Editor’s Note
MEMPHIS IS A perennial draw for Elvis fans and barbecue aficionados, but in late January its streets were filled with another kind of tourist as booksellers, authors, and publishers descended on the Tennessee city for this year’s Winter Institute.
The four-day event, organized by the American Booksellers Association, offers workshops on topics such as marketing and e-commerce technology. It tends to be a celebrity affair: this year, Junot Díaz gave a keynote speech on the need for diversity across the industry; Sarah Jessica Parker spoke about her new Penguin Random House imprint; and Gary Shteyngart cracked wise about how being in a room full of booksellers was like “taking a bath with a warm glass of milk in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.”