Controversy related to the Israel-Hamas War continues prior to the official opening of the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair, with the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi) withdrawing from the book fair Monday afternoon.

Ikapi has joined the Emirates Publishers Association, the Sharjah Book Authority, and the Arab Publishers’ Association in dropping out of the book fair, and in a statement quoted in the Bookseller, Ikapi chairman Arys Hilman Nugraha said the association “rejects the Frankfurt Book Fair’s stance of supporting and giving wide stage to Israel at this year’s exhibition while denying the Palestinian people’s right to independence.” Ikapi also disagreed with the decision to cancel the LiBeratur Prize award ceremony for Palestinian author Adani Shibli (Minor Detail), which was scheduled to take place Friday.

Also on Monday, Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos released a further statement to clarify the book fair’s stance, saying: “Millions of innocent people in Israel and in Palestine are affected by this horrible war, and I would like to underline once again that our sympathy goes out to all of them. The Frankfurt Book Fair stands for the peaceful encounter of people from all over the world. Since its very beginnings, the book fair has always been about humanity and its focus has always been on peaceful and democratic discourse. Freedom of expression is the backbone of our publishing industry. This is in the DNA of the Frankfurt Book Fair and what the fair stands for.

"We cannot comment on the decisions of individual exhibitors, but our platform is always open to authors, publishers, translators and literature fans from all over the world. Of course, the Frankfurt Book Fair is a platform for both Israeli and Palestinian voices. The postponement of the LiBeratur Prize ceremony was a decision made by the organizing association Litprom, not the Frankfurt Book Fair."

In his remarks at the book fair’s opening press conference Tuesday morning, Boos described the world as "coming undone," and said "we are all horrified" by the "attack on Israel carried out by Hamas’s terrorists. Our sympathy goes out to the people whose loved ones have been the targets of this violence and everyone in Israel and Palestine suffering because of this war. We condemn the terror against Israel and condemn those who are financing it and thus making it possible."

During the press conference's q&a portion, Boos called the book fair a "safe haven" built on the freedom of expression and the freedom to publish, and labeled the recent withdrawals as a "disaster." He said the fair wants people to attend and have discussions, even if they are controversial, and he looks forward to bringing back those who are not attending "because of geopolitics."

Torsten Casimir, head of communications and content for the book fair, fielded a number of questions related to the cancellation of the LiBeratur Prize ceremony. He reiterated that the decision was made by LitProm rather than the Frankfurt Book Fair, but acknowledged that there was "some misunderstanding" between LitProm and Shibli on the matter and the choice was not mutually agreed upon. Casimir further stated that nothing has changed about the book fair's commitment to being a platform for the peaceful exchange of ideas.

Tattered Cover, Westminster

The Tattered Cover Book Store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday and will close three locations by November, including the McGregor Square store and outlets in Westminster and Colorado Springs, all opened between 2020 and 2022. At least 27 of the company's 103 employees will be let go.

"This structure of seven stores is not sustainable," Tattered Cover CEO Brad Dempsey, a Denver bankruptcy attorney, told the Denver Post. "It's very difficult to be profitable without a substantial amount of additional capital that investors were not willing to provide right now."

Once approved by the court, the Chapter 11 filing will give the company access to $1 million in special financing from some existing investors and board members, who will constitute a new ownership entity led by current investors and board members Leslie Rainbolt and Margie Gart. That money will be used to obtain books in time for the 2023 holiday season. 

Store closures are expected to begin next week. Some of the affected staff from these locations may fill temporary seasonal positions at the remaining four stores during the holiday season. The company said severance packages will be provided. The Tattered Cover's Denver International Airport stores will continue to operate as part of the licensing agreement with Hudson Booksellers.

"Our employees are part of what makes Tattered Cover special," Dempsey said. "It's really hard to do this. These people are dedicated booksellers; they are community builders; they're terrific people. I wish we didn't have to make this decision, but it's in the best interest of the company."

Documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado show Tattered Cover was more than $660,000 in the red between January and September. The business owes more than $1 million to publishers, as well as more than $375,000 to Colorado's Office of the State Auditor for abandoned gift cards, filings show.

Dempsey said that when he became CEO in July, he had some idea of the company's economic woes: "I discovered the range of issues, the breadth and scope of the issues, were deeper and wider than I had originally understood."

Tattered Cover remains on a credit hold with most publishers, Dempsey added. This month, he flew to New York to meet with senior management at the five major publishing houses to negotiate terms. They advised closing stores to focus on quality over quantity. "We just can't afford a 45,000-square-foot footprint," he said.

Golden Hour Books has opened at 181 Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y. The Highlands Current reported that owner Angie Venezia "wants to get it right. Along with excitement, she feels the responsibility that comes with opening the first independent bookstore in the City of Newburgh in at least 25 years."

"It's nerve-wracking," Venezia said. "Because bookstores mean so much to many people, it feels like there is so much at stake, especially in a city that doesn't have one."

Venezia and her husband, Reed Loar, moved to Newburgh three years ago during the pandemic shutdown. She had spent 14 years in publishing, most recently in publicity for imprints of Knopf Doubleday and Penguin Random House, and when she noticed there was no independent bookstore in town, she decided to open one. After months of scouting a location, rebuilding the interior, adding furniture, and placing the initial book orders, Golden Hour Books launched two months ago.

Regarding the store's name, Venezia said, "I was thinking river, sun, horizon. I love the 'golden hour' in Newburgh. It's a beautiful time of the day, with the light cutting through the brick buildings. My neighbors here are the friendliest people, thrilled to have a bookstore."

She added that her time in the publishing industry gave her a foundation: "I know quite a lot about books that have come out over the past 15 years, and I have a handle on the new books coming out that our customers might be interested in and should read. I want to establish our point of view here, and there's an incredible backlist out there."

Golden Hour stocks new and used books, which Venezia said makes the store "a place that is affordable but is also somewhere to shop for new releases.... All categories are curated thoughtfully, not in order of any kind of hierarchy, but visually organized. The store is a very small space and I intentionally opened without it brimming with books. I wanted to see what customers would want before filling up." 

Venezia observed that for now she is taking it slowly and gathering feedback: "I'm glad I took time and waited for people to say what they liked before fully stocking the store. It's a huge risk, opening a small business anywhere. There have been many moments in this process where I've overthought and second-guessed myself, but the main lesson I've learned is to just trust your gut. I eventually wound up not deviating much from my plans at the start. Now that we've opened, all those instincts have been reaffirmed."

New Barnes & Noble locations are opening soon in Tustin, Calif., Marina del Rey, Calif., and Cheyenne, Wyo.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 18, the new Tustin and Marina del Rey locations will be hosting grand openings. The Tustin store, now in the District at Tustin Legacy shopping center, has moved down the road from its former home. It will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday, featuring Charles Yu, who will also sign copies of his books, including Interior Chinatown (Vintage).

In Marina del Rey, the new store resides in a former Amazon Books location in the Waterside shopping center, which is not far from where a previous B&N store operated for nearly 30 years. The grand opening celebration, also scheduled for 10 a.m. on October 18, will include a ribbon-cutting and signing with Stuart Gibbs, author of Spy School Goes North (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers).

And on Wednesday, October 25, B&N will host a grand opening celebration for a store in Cheyenne, Wyo. Located at 5116 Frontier Mall Drive, the new location replaces a store the company had to close last year over leasing issues. Laramie Live reported that "the store has begun sharing updates on the building progress, decorating, and staging of the store. According to B&N's Instagram page, they unloaded over 60,000 lbs. of products in 24 hours! After unloading, the store was ready to be stocked and staged. Check out sneak peek photos and video of the new Cheyenne Barnes & Noble."

Shilough Hopwood

Shilough Hopwood, a former buyer/manager at the Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, Pa., died September 21. Noting that he was "known throughout the industry and with so many reps and was family to most of us who have worked at the bookstore for a long time," the bookstore shared this tribute on social media:

"It has taken us a little while to gather our thoughts on the passing of Shilough Hopwood, a former colleague, and beloved friend to many of us at the Doylestown and Lahaska Bookshops. Shilough was the book buyer at the Doylestown Bookshop for a number of years and a talented musician greatly known for his band Honeychurch, which he fronted with his then-wife Larissa.

"As a songwriter, Shilough's ethereal and thoughtful music filled venues large and small throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. Many of us had the good fortune to attend these shows; they were magical. Shilough wrote many of the tracks for their album Makes Me Feel Better, which was released in 2004. Honeychurch was named one of Philadelphia Weekly's Top 5 of the Moment in March 2001, and they continued to garner significant attention in the Philadelphia area. In 2012, Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid named 'Will You Be There With Me' the number 5 best record of the year.

"As a book buyer, Shilough was loved by his fellow booksellers and the customers who frequented the bookstore. His knowledge of literature was unparalleled, and his love of books was boundless.

"But, it was Shilough's kindness, thoughtfulness, and gentle soul that will be remembered. As we go about our days at the Doylestown Bookshop, we see his memory everywhere. And although we are grieving the loss of a friend, in this way, he will always be with us. Our thoughts are with all of his loved ones.

" 'The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.' --J.R.R. Tolkien."

Barnes & Noble at Mellody Farm, in Vernon Hills, Ill., welcomed some 70 fans for a conversation between author Shelby Van Pelt (l.) and blogger Lauren Margolin, aka the Good Book Fairy, about Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures (Ecco), and to celebrate the bookstore's fifth anniversary.

"It's scary around here!!" Virginia Highland Books, Atlanta, Ga., noted in sharing a photo of the shop's Halloween sidewalk chalkboard message: "Carve out some time for a good book."

Simon & Schuster will handle worldwide sales and distribution for 80/20 Publishing, effective November 1.

80/20 Publishing, headed by author Matt Fitzgerald, creates books that educate, empower, and inspire athletes and fitness seekers. By delivering new ideas and fresh voices, 80/20 Publishing strives to make a difference in the lives of active people everywhere.

At Sourcebooks:

Maranda Seney has joined the company as senior marketing manager for Bloom Books and Casablanca.

Alexis Boni has joined the company as marketing assistant for Bloom Books.

Lovesick Blossoms by Julia Watts (Three Rooms Press).

Today:
Fresh Air: Jada Pinkett Smith, author of Worthy (Dey Street Books, $32, 9780063320680).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Cleo Wade, author of Remember Love: Words for Tender Times (Harmony, $26, 9780593581360). She will also appear on Good Morning America.

CBS Mornings: Dolly Parton, author of Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones (Ten Speed Press, $50, 9781984862129).

The Talk: Bob and Erin Odenkirk, co-authors of Zilot & Other Important Rhymes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780316438506).

The View: Rachel Maddow, author of Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Crown, $32, 9780593444511).

A trailer has been released for American Fiction, based on Percival Everett's novel Erasure. Deadline reported that the publishing world satire is the first feature from writer-director Cord Jefferson and stars Jeffrey Wright (Westworld, Asteroid City). The film is set for release by Orion Pictures on December 15 in select theaters and will expand on December 22.
 
The cast also includes Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae, and Sterling K. Brown. Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Jefferson, and Jermaine Johnson produced alongside exec producers Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Everett, and Michael Bowes.

Finalists have been named for the inaugural Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation, which was co-founded by Pacific Northwest book workers Justin Walls and Spencer Ruchti to recognize works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers across the U.S. Ruchti serves as the inaugural committee chair. 

The finalists feature translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, Danish, Norwegian, and French with a total of eight publishers represented across 10 titles. The winning title will be announced November 13, and the book's translator receives $1,000. This year's Cercador Prize finalists are:

This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (New Directions)
Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry (Charco Press)
Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Archipelago Books)
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated from the Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao (Feminist Press)
Beijing Sprawl by Xu Zechen, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen (Two Lines Press)
Not Even the Dead by Juan Gómez Bárcena's, translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore (Open Letter Books)
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey (Bloomsbury Publishing)
My Work by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions)
A Shining by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit Books)
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers' Guild by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Frank Wynne (New Directions)

"The committee couldn't be more pleased with the quality of these selections, which represent an excellent breadth of intellectual depth and diverse experiences," Ruchti noted. "It's most interesting, though not surprising, that nine out of ten of our titles come from small, independent publishers. Five of the eight publishers represented are nonprofits. And all of the authors on our list were first brought to the attention of U.S. readers by independent presses."

The prize's five committee members for 2023 are Thu Doan of East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, Calif.); Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books (Dallas, Tex.); Javier Ramirez of Exile in Bookville (Chicago, Ill.); Gary Lovely of Prologue Bookshop (Columbus, Ohio); and Ruchti of Third Place Books (Seattle, Wash.).

Melissa Rivero (The Affairs of the Falcóns) sensitively explores the complicated bond between a Peruvian American mother and daughter in her second novel, Flores and Miss Paula. Told in alternating chapters from each woman's perspective, the novel opens three years after the death of Martín, the beloved husband of Paula and father of Mónica Flores (who goes by her last name). Flores is stunned to find a note under her father's urn, written in her mother's handwriting and begging for forgiveness, and wonders what (and who) is involved in that request. Rivero delves into the family's struggles and triumphs to draw an intimate portrait of an immigrant family with conflicting needs and desires, but undergirded by great love.

Thirtysomething Flores is marking time, crunching numbers at the aquarium start-up where she's worked for years. Hired by a college friend following a bad breakup, she stays partly out of a sense of loyalty and partly because of her looming debt from school and medical bills. Paula, though she continues to mourn her husband, has found new purpose and community in her job at the local DollaBills store, but she worries about her daughter; in turn, Flores worries about Paula's friendship with a married man. Both of them--perhaps more alike than they want to admit--struggle to share their emotions with each other, or express the grief they both know they have. When Flores receives a notice that they'll have to leave their apartment, she wonders what it might be like to live on her own, separate from her mother. Paula, for her part, worries about Flores working all the time and misses her company when she's out late. By showing the perspectives of both characters, Rivero gives readers a fuller picture of the loving but complex dynamic between two women struggling to make their way in the world.

As the novel progresses, Rivero gradually reveals more details about Flores's work situation, Paula's friendship with Vicente, and Flores's continuing grief over the death of Vicente's daughter, who was her childhood friend. Flores also has to deal with shifting loyalties and politics at work, making her question what she owes to her company and whether it might be time for a next step. Rivero's story unfolds against a vivid backdrop of New York City in the summer, complete with fireworks, Latin American festivals, humid nights, and the push-pull of living in a tightly knit community yet wanting to forge one's own path.

Wryly humorous and often tender, Flores and Miss Paula explores the generational divide between two strong women, the effects of grief, and the possibilities of change. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Melissa Rivero's wry, thoughtful second novel explores the complex bond and shared grief of a Peruvian mother and her millennial American daughter.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Slay the Bully by Rebecca Zung
2. Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score
3. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
4. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
5. Twisted Games by Ana Huang
6. There Are No Saints by Sophie Lark
7. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
8. Hooked by Emily McIntire
9. A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
10. Caught Up by Liz Tomforde

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]