

As with so many gothic novels, the house in The Death of Jane Lawrence is a forbidding setting, possibly full of malevolent spirits, possibly just dark corners and spiderwebs. "The house seemed to grab at her as she descended toward the foyer, splinters in the floorboards catching at her skirt hem. Shadows reared up into unearthly, half-remembered forms." The more time Jane spends there, however, the more she grapples not only with the house and its horrors, but with reality, her new husband and her own sanity.

The magic system Starling builds is gruesome, brimming with visceral descriptions, macabre rituals and disturbing situations. Jane was orphaned during an alternate version of World War I, adding another point of trauma as she struggles with memories of bombs and gas while trying to make sense of and conquer the forces aligned against her and Augustine--including Augustine himself. Jane is no innocent heroine, though, and as the story progresses, readers will be questioning if they want her to succeed:

"'You are monstrous,' he said. She flinched and pulled thread through the ragged edge of the torn hole with more force than she intended. It split the delicate flesh. 'How so?' 'You do not weep or scream. You did not weep or scream when Augustine Lawrence split me open, either.' "

This balance of horrors both real and fantastical makes for a truly chilling read. The reality of early 1900s medical treatment--including bleeding and risky internal surgeries--are presented alongside and often entwined with the unknowable terrors of playing with magic and death. The Death of Jane Lawrence is a grisly, repulsive, compelling read for anyone looking to be properly frightened. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

Shelf Talker: Caitlin Starling's The Death of Jane Lawrence is a historical gothic horror novel perfect for readers who wish to be frightened, disgusted and irresistibly intrigued.