During the California Independent Booksellers Alliance annual meeting in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday morning, CALIBA board president Melinda Powers emphasized the young regional's potential.

CALIBA officially formed in 2020, after members of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association voted to dissolve SCIBA and merge with the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. Membership stands at "280 stores and growing," and as a trade association that now covers all of California, Powers noted, "we hold a lot of book power," which could be leveraged both in publisher negotiations and in lobbying in Sacramento.

"We continue to aspire to harness the power we have as bookstores all across the state," added Powers, who is also head buyer at Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz. CALIBA is still "emerging and growing into what we want it to be," and all of its members "have an opportunity to shape what it is we think California can be."

Mimi Hannah, CALIBA treasurer and bookseller at La Playa Books in San Diego, said the organization "remains on solid financial ground," with this year's net income on par with net income from the previous year.

Hannah Walcher, who became CALIBA's executive director in February, reported that the association will be switching to a new online membership and events platform that should be easier for both member stores and CALIBA staff. The association will also be switching to a new partner for its holiday catalog, and it is currently forming an inaugural advisory council. Announced last year, the council will meet four times per year to offer feedback and suggestions to the board.

Mary Williams, general manager of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, thanked Powers for her time as CALIBA's board president, a roll she's filled since its creation in 2020. Powers's term will come to an end early next year, and Williams will become board president. Williams said Powers "shepherded us through merging and crisis all at once really beautifully. She has always kept her eye on the big picture and worked so hard in a volunteer position."

Lastly, Powers announced that for next year's Fall Fest, CALIBA will return to South San Francisco. The trade show will run from September 17-18, 2025. --Alex Mutter

Postcard Bookshop, which is dedicated to travelers and globally-curious readers, will open October 1 and host a grand opening party on October 5 at its space inside the Cargo Emporium at 81 SE Yamhill Street, Portland, Ore. With a goal of connecting readers to books from around the world, whether for their next adventure or for armchair travel, the store will feature sections arranged by continent and country. 

"If you have immediate travel plans, you can pick up a guidebook and a novel to pack in your bag," said owner Patrick Leonard. "While someone just back from a trip can prolong their vacation with a cookbook, a cultural history, or a beautiful coffee table book from their latest destination.... If you browse the shelves for a book to plan your next trip, you'll not only find the very best travel guides, but also novels, phrasebooks, photo books, and regional cookbooks from that place... everything you need to feed your cultural curiosity."

Leonard is a veteran of publishing, retail, and the arts. For the past eight years, he worked as the buying director for independent specialty grocer Providore Fine Foods, where he also made his first foray into bookselling, curating a selection of cookbooks and food writing from around the world. Before that, Leonard worked in publicity and marketing for Artisan Books in New York City.

In addition to books, Postcard Bookshop will stock indie magazines, travel accessories, journals, bags, and stationery. The shop will also have a dedicated children's section, featuring titles about travel and world cultures, as well as games and travel activities to keep kids entertained.

Postcard Bookshop in progress.

Postcard Bookshop will open as a tenant of Cargo, an importer of global antiques and ephemera in Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District. Since 2018, Cargo has also been home to the Emporium, a collective of retailers and artisans who share space in their warehouse store. 

"I couldn't be more excited to land here," Leonard said, "Every visit to Cargo feels like going on a trip around the world." While the store's space is just under 300 square feet, Leonard noted that "just like our humble namesake, Postcard Bookshop will share stories from around our big world in just a small space."

Tony Lutkus

Tony Lutkus has joined Princeton University Press as chief of North American sales, a newly created position. Most recently he was president of Diamond Book Distributors. Since 2012, he has also served as chair of the American Association of Publishers' International Sales Committee. He has three decades of experience in trade publishing sales and marketing, starting at Little, Brown and then at Time Warner Book Group, Hachette, and Penguin Random House.

In his new position, Lutkus will manage the Press's U.S. and Canadian sales reps, both in-house and commission; a field sales associate; and indie relations and marketing manager/Midwest rep Lanora Jennings. He will work closely with Andrew Brewer, international sales director; associate director of sales and marketing Laurie Schlesinger, who manages B2B and library sales; Colleen Suljic, chief of digital marketing; and Tim Wilkins, director of finance, sales. He reports to Katie Hope, director of marketing and sales.

Hope said, "Tony's extensive experience in the publishing industry, coupled with our talented team and the invaluable intellectual property entrusted to us by authors worldwide, creates a beautiful synergy. We admire Tony's approach to leadership, to which he attends with passion and kindness, and which aligns naturally with Press culture. We are eager to see the positive impact Tony will have on PUP and are excited to embark on a new chapter and continue to elevate our publishing endeavors."

Calling the PUP team "dynamic and innovative," Lutkus said, "I have long admired the excellence of the Press's books, the high caliber  of its authors, and the complete dedication to the kind of publishing that furthers our knowledge and understanding across all borders. I look forward to teaming up with the excellent marketing and sales team to reach new readers across North America."

For the opening keynote at the New England Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference in Newton, Mass., last week, Madhulika Sikka, v-p and executive editor, Crown Books, was in conversation with Tamara Lanier, whose upcoming book, From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy, she edited.

Lanier is a retired Connecticut chief probation officer and first-time author who recounts in her book, which will be published in January, how her late mother, "a great storyteller," was the keeper of her family's stories. In her last years, Lanier's mother especially emphasized the family's African and Indian roots, and told stories about her grandfather, who was a slave, and especially Lanier's great-great-great grandfather, Papa Renty, who was captured in the Congo, taught himself to read, taught other slaves how to read (dangerous because it was illegal), and was the main carpenter for the South Carolina family that owned him. Lanier remembers long private moments with her mother, and "when she told stories, a peace came over her that I can't describe." When she was sick and dying, Lanier's mother urged Lanier to write the stories down, to do a genealogical tree, "to always remember and never forget."

Madhulika Sikka (l.) and Tamara Lanier

Lanier recalled that at that time, about 2010, she had trouble doing research but made a fortuitous connection with a computer-adept local acquaintance. Online he quickly found a picture of Papa Renty--a daguerreotype taken before the Civil War by Louis Agassiz, a Swiss scientist who was a professor of geology and zoology who became a Harvard professor and devoted much of his work there trying to prove that blacks were inferior to whites. Agassiz took a series of daguerreotypes of enslaved people in the South that included images of Papa Renty, labeled "Renty, Congo," as well as his daughter Delia, that are held in Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. When she first saw online the image of her great-great-great-grandfather, Lanier said, "I knew it was the man I had heard stories about my entire life. I had feelings of familiarity and kinship."

Lanier went to Harvard to see the daguerreotype, but "I was not warmly welcomed," she said. She wanted to share with the museum "who Renty was so they could incorporate it into their storytelling," but she was rebuffed. She also wanted them to take the frame around the image off so she could see what was covered, particularly Papa Renty's hands, but was rebuffed again. She asked, as a direct descendant, to have the images, to no avail. And when Harvard used an image of Papa Renty on a publication and at a conference, she sued--both to take possession of the images as well as for emotional duress.

The battle in Massachusetts courts continues, and while dealing with Harvard has been a long ordeal, Lanier has made wonderful connections with the descendants of the people who enslaved her ancestors as well as the person who used them to try to prove racist theories, finding the kind of humanity and understanding that she had hoped to find with staff at the Peabody Museum. Through a member of the Taylor family--a descendant of those who had owned Papa Renty--Lanier came to visit Dr. Edmund Taylor, 98 years old at the time, who was the keeper of his family's stories. Dr. Taylor hosted Lanier in his home, where she sat at a table and ate from dishes handcarved by Papa Renty. "I felt an ancestral pride I can't describe," Lanier said.

Dr. Taylor "had so much information and insight," Lanier said. His stories were similar to her mother's stories, but told from a different perspective. "He wanted me to know that he was doing something to atone for what he felt were the sins of his ancestors." Taylor family members have become good friends of Lanier, and have supported her in her fight against Harvard.

In the same striking way, Lanier has contacted descendants of Louis Agassiz in both the U.S. and Switzerland, visited with them, and become good friends. They, too, have supported her in her battles. Lanier remembered hesitating before reaching out to them, worried that Agassiz's hate would have been passed on through the generations. But no. As she said, "We are family." --John Mutter

Lebanese author Elias Khoury, "who dedicated much of his writings to the Palestinian cause and taught at universities around the world, making him one of Lebanon's most prominent intellectuals," died September 15, the Associated Press reported. He was 76. In addition to his novels, Khoury wrote articles for several Arab media outlets over the past five decades.

Elias Khoury

Born and raised in Beirut, he was a leading voice of Arab literature and "outspoken in defense of freedom of speech and harsh criticism of dictatorships in the Middle East," the AP noted, adding that he "had been known for his political stances from his support of Palestinians to his harsh criticism of Israel and what he called its 'brutal' settling policy in Palestinian territories."

From 1992 until 2009, Khoury was the editor of the cultural section of Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper. Until his death, he was the editor-in-chief of Palestine Studies, a bulletin issued by the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut.

His first novel was published in 1975, but his second, Little Mountain (1977), about Lebanon's devastating civil war, was more successful. Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun) was released in 2000 and focused on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1948. A film adaptation was made in Egypt. 

Archipelago Books, which will publish his novel Star of the Sea next month, posted on social media: "We are mourning the loss of Elias Khoury. His fictions are layered with ideas that shift under foot. A public intellectual who wrote novels, essays, and reportage, Khoury led an exceptionally rich life. He was an unflagging champion of the Palestinian people and spoke out against dictatorships in the Arab world and beyond. In his youth, he cared for Palestinian refugees in refugee camps outside of Amman, and later joined the Fatah. For many, Khoury's novel Gate of the Sun, translated by Humphrey Davies, is a life-changing and life-affirming work. We have also published five other novels of Khoury's, each one formally inventive and ambitious, with deep emotional and political implications. Khoury's humor and compassion emerge again and again in his writing."

Yasmina Jraissati, Khoury's niece and agent, said, " 'Unwavering' is perhaps the word that best characterizes Elias. He was unwavering in his commitment to social justice, in his criticism of the corrupt Lebanese state and Arab dictatorships, in his championing of the Palestinian cause, and in his love for life despite all the horrors he bore witness to in his writing."

"We are so excited about this selection of books, curated by Sonya Madrigal to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Come by to check it out!!" the Understudy, Chicago, Ill., noted in sharing a photo of the bookstore's sales floor display. 

"A little summer left! The leaves are still green on the sugar maples out back, and our doors are open!" Roundabout Books, Greenfield, Mass., posted on Facebook.

Preeti Chhibber has joined Macmillan Children's Publishing Group as digital marketing manager. Prior to this, she was a freelance writer and editor.

There's Treasure Inside by Jon Collins-Black (Treasure Books).

Today:
Fresh Air: Connie Chung, author of Connie: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538766989).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert, authors of Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves (Celadon, $35, 9781250859990).

The View: Hillary Rodham Clinton, author of Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781668017234). She will also appear on the Tonight Show.

Drew Barrymore Show: Eva Mendes, author of Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries (Feiwel & Friends, $19.99, 9781250867438). She will also appear on Live with Kelly and Mark.

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Anderson Cooper, co-author of Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune (Harper Paperbacks, $19.99, 9780062964663).

Netflix has released a teaser trailer for Wolf King, an animated adaptation of the Wereworld book series by Curtis Jobling. Deadline reported that project, which will air next year, "has been in the offing for a while, having first been announced as part of an eight-strong European animation slate in June 2022."

Directed by Tom Brass for Jellyfish Pictures, Wolf King is produced by Angelo Abela, Tim Compton, Curtis Jobling, and Barry Quinn for U.K. indie Lime Pictures.

The shortlist has been selected for the 2024 German Book Prize, which is sponsored by the Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the Börsenverein, the German book industry association. The winner receives €25,000 (about $27,800), and each finalist receives €2,500 (about $2,780). The award ceremony takes place in Frankfurt on October 14, on the eve of the book fair. The shortlist:

Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir? (Hey Good Morning, How Are You?) by Martina Hefter
Hasenprosa (Rabbits' Prose) by Maren Kames
Die Projektoren (The Projectionists) by Clemens Meyer
Vierundsiebzig (Seventy-Four) by Ronya Othmann
Von Norden rollt ein Donner (Thunder Rolls in from the North) by Markus Thielemann
Lichtungen (Glades) by Iris Wolff

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The Fossil Hunter by Kate Winter has won the £5,000 (about $6,560) 2024 Klaus Flugge Prize, which honors "the most exciting and promising newcomer to children's picture book illustration."

Organizers said that The Fossil Hunter "tells the story of Mary Anning, the 19th century palaeontologist whose discoveries in the cliffs of Lyme Regis transformed scientists' understanding of the world. Via atmospheric watercolour illustrations, the book skilfully tells Mary's personal story and details her discoveries and their scientific impact. Special gatefolds are a key part of the book, opening to reveal the prehistoric past, allowing readers to dip into Mary's mind to see what she is thinking.

"Kate Winter carried out much of her research for the book at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, where she lives, as well as at the Natural History Museum, London. She also read Mary Anning's letters and journals and spent time in Lyme Regis, and it was walking on the beach and drawing in the places Mary loved that helped her really get to know her subject."

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The winners of the 2024 Wainwright Prize, awarded annually to books that "most successfully inspire readers to embrace nature and the outdoors and develop a respect for the environment," are:

Nature Writing:
Winner: Late Light: The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World by Michael Malay
Highly Commended: Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee

Writing on Conservation:
Winner: Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World by Helen Czerski
Highly Commended: Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar by Chantal Lyons

Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation:
Winner: Foxlight by Katya Balen
Highly Commended: Global by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano

photo: Alicia Sangiulano

Gail Jarrow is the author of nonfiction books about magicians, hoaxes, medical fiascoes, and other intriguing stories from U.S. history. Her work has received many distinctions, including the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults for Ambushed!; the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for American Murderer; the Sibert Honor Book medal for Spooked!; and the Orbis Pictus Honor Book for The Poison Eaters. Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes was just published by Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Mediums and magicians collide in the 1920s as Houdini and his fellow conjurers expose psychic fraudsters who take advantage of the vulnerable and gullible.

On your nightstand now:

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson. I always read Larson's latest. His writing is engaging and exceptional, and I enjoy learning history from his books. I'm fairly familiar with the Civil War because I wrote two books about it (Lincoln's Flying Spies and Blood and Germs). I'm looking forward to what Larson has to say about the war's prelude.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was attracted to it because I helped tend flowers in my grandmother's garden. As an adult, I've maintained flower and vegetable gardens wherever I lived. On my bookshelf, I have three copies of this book. One belonged to my mother during her childhood. I received the second from my grandparents on my 12th birthday. And the third is the version I bought for my children.

Your top five authors:

My list has changed over time, and it's hard to narrow to five. But right now, among those authors whose work I study, are Erik Larson and David McCullough for the way they write about history, and Matt Ridley, Sam Kean, and Lindsey Fitzharris for the way they write about science.

Book you've faked reading:

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore. For some inexplicable reason, my mother thought I'd like this when I was a teen. I didn't, and I never finished it. But the title shows up in crosswords occasionally, so all is not lost!

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Although writers can find other guides that will improve their prose, this book is concise, clear, and direct. Anyone who writes for an audience should read it, digest it, and keep it around as a refresher.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I can't remember ever doing this, but I certainly recall the opposite. Back when I browsed my school's library shelves, I rejected books because the cover was uninviting. As an author for young readers, I understand how important a cover is. Fortunately, my editor includes me in the process of choosing its design.

Book you hid from your parents:

When I was in fourth grade, I was hooked on Nancy Drew mysteries, by "Carolyn Keene." After lights-out, I read by a dim flashlight under my covers. By fifth grade, I needed glasses.

Book that changed your life:

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. I was a bit too old for this book when it first came out, but when I taught science and math in an elementary school several years later, I saw many of my students avidly reading it. I was curious about its appeal. That summer in my master's program, I had to do a research paper on the history of children's literature. I went to the public library and took out all of Blume's books. My paper about her work opened my English professor's eyes: his specialty was the 18th and 19th centuries, and he was a bit shocked. At the time, I remember asking the children's librarian which books were popular with her patrons. This led me to explore other contemporary books for young readers. For the first time, I saw a career path that combined my love of writing, my experience as an educator, my interest in history, and my training in science.

Favorite line from a book:

"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. (Charlotte's Web by E.B. White)

As a beginning to a children's book, it's hard to beat. The startling question grabs readers immediately, and the brief sentence introduces three characters. Mrs. Arable's answer to Fern in the next sentence establishes setting and puts the plot into motion: "Out to the hoghouse.... Some pigs were born last night."

Five books you'll never part with:

For sentimental reasons: a small hardcover of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter that my grandparents gave me for Valentine's Day when I was five and Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes by Marguerite de Angeli from my very early childhood.

For inspirational reasons, signed copies of:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper

I met these authors when I was just starting my writing career. Besides enjoying their books and later sharing them with my children, I learned useful writing skills by studying the authors' techniques.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. It would be fascinating to read this after a half-century of scientific advances.

A mourning child, grappling with grief and seeking answers to a burning question, embarks on an action-packed adventure in the enigmatic picture book Drawn Onward, written by Printz Award-winner Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad Is Untrue). Nayeri's palindromic text is economical yet, despite its brevity, likely to spark readers' curiosity and reflection. The lush, intricately detailed illustrations by Matt Rockefeller (Poesy the Monster Slayer illustrator) use visual pacing and a videogame-like structure to invite close inspection and expand Nayeri's narrative in multilayered ways.

The story opens with the child and a bearded, bespectacled adult sitting in sorrow beneath a painting of two parents and a child, all once happy: "She was gone," the text reads. In tears, the child escapes to the forest and pulls a sword from the ground. The fearful but determined child faces great dangers in the mostly wordless and boundlessly energetic adventure that follows: enormous spiders with glowing, fuchsia-colored geometric shapes on their abdomens; a fall from the inside of a mountain where kind, hooded miners work; and a plunge into the green sea, home to a glowing-eyed serpent. Midway through the story, the bereaved child asks a statuesque stand-in for his now-dead mother a question rich with yearning ("His heart needed to know... 'Mom were you glad you were Mom?' ")--and, reassuringly, receives a response that brings some measure of peace. As the child returns home, Nayeri's spare text, with only slight grammatical changes, repeats itself, bringing new meaning to the words and beautiful new adventures for the child who no longer believes "she was gone."

Rockefeller balances his palette between sun-dappled earth tones and jewel colors, incorporating glowing gems and iridescent flying creatures as integral elements of the story. The fuchsia jewels, in particular, punctuate the narrative and embody its emotional depth. The story takes place in one day, Rockefeller launching it with an image of the family cottage on the top of the mountain on a sunlit morning and closing the story with the cottage at night, a crescent moon shining brightly. The child's grief and determination drive this emotionally gripping narrative. The reunion of the child with both the deceased mother and the parent waiting at home offers comfort, likely leaving readers eager to return to the beginning to explore the story's many subtextual and emotional layers once more. --Julie Danielson

Shelf Talker: This emotionally astute tale of a child wrestling with maternal loss will appeal to fans of comics and the multilayered narratives of videogames.