Tag Archives: bookstores

Nominate Your Favorite Bookstore

WNBA small badgeNominate Your Favorite Bookstore for a Pannell Award
Due date Extended to February 14, 2015

Every year two bookstores that excel in connecting children with books are selected by a panel of publishing professionals–one award is given to a general bookstore and one a children’s specialty bookstore. Anyone can nominate a store. Simply email: pannellaward@gmail.com, with the following information:

1) Name, email address, and phone number of person making the nomination
2) Your connection to the nominated store, e.g. customer, owner, employee, publisher
3) A brief statement outlining the reasons you are nominating that store
4) Contact info for the owner/manager of the nominated store

Each of the two winners will receive a $1,000 check and a framed signed original piece of art by a children’s illustrator during a presentation at the BEA/ABA Children’s Book and Author Breakfast, which draws more than 1,000 attendees.

Click here to download the nomination form.

Along with WNBA, Penguin Young Readers Group co-sponsors the award, which was established in honor of Lucile Micheels Pannell, founding member of one of the WNBA chapters.

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Founded in 1917, WNBA is a national organization of women and men who promote the value to the written word by championing the role of women in the book community and by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information about book lovers and professionals.

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Bookstores

Bookstore signHave you always had bookstores nearby? Were they important to you before you started to write?

In the small Wisconsin town where I grew up, we had no bookstore and the time was before Amazon. I lived with my grandparents until I was ten so I had to wait for my mom or my aunt to visit. I’d beg them to take me to a larger nearby town so I could buy some books. Since their visits were once every month or two, I ended up re-reading the books several times. My cousins brought over the comic books they didn’t want anymore, but comic books didn’t interest me like books did.

My mom remarried and she had me move with them to Milwaukee about an hour and a half away from my grandparents. What I liked the best was that I could walk to a bookstore. I spent every summer lugging books home to read. In sixth grade, I started writing short stories. My teacher took one of them home to read because I was writing during his lecture. It was on my desk the next morning with not a written or a verbal word about it. I guessed that he didn’t like it or maybe he didn’t bother to read it. I decided he took the story to discipline me so I’d stop writing and pay attention to him.

I continued to write at home, after graduation, after I got married, and after I got pregnant. By that time, I had a large box, about the size for a big TV, filled with stories. I stored it in a walk-in attic we had at our Oakland, California flat. When we moved to Concord, I didn’t realize I had forgotten my box of writings. I went back to get it but the new renters had thrown it out.

With a young son to raise and going to college to be a teacher, my writing had to be put on hold. I had been teaching for over 15 years when President George W. Bush pushed for “No child left behind.” Teachers’ transcripts were scrutinized and although I had a BA with a major in English and an MA in Education, I had to go back to college for more English units. What a surprise, but, of course, I chose writing classes and produced poems and short stories that I’ve revised and submitted to several sites. I teach creative writing classes now and one of them meets at a local bookstore. I’ve met authors I admire when they have had readings there.

My new stories have been published in various short story collections such as Harlequin’s annual Christmas anthologies,  Las Positas College’s, etc. I have published an anthology with short stories and poems by my writer friends. Members of my class and I have read at signings. At the rate bookstores are closing, I hope the independents can remain open and continue to offer not only books, but the events we’ve enjoyed.

What is your experience with bookstores?

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