2019 Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarship Winners Announced

For the third year, nine booksellers from communities across the United States will attend independent booksellers’ association trade shows with scholarships provided by Macmillan Publishers through the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation. These Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarships provide opportunities to diverse booksellers who are traditionally underrepresented within the industry.

The nine winners of the 2019 Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarship are:

 GLIBA - Kathy Burnette from The Brain Lair Bookstore in South Bend, IN

 MIBA - BrocheAroe Fabian from River Dog Book Company in Beaver Dam, WI

 MPIBA - Denise Chavez from Casa Camino Real in Las Cruces, NM

 NAIBA - Bennard Fajardo from Politics and Prose in Washington, DC

 NCIBA - Seth Katz from The Booksmith in San Francisco, CA

 NEIBA - Read Davidson from Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA

 PNBA - Markie Rustad from Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, WA

 SCIBA - Amanda Qassar from Warwick’s in San Diego, CA

 SIBA - Deanna Bailey from Story on the Square in McDonough, GA

Each winner will receive a $500 scholarship to help cover the cost of attending their fall regional show.

The Macmillan Diversity & Inclusion Council and Binc’s diversity task force created the Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarship Program in 2017 as a way to provide booksellers from underrepresented communities direct access to a key resource within the book industry, the Fall Regional Shows.

Applicants, including people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, anonymously completed short essay questions which were evaluated by a panel of judges. Winners were selected from each of the nine regions represented by independent booksellers associations: Great Lakes, Midwest, Mountains and Plains, New Atlantic, Northern California, New England, Pacific Northwest, Southern California, and Southern.

“We were incredibly impressed by the quality of applications for this year’s scholarship. It is heartening to see the passion our applicants have for bookselling and spreading acceptance and tolerance in their communities,” said Malati Chavali, Macmillan Diversity & Inclusion Co-Chair and VP, Publishing Strategy Operations.

The panel of judges included Malati Chavali (Macmillan), Jeanne Costello (Maria’s Bookshop) from Binc’s Program Committee, and Ken White (Query Books) from Binc’s Board of Directors.

Pam French, Binc Executive Director, said, “We are happy to work with Macmillan to bring this opportunity to booksellers for a third year. This popular program not only furthers individual booksellers’ careers by helping them attend their regional tradeshows, the program promotes a more inclusive and diverse industry by giving opportunity to individuals who are traditionally underrepresented at the shows. Congratulations to all the scholarship recipients. We hope you enjoy attending your regional tradeshow.”

About Macmillan

Macmillan Publishers is a global trade book publishing company with prominent imprints around the world. Macmillan publishes a broad range of award-winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats. US publishers include Celadon Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt & Company, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, St. Martin’s Press Publishing Group and Tor Books. In the UK, Australia, India and South Africa, Macmillan publishes under the Pan Macmillan name. The German company, Holtzbrinck Deutsche Buchverlage, includes among its imprints, S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Rowohlt and Droemer Knaur. Macmillan Publishers is a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large family-owned media company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. us.macmillan.com

The Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that coordinates charitable programs to strengthen the bookselling community. Established in 1996, the core program provides assistance to bookstore employees who have a demonstrated financial need arising from severe hardship and/or emergency circumstances. Since its inception, the organization has provided over $6.6 million in financial assistance and scholarships to more than 7,476 families. Support for the Foundation’s programs and services come from all sectors of the book industry. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the bookselling community through charitable programs that support employees and their families. The Foundation was imagined and built by booksellers and proudly continues to be their safety net. It is our vision to be a caring community of book people. Additional information can be found at http://www.bincfoundation.org.