Last week, booksellers, authors, illustrators, and publishing professionals from around the country gathered in Baltimore for the American Booksellers Association annual education conference, Winter Institute. Among the featured authors was WA’s own Deb Caletti, promoting her upcoming young adult book, Girl, Unframed.
On her way home, Caletti experienced a particularly uplifting experience. She posted about it on social media. Here’s what she shared:
THIS is why I had to wear a bunch of my clothes onto the airplane, and roll the rest into teeny tiny balls stuffed around ALL THE BOOKS this weekend. As a deep believer in managing my own baggage (of EVERY kind), I fretted about how I was going to lift the thing up into the overhead. “This might take a minute,” I said to the woman behind me. “It’s full of books.” “Did you bring all of Winter Institute with you?” a man across the aisle said, and kindly gave it a hoist. It turns out he was from Tin House (and I love their books!). Shortly after, the owners and staff of Vintage Books in Vancouver joined him, and in the aisles in front of them, the incredible team from Libro.fm settled in. Further back was the staff of Island Books. When we were in the air, two unidentified booksellers behind me began talking about their favorite fiction. Then, the ARCs came out all around – I’ve never seen so many people reading on a plane. One of the passionate team members of Libro.fm began hand-selling Jason Reynolds’ STAMPED to the unsuspecting man next to him. (Yes, OF COURSE I was listening in, trying to get more tips for my reading list). It was one of the most lovely, restful, and reassuring plane rides I’ve ever had, quietly airborne with devoted book lovers. And when we landed, I successfully swung down that beast of a bag full of riches without knocking any booksellers unconscious. What a perfect trip back home. Island Books Vintage Books Libro.fm Tin House Riveted By Simon Teen
Comments on the post included
- “All flights should be like this!”
- “What a lovely story, and a dreamy flight! (A new Helen Macdonald coming? Good to know!)”
- “What a great flight!”
- “Would love to just once have an airborne experience like that.”