Welcome to another edition of Shelf Awareness Extra!, which are special issues that focus on a particular subject and will appear once a month. This edition focuses on the upcoming American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute, to be held February 23-26 in Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Wi2026 is the 21st iteration of what has become the preeminent booksellers event in the U.S. Nearly a thousand booksellers are expected for four days of events, programming, publisher presentations, social gatherings, chances to meet and listen to many, many authors--and, of course, the kinds of serendipitous meetings that take place only in person. This year, reflecting the distressing state of the country, some seminars and panels address new important topics, such as ICE and bookstores, operating a bookstore in the time of fascism, and physical and event security.

We're sure that the ABA will put on another excellent conference--and we want to thank the staff in advance for all they've done and are doing to make the event run smoothly. We know it's a huge project.

ABA CEO Allison Hill offers a warm welcome: "The ABA staff leaves for Pittsburgh in just over a week and there's a lot to do before 'company' arrives, but I'm proud of what the team has already accomplished and we're all so excited to be with our industry community and with booksellers, this year more than ever. We'll be welcoming 1,000 independent booksellers, many of whom have never attended an ABA Institute before, for the largest Winter Institute in ABA history. I'm looking forward to everything, but LeVar Burton's opening keynote conversation with Janet Webster Jones (co-owner, Source Booksellers) promises to be the metaphorical hug we all need right now. More than anything I hope this year's Winter Institute reminds everyone of how powerful we are in community, and that through all the changes and challenges in the world, independent bookselling remains valued and vital."

On a daily basis, Winter Institute will feature a booksellers lounge, a quiet area, 12-step meetings, affinity group meetups, an interfaith prayer and meditation room, and a lactation room. The ABA board holds office hours repeatedly during the conference. And there are plenty of user sessions for Bookmanager, IndieCommerce, Bookshop.org, Batch, Edelweiss, IBID and Wordstock, Square, Pubnet and PubEasy, and more. One of the most popular daily attractions is the Galley Room, where a range of ARCs of upcoming titles are available. It's open Tuesday, 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Wednesday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and Thursday, 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. A PartnerShip/FedEx desk will be onsite for shipping galleys. The Vendor Showcase and Meet the Press areas are open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Wednesday. (This year, a bingo contest for booksellers visiting these two areas features prizes including books, swag, and cash.) The ABA Welcome Desk will be open on Sunday, 1-7 p.m., and 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Wednesday, and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on Thursday. Also the ABA provides a resource matching booksellers with publishers who are looking to have booksellers join them for dinner. Near the welcome desk is a board where publishers may place notice of available seats and instructions for how to join the dinner.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) is again holding a heads or tails fundraiser featuring a $500 grand prize, sponsored by Arcadia Publishing, with proceeds going to help booksellers. Attendees can purchase blinkee pins--aka chances to win--for $20 each or $35 for two; available in advance or from Binc representatives at registration or at the Binc vendor showcase location. The drawing takes place on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom.

Among other highlights this year, Batch for Books will be back in the Vendor Showcase and celebrating that all Big Five U.S. publishers have joined the invoice management and payment service, as well as Arcadia, Blackstone, Microcosm, IPG, and Gardner's U.S.

In addition iMRCHNT will be in the Vendor Showcase, promoting a new multi-platform POS and inventory control application for indie bookstores using open source systems that it's been developing over the last year and a half.

Following are program features, roughly in chronological order. To see the full, official schedule, click here.

A highlight on Sunday is the second annual IGNITE conference for BIPOC booksellers (including those who won't be attending Winter Institute). IGNITE programming includes rep picks, an authors and editors reception, and roundtables promoting "substantive conversation and connection with others who understand the ups and downs of the bookstore business and the particular experiences of being BIPOC in the book industry."

Monday programming includes bookstore tours, a tour of Book Country Clearing House's warehouse, a Paz & Associates seminar on opening a bookstore, several in-depth sessions on remainders, leadership, and a session on "big picture challenges" bookselling is currently facing. From noon to 4, the Indie Press Summit, sponsored by the Independent Publishers Caucus, focuses on the "indie-to-indie" connection between indie publishers and indie booksellers and will feature a town hall and discussions on the state of the indie publishing industry; alternative and adaptive publishing models; and the recently launched Independent Press Bestseller List. Booksellers are welcome to attend.

The Winter Institute's Opening Reception will be held Monday 5:30-7 p.m. at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center at 980 Liberty Avenue, which is close to the convention center and ABA hotels. 

Tuesday's Opening Breakfast Keynote, Reading Is Power: How Storytelling and Imagination Can Liberate Us and Shape a Better World, features LeVar Burton, ABA's Indie Bookstore Ambassador, who will be in conversation with Janet Webster Jones, founder of Source Booksellers, Detroit, Mich.

LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton is an iconic actor best known for his roles in Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow. He is also a director, producer, podcaster, and author of The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, Aftermath, and A Kids Book About Imagination. Burton has received seven NAACP Awards, a Peabody Award, a Grammy, and 15 Emmys. His longtime literacy advocacy has encouraged innumerable children to expand their imaginations and language skills. Burton's first documentary, The Right to Read (2023), frames America's literacy crisis as a civil rights issue. His podcast is called LeVar Burton Reads.

Janet Webster Jones

Janet Webster Jones is the founder of Source Booksellers in Detroit, Mich. She entered the bookselling business in 1989 and opened her first bricks-and-mortar store inside the Spiral Collective, a shared space with three other woman-owned, African American businesses in Detroit's Midtown area in 2002. In 2013, the bookstore moved across the street to its current location. In 2022, she served on the nonfiction panel for the National Book Awards. She is a retired educator from the Detroit Public Schools, where she spent a 40-year career. In 2023, the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association honored Jones with the Voice of the Heartland Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations who "uphold the value of independent bookselling and have made a significant contribution to bookselling in the Midwest." Last year, Source Booksellers was named PW's Bookstore of the Year.

Also on Tuesday are panels and seminars on a variety of subjects including sustainable author events; Ingram sharing advice on how new booksellers can grow sales; building a Spanish-language section for the whole community; empowering BIPOC booksellers in white-dominated spaces; de-escalation essentials for booksellers; physical and event security; and more. There's also the Editors Buzz Lunch, rep picks speed dating sessions, a romance evening event as well as the Authors Equity Puzzle Mania! Games Night with New York Times games editor Joel Fagliano.

The Wednesday Breakfast's theme is The Past Is Alive: A Celebration of Fiction and features a panel of four authors who will discuss how the past speaks to the current moment and how their upcoming books address belonging, legacy, ambition, and history.

Audrey I-Wei Huang

The moderator is Audrey I-Wei Huang, a bookseller at Belmont Books in Belmont, Mass. A former lawyer, she has served on a number of committees for book organizations and prizes, including for the ABA, the New England Independent Booksellers Association Advisory Council, the Massachusetts Book Award for Non Fiction, the Duende-Word BIPOC Bookseller Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence for Fiction and Non Fiction. She was honored with the 2024 Handseller of the Year Award by the Book Publishers Representatives of New England.

Panelists are:

Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee, the author of Pachinko, which was a National Book Award finalist and named one the "100 Best Books of the Century" by the New York Times, and Free Food for Millionaires. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Lee's writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue, and the Times of London. Born in South Korea, her family moved to New York City when she was seven. Lee learned to read and write at the Queens Public Library. Her next book, American Hagwon, will be published by Cardinal on September 29, 2026.

Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead, the author of 12 works of fiction and nonfiction. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. Whitehead has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and lives in New York City. His next book, Cool Machine, which concludes the Harlem Trilogy, will be published by Doubleday on July 21, 2026. 

Marlon James

Marlon James, the author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, winner of the Booker Prize; Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a National Book Award finalist; Moon Witch, Spider King; The Book of Night Women; and John Crow's Devil. He has also received an American Book Award, the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. James was born in Jamaica and currently lives in Minnesota. His next book, The Disappearers, will be published by Riverhead Books on September 1, 2026.

Xochitl Gonzalez

Xochitl Gonzalez, whose debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, was published in 2022. Anita de Monte Laughs Last (2024) was a Reese's Book Club Pick and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Gonzalez was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary and is a staff writer for the Atlantic. She is native to Brooklyn, N.Y., and holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Gonzalez's latest novel, Last Night in Brooklyn, will be published by Flatiron Books on April 21, 2026.

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Panels and seminars on Wednesday cover such topics as developing a curation policy; building a bookstore's media presence; ICE and bookstores; dealing with author event censorship in schools and libraries; how to develop relationships with Bookstagrammers and BookTokers; how to develop book programs for incarcerated people; designing spaces for young readers; and more. In addition, the day's schedule includes the Indies Introduce Luncheon and rep picks speed dating sessions.

And from 5:30-7 p.m. is the Evening Author Reception, always a major event at every Winter Institute, featuring a range of authors for booksellers to meet.

The Thursday Breakfast featuring publisher rep picks is followed by panels such as planning bookstore crawls; developing a strong membership program; operating a bookstore in the time of fascism; graphic novels; nontraditional events in bookstores; and more.

From 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in the Circana BookScan Market Trends, Retail Insights, and Growth Strategies for 2026 featured talk, Circana's Brenna Connor will discuss book sales trends, retail insights from other industries, and more in a session created especially for indie booksellers.

From 1-2:30 p.m., the Lunchtime Author Reception features a range of authors and illustrators who will talk with booksellers and sign copies of their new and forthcoming titles

The Closing Keynote, This, Too, Can Be a Place of Transformation: Finding Wonder in the Unexpected, from 4:45-5:30 p.m. on Thursday features author Aimee Nezhukumatathil in conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald--"a celebration of poetry, nature, and the unexpected beauty that can be found in the darkest times."

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of two illustrated essay collections, Bite by Bite and World of Wonders, which was a Kirkus Prize finalist and B&N Book of the Year. She has also published four poetry collections and was poetry editor for the magazines Orion and Sierra. Nezhukumatathil has been an English and creative writing professor for 25 years. She is of Filipina and Malayali Indian descent and lives in Oxford, Miss. Ecco will publish her latest book, Night Owl: Poems, on March 31, 2026.

Isaac Fitzgerald

Isaac Fitzgerald is best known for his 2022 memoir Dirtbag, Massachusetts, which was a New York Times bestseller. He is also author of the children's book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them, and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos. Fitzgerald's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, and the Guardian, among other publications. He appears frequently on the Today Show to share book recommendations. His latest work is American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed, which will be published May 12, 2026 by Knopf.