The New England Independent Booksellers Association's Fall Conference in Newton, Mass., which concludes today, has included lively author and editor breakfasts and lunches; rep pick sessions; a busy trade show floor; a striking and highly relevant keynote by Jill Lepore, whose new book is The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State; an awards banquet that celebrated the power and magic of books, authors, booksellers, readers, and more. Here are pictures from the always-popular Author Reception:
Booksellers Read Davidson (l.) of Lovestruck Books in Cambridge, Mass., and Thomas Grebenchick from Books on the Square in Providence, R.I.
Absolute fashion icons Kai Barrows (l.) and Erica Tso Haidas (r.), booksellers from Belonging Books (Hyannis, Mass.), with the equally fashionable Abrea Armstrong, author of Ferry Tales (Red Hen Press).
Bloomsbury senior director of publicity Faye Bi (l.) and picture book author Tiffany Hammond display Hammond's 2025 debut, A Day with No Words, and her 2027 sophomore picture book, How Do You Spell Belong?
Author and illustrator Pam Muñoz Ryan (l.) and Andrés Vera Martinez with their graphic novel Esperanza Rising (Graphix).
Arthur Levine (l.), publisher of Levine Querido, and first-time translator Antonio Gonzalez Cerna, proudly display Betina González and Mariana Ruiz Johnson's Vampire Girl Conquers the Night.
From l. to r.: Aaron Becker, author of The Water Beast (Candlewick); sales rep extraordinaire Keith Arsenault, Chesapeake & Hudson; and bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle, Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vt.
David Keohan, author of The Wind Beneath the Stone (Chelsea Green), with bookseller Jim Havener, Green Toad Bookstore, Oneonta, N.Y.
Shelf Awareness's Neil Strandberg and John Mutter (author of Fortune and Glass, Left Field Publishing) with bookseller Joan Grenier, the Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, Mass. (photo: Judey Kalchik)