Administration/Projects
Send project-related
questions (Fall Discovery Show, Winter Catalog, Reading the West Book Awards, Website)
plus bills, invoices,
and payments to:

MPIBA Administration
c/o Kathy Keel
208 E. Lincoln Avenue

Fort Collins, CO 80524

Nominate Titles for
Reading the West!

The Reading the West Book Awards provide an opportunity to promote authors, increase book sales, expand reach, and create awareness.

Reading the West is a program sponsored by Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association that assists publishers, authors, and booksellers in promoting and building sales for exceptional books and authors in the Mountains & Plains region.

These adult and children's titles exemplify the best in writing and/or illustrations whose subject matter is set in the region or evokes the spirit of the region: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Booksellers, publishers, authors, and others can nominate titles that are published for the first time in calendar year 2016

The nomination period is September 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. The author's place of residence is immaterial for this award.

Click here to learn more about the program and to access the nomination form.

Reading the West

Committees Forming

Now is your chance to participate in one of the most interesting things we do as a trade association.

We are now forming committees for the Reading the West Book Awards for adult and children's books that best represent the landscape of our region in the previous year.

Here is a link to the MPIBA website

for more information about how the program works. I've served on the adult committee and it is fun! As a committee member, you will serve a two-year term beginning in November 2016; on average you will read between 20-25 books.

If you are interested, please e-mail me at books@kingsenglish.com

and indicate whether you want to read for the adult or the children's committee.

Try it ... you'll like it!

-Anne Holman
President, MPIBA Board of Directors
General Manager, The King's English Bookshop
books@kingsenglish.com

2015 Reading the West Winners

Adult Fiction:

BLACK RIVER: A Novel by S.M. Hulse
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Adult Nonfiction:

LADIES OF THE CANYONS: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes
The University of Arizona Press

Children's:

A SERIES OF SMALL MANEUVERS by Eliot Treichel
Ooligan Press at Portland State University

Click here to downoad a PDF of the Reading the West Book Award winners from 1990 - 2015.

News from Our Bookstores

Booksellers Anticipate

Holiday Season Kick-Off

Bookstores across the region (and the country) are eagerly preparing for Small Business Saturday on November 26th. Independent bookstores will continue to encourage their customers to put local independent businesses first on Nov. 26th ... and every day of the year!

Many bookstores in our region are participating in the ABA's Indie's First campaign, which in conjunction with Small Business Saturday, is a collaboration between authors, publishers, retailers, and readers that celebrates independent bookstores and local communities.

Lena Dunham is the 2016 Official Spokesperson for Indies First. If you haven't already, read why she loves and supports independent bookstores here.

If you're planning a special event on Small Business Saturday, add your store to the Indies First map!

Lena Dunham, the Official 2016 Spokesperson for Indies First, will visit Book Soup in Los Angeles, CA on Small Business Saturday.

The following stores are planning

Indies First Events on Saturday, Nov. 26th:

Absolutely Fiction Books in Lufkin, TX: Gift card drawings. Free Tote Bags, Small Business Saturday Night Books-N-Brew.

Barefoot Cowgirl in Flagstaff, AZ.

BookBar in Denver, CO: Ask An Author event.

Booked on 25th in Ogden, UT: Local authors will be on hand to sign their books as well as discuss upcoming projects.

Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO: Meet & Greet with T. A. Barron, author of the Merlin saga and his new book, Atlantis Lost.

Brace Books & More in Ponca City, OK: Special sale for the event.

Covered Treasures Bookstore in Monument, CO: Local Author Event with J.v.L. Bell signing her novel, Lucky Hat Mine and Christine Goff signing her Birdwatcher's Mystery series and Raisa Jordan Thriller series.

The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, UT: We will have a handful of local authors hand-selling their favorite books throughout the day.

MacDonald Book Shop in Estes Park, CO: Kick-off for our annual Holiday sale. Come into the store and receive 15% off your purchase of books and calendars through December 2nd, 2016.

Mitzi's Books in Rapid City, SD.

Legends Bookstore in Cody, WY.

Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Steamboat Springs, CO: Colorado mystery writer Emily Littlejohn will visit as our Honorary Bookseller.

Sheridan Stationery Books & Gallery in Sheridan, WY.

The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, TX: Author Phil West, the Farmers Market, the Potters Guild Market, and more as plans finalize.

Interesting Idea:

Host a Political Write-In

Off the Beaten Path in Steamboat Springs, CO
is a safe space for people to express themselves.

Dear Booksellers,

I am privileged to work in a business that encourages and celebrates free thought and expression, critical thinking, and deep discourse. I feel safe when I am at the bookstore. I swell with pride when I think about the role this bookstore serves as a community gathering space, a place where others too, feel free to meet, engage, expand, or even to retreat and escape.

I've been reeling since the close of this exhausting, demoralizing, drawn-out election season. To be candid, I've felt rather disengaged and politically powerless for a long time. Based on casual conversations I've had with friends and family and yes, bookstore patrons, I get the sense many people feel this way, too.

Reflecting on the bookstore's role in our community and my own undeniable need to finally do something, I came to this idea: Off the Beaten Path will host a political letter write-in on Monday, Nov. 14th.

This will be a nonpartisan gathering for people to meet their neighbors, share and discuss ideas, and write letters to our elected officials.

Think of a write-in as a sit-in, to the extent that we will occupy this space as a form of protest, yet we will harness our anxieties and anger in writing and send our letters to the lawmakers who are bound to serve our community.

Off the Beaten Path will provide templates and suggestions on how to write an effective letter to legislators, names and addresses, proofreading support, and for all letters sent by the Postal Service, we will provide envelopes, postage, and I will personally mail the letters en masse. I hope to make this process as simple and enjoyable as possible so that people feel empowered and will continue to engage and fight for their cause, whatever that may be.

If this idea resonates with you, booksellers, I encourage you to host write-ins in your communities.

I'd love to hear what you think, and if you have suggestions, please share them with me at ekatz@steamboatbooks.com

-Emily Katzman, Off the Beaten Path

Antigone Books in Tucson, AZ Seeks New Owners

Antigone Books has been an important part of Tuscon, AZ for 43 years.

The two of us have owned Antigone Books for more than 25 years, happy to be part of Antigone's long (43 year) history. It's been an absolutely fabulous time, surrounded as we've been by great staff, great customers, wonderful books and assorted miscellany.

It's getting to be time for us to pass the baton! Hard as it is even for us to believe, we are ready to begin a careful search for a new owner or owners who will be a great match for the store. Might that person be you or someone you know?

There's no rush on this process. We'll be continuing with business as usual at the store, meanwhile taking our time to look for the perfect person or persons.

Decades of choosing and curating the stock, recommending books, and meeting wonderful customers have given us both richly satisfying lives. Now - more than anything - we want this store that has given us so much to have a new chapter with fresh leadership.

The store needs someone who is ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of running a bookstore while preserving the heart and soul of Antigone Books.

The business is quite healthy; in fact, it has never been better. Year to date, gross sales and profits have consistently increased over the past five years, and the community couldn't be more supportive. It is debt-free (always has been), quite profitable (for a bookstore) and is the most entertaining, enlightening and sociable retail atmosphere you could ask for.

We are getting help in our search from an organization with a long history of helping independent bookstores. Donna and Mark at Paz & Associates will answer questions about the store, so if you or someone you know is interested in learning more details, please contact them at MKaufman@PazBookBiz.com or call 904-277-2664.

In the meantime, we cannot thank you enough for all the support you've given to the store. It is because of you that Antigone Books has bloomed in Tucson.

-Trudy Mills & Kate Randall

Photos from around the Region

Absolutely Fiction in Lufkin, TX
has already set up their Winter Catalog display!

"Of course Belle works in an independent bookstore!"
Halloween at Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO.

"BookBar staff meetings are just the best. Books and passion abound."