July 3, 2013
Melville House at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago
by Claire Kelley
From Austrian writer Wolf Haas’s reading for the LIVE @ your library stage, to the Independent Crime Fiction from Independent Publishers panel at the Pop Top stage, to great conversations about the publication of James Agee‘s Cotton Tenants featuring Walker Evans photographs, to lots of excitement about Rachel Cantor’s debut novel A Highly Unlikely Scenario (the love interest in the book is a librarian), Melville House books and authors created a lot of buzz at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago this year.
We (Claire Kelley, Director of Library and Academic Marketing, and Dennis Johnson, Melville House Publisher) loved meeting so many with you and discussing Melville House books and the issues that face your libraries and patrons today. Congratulations to Carolyn Ciesla, Collection Management Librarian at Prairie State College and Brad Allen, Library Director at Lawrence Public Library in Kansas who were the winners of our book and bag giveaway!
Wolf Haas, author of Brenner and God and The Bone Man participated in the “International Crime from Independent Publishers” panel at the Pop Top stage on Saturday. The panel also featured (from left to right) moderator Keir Graff of Booklist Online, Haas, Grove author Mark Billingham, Akashic author Bayo Ojikutu, and Europa’s Zane Lovitt.
Librarians browsed our through the International Crime, Last Interview, Art of the Novella, and Neversink Library series at the Melville House booth.
Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson with translator Annie Janusch.
The Melville House display featured novellas, Wolf Haas books, and James Agee’s Cotton Tenants.
Our giveaway titles were “A Highly Unlikely Scenario” by Rachel Cantor, which is a great YA crossover book; “The Stop” by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis, which is a perfect title for a community read; and our big fall novel, Half the Kingdom, by Lore Segal.
Katharine Phenix, a member of American Library Association’s Notable Books Council, stopped by the Melville House booth to say hello.
This librarian loves the Melville House Tumblr account!
The winner of our drawing for a free bag of books was Carolyn Ciesla, Collection Management Library at Prairie State College.
Laona Fleischer from Brookfield Library tells me how she enjoyed Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson’s book buzz presentation at the Chicago Public Library on Thursday.
Claire Kelley, Melville House’s Director of Library and Academic Marketing.
Black Star Nairobi, which was one of the selections from the first Library Reads list was on display in the Melville House booth.
Claire Kelley is a the former Director of Library and Academic Marketing.