Spring Forum Wrap-Up!

Thank you to everyone that came out to Spring Forum! We were welcomed with open arms by our host stores this is a bookstore and Bookbug in Kalamazoo, MI. A huge thank you to Joanna Parzakonis, Derek Molitor and the entire bookstore staff for the warm welcome, two bookstore tours and a day of education, food and camaraderie. Additionally a huge thank you to the GLIBA board for all their hard work planning Spring Forum. This was our first in-person Spring Forum since 2019 and it was wonderful being back together.

We kicked off Spring Forum week with Rep Picks, followed by tours of this is a bookstore, Bookbug, education, meet the authors, and culminating with our keynote author event, Erika Sanches in conversation with Javier Ramirez. Full event details below.

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GLIBA Spring Forum
​Tuesday, April 26 & Thursday April 28

Save the date for GLIBA Spring Forum 2022! We are excited to get back out meet with our bookselling family at our host bookstore BookBug and this is a bookstore in Kalamazoo, MI. We are cautiously optimistic and will be monitoring Covid rates, safety protocols and the comfort of the GLIBA board, GLIBA booksellers and industry partners. 

We are hosting a hybrid show this year. We are offering two days of events. The first is a virtual Rep Picks via Zoom on Tuesday April 26 and an in-person Spring Forum that includes author events on Thursday, April 28. ​

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Important Links

FOR BOOKSELLERS
​• Zoom Rep Picks Registration (Virtual Event)
• Spring Forum Bookseller Registration (In-Person Event)
SPRING FORUM REGISTRATION IS FULL
If you would like to be added to the waiting list please fill out the Registration Form above. Thank you!

FOR PUBLISHERS
DEADLINE: MARCH 25
REP PICKS ARE FULL
​AUTHOR PITCHES NOW CLOSED
• Publisher Participation & Guidelines

BookBug & this is a bookstore, Kalamzoo, MI

We aim to be a strong supporter of, and meaningful participant in, creative and intellectual community within and beyond Kalamazoo.

We know that books affirm identity, elevate understanding, and empower citizenship in our community and world. Our store’s collection reflects a charge to celebrate this truth and to embrace the broadest scope of our community, lifting the voices and art of those especially who experience cultural and economic marginalization.

The bookstore(s) exist to heighten book presence, reading culture, and joy and to provide a space that is welcoming to all.
​- Joanna Parzakonis, owner BookBug & this is a bookstore

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​Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Virtual Event via Zoom​

Join us to hear from some of your favorite regional reps and the titles they are excited about. There are two sessions with a brief break in-between. Use the same Zoom link for both sessions

Format
After Session 1 the event will remain open for a brief break, questions, discussion and then go right into session 2. 

Watch the full Rep Picks Session below

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​Rep Picks Session 1 Live via Zoom
12PM ET - 1PM ET
​11AM CT - 12PM CT
6 Reps 8 minutes each

Publisher	Rep	Edelweiss Link
Blackstone Publishing	​Brad Simpson	Edelweiss Link
HarperCollins Children's Division	​Jennifer Sheridan	Edelweiss Link
Abraham Associates	Sandra Law	Edelweiss Link
​Macmillan	​​Melissa Weisberg	Edelweiss Link
​IPS, PGW, Two Rivers & Ingram Academic	​​Katie Glasgow	Edelweiss Link
​Simon & Schuster	​​Leah Hays	Edelweiss Link

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Rep Picks Session 2 Live via Zoom
1:30PM ET - 2:30PM ET
​12:30PM CT - 1:30 PM CT
6 Reps 8 minutes each

Publisher	Rep	Edelweiss Link
Sourcebooks​	Broche Fabian	Edelweiss Link
​​Simon & Schuster	​​Naomi Kennedy	Edelweiss Link
Miller Trade Book Marketing ​	Bruce Miller​	Edelweiss Link
HarperCollins ​	​Cathy Schornstein​	Edelweiss Link
​​​​IPS, PGW, Two Rivers & Ingram Academic	​Betty Redmond	Edelweiss Link
IPG	​​Chris Conti	Edelweiss Link

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​​Thursday, April 28, 2022

this is a bookstore & Bookbug
3019 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49008​

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Schedule

​10:30AM ET
Arrivals & Welcome
Welcome from GLIBA Executive Director Larry Law
Binc Update with Judey Kalchik; Communication & Project Manager at BINC
Welcome from Joanna Parzakonis, co-owner this is a bookstore, BookBug
11:00AM – 11:50AM ET
Bookstore Tour of this is a bookstore & BookBug
12:00PM – 12:50PM ET
Working Lunch: Education
Join us for four micro-sessions that offer high-impact, simple, bullet points of relevant and new information.
Education Topics 
Strategic Planning 
Lead by Lynn Mooney; Women & Children First in Chicago, IL and Kathy Burnette; Brain Lair Books in South Bend, IN
Avoiding Burnout
Lead by Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Zionsville, IN and MacArthur Books in Carmel, IN and Shirley Mullin; Kids Ink Children's Bookstore in Indianapolis, IN​
Edelweiss 
Lead by Melissa Weisberg; Macmillan and Alyson Turner; Source Booksellers, Detroit, MI
Sidelines 
Lead by Joanna Parzakonis; this is a bookstore and BookBug, Kalamazoo, MI and Kathy Burnette; Brain Lair Books in South Bend, IN, Melia Wolf; Cover to Cover Children's Books in Columbus, OH
1PM - 2PM ET
Meet the Authors 
2PM - 2:45PM ET
Keynote Author Presentation
 3PM - 3:30PM ET
Author Cocktail Reception

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Meet the Authors

1PM ET - 2PM ET 

AUTHOR BIO​

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer-songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of a Lake, and Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist-musician Allison Laakko.

Daphne: A Novel

Del Rey
9780593157015
9/20/2022

Horror has a new name: Daphne. A brutal, enigmatic woman stalks a high school basketball team in a reimagining of the slasher genre by the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.

It’s the last summer for Kit Lamb: The last summer before college. The last summer with her high school basketball team, and with Dana, her best friend. The last summer before her life begins.

But the night before the big game, one of the players tells a ghost story about Daphne, a girl who went to their school many years ago and died under mysterious circumstances. Some say she was murdered, others that she died by her own hand. And some say that Daphne is a murderer herself. They also say that Daphne is still out there, obsessed with revenge, and will appear to kill again anytime someone thinks about her.

After Kit hears the story, her teammates vanish, one by one, and Kit begins to suspect that the stories about Daphne are real . . . and to fear that her own mind is conjuring the killer. Now it’s a race against time as Kit searches for the truth behind the legend and learns to face her own fears—before the summer of her lifetime becomes the last summer of her life.

Mixing a nostalgic coming-of-age story and an instantly iconic female villain with an innovative new vision of classic horror, Daphne is an unforgettable thriller as only Josh Malerman could imagine it.

AUTHOR BIO​

Katie Zhao is the author of How We Fall Apart and the middle grade fantasy The Dragon Warrior and its sequel, The Fallen Hero. She grew up in Michigan, where there was little for her to do besides bury her nose in a good book or a writing journal. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in English and a minor in political science; she also completed her master’s in accounting there. In her spare time, Katie enjoys reading, singing, dancing (badly), and checking out new photo-worthy restaurants. She now lives in New York City. www.katiezhao.com • @ktzhaoauthor

The Lies We Tell 

Bloomsbury YA 
9781547603992
8/9/2022​

From the author of How We Fall Apart comes a tense and thrilling YA about what it means to not feel safe in the places we call home.

Anna Xu moves out of her parent's home and into the dorms across town as she starts freshman year at the local, prestigious Brookings University. But her parents and their struggling Chinese bakery, Sweetea, aren't far from campus or from mind, either. At Brookings, Anna wants to keep up her stellar academic performance and to investigate the unsolved campus murder of her childhood babysitter. She also finds a familiar face–her middle-school rival, Chris Lu. The Lus happen to be the Xu family's business rivals since they opened Sunny's, a trendy new bakery on Sweetea's block. Chris is cute but still someone to be wary of... until a vandal hits Sunny's and Anna matches the racist tag with a clue from her investigation.

Anna grew up in this town, but more and more she feels like maybe she isn't fully at home here–or maybe it's that there are people here who think she doesn't belong. When a very specific threat is made to Anna, she seeks out help from the only person she can; Anna and Chris team up to find out who is stalking her and take on a dangerous search into the hate crimes happening around campus. Can they root out the ugly history and take on the current threat?

The Lies We Tell is a social activism/we all belong here anthem crossed with a thriller and with a rivals-to-romance relationship set on a college campus.

AUTHOR BIO​

Toya Wolfe grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago’s South Side. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. Her writing has appeared in African Voices, Chicago Journal, Chicago Reader, Hair Trigger 27, and WarpLand. She is the recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston-Bessie Head Fiction Award, the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation Short Story Competition, and the Betty Shifflet/John Schultz Short Story Award. She currently resides in Chicago. Last Summer on State Street is her debut novel.

Last Summer on State Street

William Morrow
9780063209749
6/14/2022

For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer.

Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.

Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.

As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.

Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home — both in one’s history and in one’s self. 

AUTHOR BIO​

A historical reenactor in his youth, Michael Leali is now a writer and educator. He received his MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When he’s not dreaming up stories, he’s probably playing a board game, eating cheese, or grading papers somewhere in the suburbs of Chicago. The Civil War of Amos Abernathy is his debut novel. Visit Michael at www.michaelleali.com.

The Civil War of Amos Abernathy

HarperCollins
9780063119864
5/24/2022

​A heartfelt debut novel about a boy’s attempt to find himself in the history he loves—perfect for fans of Dear Sweet Pea and From the Desk of Zoe Washington.

Amos Abernathy lives for history. Literally. He’s been a historical reenactor nearly all his life. But when a cute new volunteer arrives at his Living History Park, Amos finds himself wondering if there’s something missing from history: someone like the two of them.

Amos is sure there must have been LGBTQ+ people in nineteenth-century Illinois. His search turns up Albert D. J. Cashier, a Civil War soldier who might have identified as a trans man if he’d lived today. Soon Amos starts confiding in his newfound friend by writing letters in his journal—and hatches a plan to share Albert’s story with his divided twenty-first century town. It may be an uphill battle, but it’s one that Amos is ready to fight.

Told in an earnest, hilarious voice, this love letter to history, first crushes, and LGBTQ+ community will delight readers of Ashley Herring Blake, Alex Gino, or Maulik Pancholy. 

Author Bio​

​Marie Myung-Ok Lee is an acclaimed Korean American writer and author of the young adult novel Finding my Voice, thought to be one of the first contemporary-set Asian American YA novels. She is one of a handful of American journalists who have been granted a visa to North Korea since the Korean War. She was the first Fulbright Scholar to Korea in creative writing and has received many honors for her work, including an O. Henry honorable mention, the Best Book Award from the Friends of American Writers, and a New York Foundation for the Arts fiction fellowship. Her stories and essays have been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Guernica, The Paris Review, The Nation, and The Guardian, among others. Marie is a founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and teaches creative writing at Columbia. She lives in New York City with her family.

The Evening Hero

Simon & Schuster
9781476735078
5/24/2022

​A sweeping, lyrical novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down.

Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home.

This was the life he longed for. The so-called American dream. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it.

Yungman’s life is thrown into chaos—the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice—he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends or confess and potentially lose all he’s built. He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it.

Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a sweeping, moving, darkly comic novel about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores.

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Spotlight Author

2PM - 2:45PM ET

Join us for a special keynote event with Erika L. Sánchez. Hear about Erika's latest, Crying in the Bathroom from Viking. Erika will be joined in-conversation by Javier Ramirez, co-owner of Exile in Bookville in Chicago, IL

About 
Erika L. Sánchez is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist. It is now being made into a film directed by America Ferrera. Sanchez was a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, a 2018 recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a 2019 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

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Crying in the Bathroom
Viking | 9780593296936 | 7/12/2022

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is hilarious

Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.
 
In these essays, Sánchez writes about everything from sex to white feminism to debilitating depression, revealing an interior life rich with ideas, self-awareness, and perception. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sánchez at her best—a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend.

About Javier Ramirez 
Hailing from Sacramento, California, Javier Ramirez has called Chicago home since 1995 and has been an indie bookseller for just as long. He’s been a judge for the Kirkus Nonfiction Prize in 2017, the National Book Award for Fiction in 2019 and read as a judge for Andrew Carnegie Medals in Fiction and Nonfiction for 2021. He currently serves on the Booksellers Advisory Council for the American Booksellers Association, has been on New City’s Annual Lit 50 list of Who Really Books in Chicago twice, and is the co-owner of Exile in Bookville in Chicago.

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Accomodations

Recommended Hotel
Radisson Plaza Hotel at Kalamazoo Center
100 W Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007
Radisson Kalamazoo >>
Reservations: (269) 343-3333​

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Safety Protocols

For the safety of everyone we are limiting attendance for GLIBA Spring Forum. Booksellers and participating authors will be given priority in registration and a wait list will be available. We expect registration to fill up very quickly. After vaccination status has been verified you will receive an email notifying if you have been registered for Spring Forum or if you have been added to the waitlist.​

• Attendance is limited
• Proof of vaccination and booster are required to attend and must be uploaded during registration
• When indoors masks are required unless eating or presenting
• Lunches will be boxed