The Midwest Booksellers Association welcomes both our members and visitors. You’ll find over 200 of the best locally owned and operated independent bookstores in the Midwest among our members. Read more about the many outstanding books of Midwest regional interest that our booksellers and we recommend. Check out our weekly Heartland Indie Bestseller List, too. And buy your books from your favorite local independent bookseller! Thank you!

MBA members, this new website offers you:

• Easier Accessibility – no more login and password to remember
• Better organization – the most recent news and updates rise to the top on the home page
• Streamlined navigation – information arranged in logical sequences of related posts and pages
• Easier to read – clean, uncluttered pages, larger photos
• RSS feed – sign up for alerts when we post new information via your favorite feed reader or email
• Greater emphasis on our Midwest Connections regional marketing program and the books we and our stores are featuring

Visitors, you’ll find here:

• Easy access to our 200+ member independent bookstores through our BOOKSTORES database.  Find a store near you or search for stores by location, type of store, special events and services offered, and more.  Our knowledgeable booksellers are eager to help you find the perfect books — for yourself, family members, and friends!
• Featured Midwest Connections Picks — wonderful books for both adults and children which feature authors, illustrators and subjects from our Midwest region. Purchase these books at our locally owned and operated independent bookstores.
• The weekly Heartland Indie Bestseller List – our Midwest independent bookstores’ top-selling books.  And the National Indie Bestseller List — an overview of the bestselling books in independent bookstores across the country.
• Our annual holiday and winter season Midwest Booksellers Association Catalog, featuring an array of books for all interests and ages. Also available as a printed catalog in most of our member bookstores from November through January.
• Information about joining our trade association, if you have a professional affiliation with the book industry.

Coming soon: Better access to our member bookstores’ websites through our new BOOKSTORES searchable database

Thank you for visiting our website.  Please come back again soon!

MBA/ABA Spring Meeting & Forum
Sunday, March  21

ST. LOUIS, MO
at Left Bank Books, downtown St. Louis

This meeting will be co-hosted by MBA and ABA

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS – updated as of March 11
– click for the compete schedule!

• ABA and MBA Bookseller Education
• ABA Forum
• Bookseller Networking
• Rep Picks
• Lunch with Author Speaker
  Patrick Somerville, THE CRADLE
• Authors Reception featuring Midwest Connections authors
  and other special guest authors:
  Heather Brewer, ELEVENTH GRADE BURNS
  Dori Hillestad Butler, THE BUDDY FILES
  Jody Feldman, THE SEVENTH LEVEL
  Susan McBride, THE COUGAR CLUB
  David Zimmerman, THE SANDBOX
  

MBA/ABA Spring Meeting & Forum
St. Louis Registration

Partial list of Hotels in St. Louis Area

Spring Meetings page

If you have questions about either one of our Spring Meetings, please let us know.

____________________________________

THANKS FOR COMING
TO THE MINNEAPOLIS SPRING MEETING!

The Spring Meeting in Minneapolis was a great success, from education to rep picks to authors to Mike Perry and his band.

We will make all of the education handouts from the meeting available on the MBA website  in the very near future.

If  you have questions about the meeting, be sure to contact us. Thanks again!

Saturday, March 6
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
at The Depot Minneapolis Hotel

NEW!  MBA Minneapolis Spring Meeting
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
updated as of March 3!

MBA Minneapolis Spring Meeting
Minneapolis Registration
(with hotel information)

Featured Lunch Speakers
“P.J. Tracy” – Patricia & Traci Lambrecht
SHOOT TO THRILL

Featured Authors Reception Guests
Peter Bognanni, THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW
Dori Hillestad Butler, THE BUDDY FILES Series
Michael Edmonds, OUT OF THE NORTHWOODS
Loretta Ellsworth, IN A HEARTBEAT
Michelle Hoover, THE QUICKENING
Diana Joseph, I’M SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY
Sandra Kring, HOW HIGH THE MOON
Wendy Webb, THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE
Michael J. White, WEEPING UNDERWATER LOOKS A LOT LIKE LAUGHTER

And a special performance by
Michael Perry and the Long Beds, TINY PILOT

Spring Meetings page

If you have questions about either one of our Spring Meetings, please let us know.

“My name is King.
I am a dog.
I am also a detective.”

THE BUDDY FILES
Books 1, 2 and 3 in the series
Dori Hillestad Butler

THE BUDDY FILES Book 1:
THE CASE OF THE LOST BOY
ISBN 978-0-8075-0910-4

THE BUDDY FILES Book 2:
THE CASE OF THE MIXED-UP MUTTS
ISBN 978-0-8075-0911-1

THE BUDDY FILES Book 3:
THE CASE OF THE MISSING FAMILY
ISBN 978-0-8075-0912-8

Albert Whitman & Company
www.albertwhitman.com
$14.99 each Hardcover
On sale March 2010
Children’s fiction/mysteries for ages 6-8

Kids will love this new series of early chapter book mysteries starring King, aka Buddy,  a smart, funny, tail-wagging hero! His efforts to understand and communicate with the humans in his life are both convincing and hilarious.

———————————–

One cold morning in early spring, a plastic bag blows out of a landfill. Where do the wind and chance take it?

BAG IN THE WIND
Ted Kooser
Illustrated by Barry Root

Candlewick Press
www.candlewick.com
$17.99  Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3001-0
Children’s picture book
Printed on paper containing 100 percent recycled post-consumer waste

In his singular first children’s book, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, follows a plastic bag on its capricious journey from a landfill into a series of townspeople’s lives.  Beautiful illustrations by Barry Root evoke the gusty, damp days of early springtime.

———————————–

I recommend this book to everyone who has a heart.” * 

IN A HEARTBEAT
Loretta Ellsworth

Walker & Company / Macmillan
$16.99 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2068-9
Young adult fiction

“IN A HEARTBEAT by Loretta Ellsworth was an amazing book. It was given to me as a new unknown book that I could read and review, and I read it all in one sitting.  The story is told by Eagan and Amelia, two teenage girls connected by life and death.  The two different narratives make this story impossible to put down. I recommend this book to everyone who has a heart.”  
– Rachel Hettrick, Book Mouse, Ottawa, IL *

Click on the book and CD titles below for more info. Buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores

The power of music, the exquisite torture of first love, and the many places we call home…

THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW
Peter Bognanni

Amy Einhorn Books/G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Penguin Book Group (USA)
$24.95 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-399-15609-0

This debut novel set in rural Iowa mixes the philosophy of Buckminster Fuller with punk rock in a hilarious and moving novel about misfit teenagers finding their place in a confusing world.

“I was totally blown away by this book.”
– Alice Meyer, Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, IA

“Under the screaming rage of a Misfits or Ramones song, you can hear a heart beating, and that’s where Peter Bognanni gets to work — his wild and tender book reveals how much a  couple of scared boys can say to each other with a little hateful noise.”
– Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is a Mix Tape

————————–

A brave and profoundly moving novel of faith and forgiveness

LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS
Robert Vivian

A Bison Original/University of Nebraska Press
“Flyover Fictions Series”
$22.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8032-1380-7

The second volume in the Tall Grass Trilogy, following THE MOVER OF BONES

“Even when writing about violence, Vivian’s prose glows with an internal light that creates a continual sense of wonder. With its multiple voices and keen sense of place, Lamb Bright Saviors takes those qualities that so defined a writer such as Faulkner and makes them new for a changed world.”—Sue William Silverman, author of Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You

————————–

Available March 16 -
The second album from our favorite author/ songwriter/ musician and his band!

TINY PILOT
Michael Perry and the Long Beds

Amble Down Records
www.ambledown.com
MSRP $11.99
UPC 8-97714-00205-1

Michael Perry and his band of Long Beds write songs that range from boot-stomping country to roughneck folk balladS. Like Perry’s Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award-winning books COOP and TRUCK, these songs are populated by characters drawn straight from rural and small-town America. Many have direct connections to COOP, TRUCK, and his other books POPULATION 485 and OFF MAIN STREET.  Check out Mike’s website:  www.sneezingcow.com

————————-

One cold morning in early spring, a plastic bag blows out of a landfill. Where do the wind and chance take it?

BAG IN THE WIND
Ted Kooser
Illustrated by Barry Root

Candlewick Press
www.candlewick.com
$17.99  Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3001-0
Printed on paper containing 100 percent recycled post-consumer waste

In his singular first children’s book, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, follows a plastic bag on its capricious journey from a landfill into a series of townspeople’s lives.

———————–

“My name is King.
I am a dog.
I am also a detective.”

THE BUDDY FILES
Books 1, 2 and 3 in the series
Dori Hillestad Butler

THE BUDDY FILES Book 1:
THE CASE OF THE LOST BOY
ISBN 978-0-8075-0910-4

THE BUDDY FILES Book 2:
THE CASE OF THE MIXED-UP MUTTS
ISBN 978-0-8075-0911-1

THE BUDDY FILES Book 3:
THE CASE OF THE MISSING FAMILY
ISBN 978-0-8075-0912-8

Albert Whitman & Company
www.albertwhitman.com
$14.99 each Hardcover
On sale March 2010
Children’s fiction/mysteries for ages 6-8

Kids will love this new series of early chapter book mysteries starring King, aka Buddy,  a smart, funny, tail-wagging hero!

BAG IN THE WIND
Ted Kooser
Illustrated by Barry Root

Candlewick Press
www.candlewick.com
$17.99  Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3001-0
On sale February 2010
Children’s picture book by Nebraska poet Ted Kooser
Printed on paper containing 100 percent recycled post-consumer waste

In his singular first children’s book, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, follows a plastic bag on its capricious journey from a landfill into a series of townspeople’s lives. Beautiful illustrations by Barry Root evoke the gusty, damp days of early springtime.

“It’s wonderful to be writing for young people. I am reinventing myself at age 70.” — Ted Kooser

“The exquisitely observed narrative renders the American landscape’s dubious symbiosis—nominally natural, persistently industrial—worthy of a child’s attention. . . . Wonderful.”—Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)

 “The reflective message about waste (there’s an endnote about recycling plastic bags) is gently balanced against the meditation on the quiet beauty and nobility of objects—and people—that aren’t often given a second thought or glance.” – Publishers Weekly

About this book, Ted says, “My wife Kathleen and I are dedicated recyclers, but plastic bags present a challenge. Lately, I’ve found that thrift shops like them, so I’ve been taking them there. But foryears I had bags of plastic bags that nobody wanted.  Writers and artists make use of things that others may not value, so I thought I’d turn my bags into a story, and here it is.”

Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores 

MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting BAG IN THE WIND!
Midwest Connections rebate form for BAG IN THE WIND (PDF) – coming soon!

BAG IN THE WIND ($17.99 Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-7636-3001-0) is available from Candlewick Press, your Abraham Associates rep, or from your preferred wholesaler.  Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title. 

Ted Kooser lives in eastern Nebraska. He is available on only an extremely limited basis for events at bookstores. If you would like to inquire about his availability, however, please contact Laura Rivas, Assistant Director of Marketing, Publicity, and Events at Candlewick Press, 617-588-4445, laura.rivas@candlewick.com .

MBA and Walker & Company would love to have your comments and reviews for this beautiful and thoughtful picture book. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
• Q&A with  Ted Kooser (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)   
• Book cover photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for BAG IN THE WIND (PDF)
       — coming soon!
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT THE BOOK

One cold morning in early spring, a bulldozer pushes a pile of garbage around a landfill and uncovers an empty plastic bag — a perfectly good bag, the color of the skin of a yellow onion, with two holes for handles — that someone has thrown away. Just then, a puff of wind lifts the rolling, flapping bag over a chain-link fence and into the lives of several townsfolk — a can-collecting girl, a homeless man, a store owner — not that all of them notice. Renowned poet Ted Kooser fashions an understated yet compassionate world full of happenstance and connection, neglect and care, all perfectly expressed in Barry Root’s tender illustrations.

About BAG IN THE WIND, Barry Root says, ” The day I started sketching, I glanced out of my studio and saw a plastic bag caught on a weed stalk. I grabbed a sketchbook and sat down to draw.  As I finished, the bag unhooked itself and blew away. It isn’t always easy to get such as good model.”

True to the book’s earth-friendly spirit, it is printed on paper containing 100 percent recycled post-consumer waste and includes an author’s note on recycling plastic bags.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR

Ted Kooser lives in rural Garland, Nebraska, with his wife, Kathleen, and three dogs. He is one of America’s most noted poets, having served two terms as U. S. Poet Laureate and, during the second term, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection, DELIGHTS & SHADOWS. He is a retired life insurance executive who now teaches part-time at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The school board in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently opened Ted Kooser Elementary School, which Ted says is his greatest honor, among many awards and distinctions. He has published twelve collections of poetry and several nonfiction books.  The latter include two books on writing, THE POETRY HOME REPAIR MANUAL and WRITING BRAVE AND FREE, the book of essays LOCAL COLOR, and a memoir, LIGHTS ON A GROUND OF DARKNESS (all from University of Nebraska Press.)  BAG IN THE WIND from Candlewick is his first children’s book, with which he is delighted.

Barry Root has illustrated many books for children, including THE CAT WHO LIKED POTATO SOUP by Terry Farish and THE BIRTHDAY TREE by Paul Fleischman. He lives in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

“My name is King.
I am a dog.
I am also a detective.”

THE BUDDY FILES
Books 1, 2 and 3 in the series
Dori Hillestad Butler

THE BUDDY FILES:
THE CASE OF THE LOST BOY
Book 1
ISBN 978-0-8075-0910-4

THE BUDDY FILES:
THE CASE OF THE MIXED-UP MUTTS
Book 2
ISBN 978-0-8075-0911-1

THE BUDDY FILES:
THE CASE OF THE MISSING FAMILY
Book 3
ISBN 978-0-8075-0912-8

Albert Whitman & Company
www.albertwhitman.com
$14.99 each Hardcover
On sale March 2010
Children’s fiction/mysteries for ages 6-8 set in the Midwest

Kids will love this new series of early chapter book mysteries starring King, aka Buddy,  a smart, funny, tail-wagging hero! His efforts to understand and communicate with the humans in his life are both convincing and hilarious.

“With twists and turns, humor, and a likable canine character, this series should find a wide fan base.” — Booklist

“Butler tells the story from Buddy’s perspective, throwing in details to convince readers that it’s really Buddy talking….Tugeau’s full-page line drawings enliven a story that should captivate young readers. This first entry in a series is both sweet and suspenseful.”  – Kirkus Reviews

Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores 

MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting THE BUDDY FILES!
Midwest Connections rebate form for THE BUDDY FILES (PDF) – coming soon!

The first three books in The Buddy Files series ($14.99 each Hardcover, ISBNs above) are available from Albert Whitman, Abraham Associates, or from your preferred wholesaler.  Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title. 

Author Dori Hillestad Butler will be a featured author at the MBA Spring Meetings in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 6, and in St. Louis on Sunday, March 21.

Dori Hillestad Butler is available for interviews and events at bookstores. If you’re interested in scheduling a store, book club or community event with her, please contact 

Michelle F. Bayuk, Director of Marketing, Albert Whitman & Company, 847-232-2811 direct, 847-581-0033, 847-581-0039 fax, mbayuk@albertwhitman.com. If you have sales-related questions, please contact Margaret Coffee, 847-232-2805, mcoffee@albertwhitman.com.

 MBA and Albert Whitman would love to have your comments and reviews for these delightful new children’s books. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF) – coming soon
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF) – coming soon
• Full-color website banner ad (JPG)
• Author photo (JPG)   
• Book #1 cover photo (JPG)
• Book #2 cover photo (JPG)
• Book #3 cover photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for THE BUDDY FILES (PDF)
       — coming soon!
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT THE BOOK

“This chipper novel launches Butler’s…Buddy Files series, narrated by a chatty golden retriever…..readers should be drawn in by Buddy’s exuberant voice and readily recognize the high stakes and emotions at play.”  — Publishers Weekly

“The type is large, the text is easy, and the occasional black-and-white illustrations complement the text well. The clues are unique and true to the fact that a dog is telling the story. The addition of paw prints used as bullet points in King’s lists of what he knows about the case and chapter headings with titles like “Nose to the Ground” add to this involving story. Fans of dog stories, mysteries, or readers reluctant to start chapter books will appreciate this story.” — School Library Journal

Book 1     THE BUDDY FILES: THE CASE OF THE LOST BOY

We meet King, a golden retriever and detective. His family is missing, and he’s been put in the P-O-U-N-D.  Why doesn’t his beloved human Kayla come to get him?  When he is adopted by Connor and his mom, things get more confusing.  The new family calls him Buddy! And just as Connor and Buddy start to get acquainted, Connor disappears!  Buddy (aka King) has some big mysteries to solve, but with some help from his friend Mouse (a very large dog) and the mysterious Cat with No Name, he shows what a smart, brave dog can do.

In Book 2 and Book 3, our hero King/Buddy continues to tackle the mysteries that he encounters, including the biggest one of all — WHERE are his beloved human Kayla and his first family??

Book 2      THE BUDDY FILES: THE CASE OF THE MIXED-UP MUTTS

Buddy was adopted from the P-O-U-N-D and he likes his new family, but he’s still searching for Kayla and her dad — his first family.  What has happened to them? He hopes to solve that mystery soon, but right now he’s got another urgent case — two dogs, Muffin and Jazzy, have been switched!  How can Buddy get poor Muffin and Jazzy back to their real owners?

Book 3     THE BUDDY FILES: THE CASE OF THE MISSING FAMILY

Buddy has settled in with his adopted family, but he’s never given up on finding his beloved human, Kayla, and his first family.  One night he sees men taking things out of Kayla’s old house and loading them into a van.  What’s up?  Though his friend Mouse advises against it, in the middle of the night Buddy decides to make a daring move, leaving everything he knows behind.  Dori Butler’s third case in The Buddy Files will entertain and satisfy the many fans of this brave, funny, and loyal dog.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

www.kidswriter.com

Dori Hillestad Butler  is the author of several highly acclaimed children’s books, as well as a ghostwriter for two popular children’s book series. Her books for Albert Whitman & Company include Tank Talbott’s Guide to Girls and The Truth About Truman School, which VOYA called “a good vehicle for starting a discussion about bullying and the effect on all students in the school” She lives in Coralville, Iowa, with her husband. They have two sons.

The power of music,
the exquisite torture of first love,
and the many places we call home…

THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW
Peter Bognanni

Amy Einhorn Books
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Penguin Book Group (USA)
$24.95 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-399-15609-0
On sale March 4,  2010
Fiction

This debut novel set in rural Iowa mixes the philosophy of Buckminster Fuller with punk rock in a hilarious and moving novel about misfit teenagers finding their place in a confusing world.

“I was totally blown away by this book.”
– Alice Meyer, Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, IA

“Under the screaming rage of a Misfits or Ramones song, you can hear a heart beating, and that’s where Peter Bognanni gets to work — his wild and tender book reveals how much a  couple of scared boys can say to each other with a little hateful noise.”
– Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is a Mix Tape

“I adore this book, not only for its ability to love our ludicrous hearts, but also for the way it makes dividing questions about whether good literature comes from the heart or the mind seem like nonsense.”
– Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

“THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW…marries the visionary with the everyday, the whizbang with the domestic, and does it with beauty, humor, and love for each one of its flawed characters.  Peter Bognanni remembers all the romance and awkwardness of teen life and teen music. His first novel is headlong, hilarious, heartbreaking.”
– Elizabeth McCracken

 Read a sample chapter of THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW , then buy and read the entire book!

Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores 

 MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW!
Midwest Connections rebate form for THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW (PDF) – coming soon!

THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW ($24.95 Hardcover, ISBN: 978-0-339-15590-1) is available from Penguin Group (USA)  or from your preferred wholesaler.  Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title. 

Author Peter Bognanni will be a featured author at the MBA Spring Meeting in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 6.

Peter Bognanni lives in the Twin Cities. If you are interested in scheduling an interview, book club event, or event with him, please contact Victoria Comella at G.P. Putnam’s Sons Publicity by email: victoria.comella@us.penguingroup.com or telephone at 212-366-2549. 

MBA and Putnam would love to have your comments and reviews for this debut novel. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
• Sample Chapter (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)   
• Book cover photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW (PDF)
       — coming soon!
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT THE BOOK

On the outskirts of a small town in Iowa, Sebastian Prendergast lives in a geodesic dome with his eccentric grandmother, who has spent the last eleven years homeschooling him on the teachings of futurist philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller. But when Sebastian’s grandmother has a stroke, he is forced to leave the dome and discover what it means to live a normal life.

Jared Whitcomb is a chain-smoking sixteen-year-old heart transplant recipient who befriends Sebastian, and begins to teach him about all the things he has been missing out on, including girls, grilled cheese sandwiches with grape soda, and Sid Vicious. Together they form a punk band called The Rash, and with the help of Jared’s sister, Meredith, prepare to take the local church talent show by storm. But when Sebastian’s grandmother wants him to return to the dome and take Bucky’s message to the world, will Sebastian have to give up The Rash—and lose his chance at winning Meredith’s heart?

Unexpectedly poignant and richly comic, THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW is a novel about the power of music, the exquisite torture of first love, and the many places we call home.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Bognanni is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was awarded a Teaching-Writing Fellowship for his work. He is a 2008 Pushcart Prize nominee, and his short story “The Body Eternal” was chosen by Stephen King as on of the “100 Most Distinguished Stories of 2006 in The Best American Short Stories (2007). Bognanni is currently a visiting instructor of creative writing at Macalaster College in Saint Paul. He once played in a terrible high school punk band.

LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS
Robert Vivian

A Bison Original
“Flyover Fictions Series”
University of Nebraska Press
$22.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8032-1380-7
On sale March, 2010

Fiction set on the Great Plains - the second volume in the Tall Grass Trilogy, following THE MOVER OF BONES

“Even when writing about violence, Vivian’s prose glows with an internal light that creates a continual sense of wonder. With its multiple voices and keen sense of place, Lamb Bright Saviors takes those qualities that so defined a writer such as Faulkner and makes them new for a changed world.”—Sue William Silverman, author of Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You

“A brave and profoundly moving novel of faith and forgiveness. A closely observed novel of voices, it speaks the tongues of America’s impoverished underbelly and reveals, amid the squalor, mystery, goodness, and salvation.”—Douglas Glover, author of Elle and The Life and Times of Captain N.

Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores 

 MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS!
Midwest Connections rebate form for LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS (PDF) – coming soon!

LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS by Robert Vivian ($22.95 Trade Paperback, ISBN: 978-0-8032-1380-7)  is available from University of Nebraska Press, Trim Associates, or your preferred wholesaler.  Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title.  

Other books by Robert Vivian:  

THE MOVER OF BONES, Volume 1 in the Tall Grass Trilogy, 2006, $23.95 Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8032-4679-9

 COLD SNAP AS YEARNING, 2005, $13.95 Paperback , ISBN 978-0-8032-9623-7

 If you are interested in scheduling an interview, book club event, or event with author Robert Vivian, please contact the publisher at mpress@unl.edu. 

Publication of this volume was assisted by The Virginia Faulkner Fund, established in memory of Virginia Faulkner, editor in chief of the University of Nebraska Press.

 Events:  For an up-to-date listing of author appearances, visit the Author Events and Book Signings page on the unp Web site at: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Catalog/ProductEvents.aspx

 Blog:  For lively discussion, notable book reviews, and occasional podcasts of unp titles, check out our blog at: http://www.nebraskapress.typepad.com

 Book Web Page:  Visit this book’s Web Page at:  http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Lamb-Bright-Saviors,674188.aspx

 MBA and University of Nebraska Press would love to have your comments and reviews for this debut novel. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
• Press Kit (PDF)
• Publisher catalog page (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)   
• Book cover photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for LAMB BRIGHT SAVIORS (PDF)
       — coming soon!
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Vivian is a master of the delicately constructed narrative. . . . Lamb Bright Saviors explores the relationship of the torments of the present to the mistakes of the past, laying bare the strange twists and turns of our human and inhuman inner lives.”—Brian Evenson, author of Altmann’s Tongue and The Open Curtain

“Robert Vivian’s prose is lyrical and harrowing—harrowing in the Biblical sense,” Sven Birkerts said of The Mover of Bones, the first book in Vivian’s Tall Grass Trilogy. That same lyrical power carries this new volume to a place of hard-won hope and redemption at once both spiritual and earthly.  

Lamb Bright Saviors begins as an apocalyptically inclined itinerant preacher staggers across the Nebraska prairie. With his young assistant, Mady, in tow hauling a wagon stacked with bibles, it’s not long before the preacher finds he’s come to the final fulfillment of his self-proclaimed life’s work: to die in front of a group of strangers. Odd as his own end-of-days might be, the lives and struggles of the strangers attending this deathbed scene are even odder. As the dying preacher unleashes a barrage of hallucinatory ramblings and rantings in the hope of imparting wisdom, each ragtag member of this unlikely congregation must reckon with his own dark past. And through it all, the irrepressible Mady lends the preacher’s strange performance a surprising and unforgettable dignity and humor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Vivian is a professor of English and creative writing at Alma College in Michigan and also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author of Cold Snap as Yearning, available in a Bison Books edition, and The Mover of Bones (Nebraska 2006).

TINY PILOT
Michael Perry and the Long Beds

Amble Down Records
www.ambledown.com
MSRP $11.99
UPC 8-97714-00205-1
“country folk,” “folk-twang,” and/or Americana music — take your pick!
Mike’s website:  www.sneezingcow.com

LISTEN:
Download the first single off TINY PILOT:
“Somewhere South of Sunday” (mp3)

Michael Perry and his band of Long Beds write songs that range from boot-stomping country to roughneck folk balladS. Like Perry’s Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award-winning books COOP and TRUCK, these songs are populated by characters drawn straight from rural and small-town America.

Many of Mike’s songs have direct connections to COOP, TRUCK, and his other books POPULATION 485 and OFF MAIN STREET.
Find out which song ties in with which book!

“You sound just like Gordon Lightfoot, only zippier!”
– that nice lady at the benefit concert in Mike’s old high school gym,
New Auburn, WI

“Mike Perry is a storyteller like the one namers, Waylon and Willie.  Stir in the Long Beds and you have a recipe for success.  TINY PILOT delivers a truckload of tunes that’ll stick with you for the long haul.”
– Jerry Bilek, Monkey See, Monkey Read,Northfield, MN

“TINY PILOT is full of heart, humor, and hurt.  Equally talented in stand-up comedy, performing music, and writing about life in the middle of the country, Michael Perry is the triple crown, winning for audiences in the Midwest and beyond!”
– Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books, Wichita, KS

Like so many before him, Michael Perry learned to sing in church. Then a Waylon Jennings 8-track got him hooked on boogety-boogety.  This combination yielded the mix of straight-up twang and churchly harmonies found in his music.  Perry began writing songs in the early 1990s during long nights when he was struggling to survive on prose.  (And as we know now, he’s surviving just fine in that regard, having become a bestselling author both in the Midwest and nationally!)

“I was raised by farmers and preachers and tough country women, and I suppose my songs reflect that,” says Perry. “Then again, certain wisdoms are available only from whistlers, frauds, and sinners, so I try to slide them a line or two as well.”

Buy this new CD from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores 

  MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting TINY PILOT!
Midwest Connections rebate form for TINY PILOT (PDF) – coming soon!

TINY PILOT  is available directly though Amble Down Records. To order, please contact Kyle Frenette at kyle@ambledown.com or via phone at 612.670.8710. For more information contact kyle@ambledown.com (UPC: 8-97714-00205-1; MSRP $11.99, release date March 16, 2010).   Be sure to contact  Amble Down for more information about this title.

Michael  Perry and the Long Beds will be featured performers at the MBA Spring Meeting in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 6. They’ll play at set at the Authors Reception in the early evening.

If you are interested in scheduling an interview or event with Michael Perry and the Long Beds, please contact Mike’s assistant Alissa Freeberg, 612-987-2204, alissasneezingcow@gmail.com. 

MBA and Amble Down Records would love to have your comments and reviews for this music CD. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color poster (PDF)
• Full-color flyer (PDF)
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
• Mike’s music related to his books (PDF)
• Mike’s bio (PDF)
• Press release (PDF)
• Amble Down Records sell sheet (PDF)
• CD photo (JPG)
• Band photo #1 (JPG) 
       – this is the photo the band likes best
• Band photo #2 (JPG)
• Band photo #3 (JPG)
• Band photo #4 (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for TINY PILOT (PDF) – coming soon!
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT MICHAEL PERRY, THE LONG BEDS & THEIR ALBUM

“First time I ever heard Waylon Jennings,” says Michael Perry, “was on an 8-track tape in a four-wheel drive truck doing sixty miles an hour down a Wyoming hay meadow. We were running late for Bible study.” The songs on Tiny Pilot (Perry’s latest musical release with his band the Long Beds) are a direct reflection of that experience. Ranging from straight-up twang to churchly harmonies and populated by characters drawn straight from rural and small-town America, they launch from places like the overpass outside Perry’s beloved hometown of New Auburn, Wisconsin (population currently 562), a gospel service in a granary, and the kitchen floor of a woman about to drop a world of hurt on her drunken husband. “I was raised by farmers and preachers and tough country women, and I suppose my songs reflect that,” says Perry. “Then again, certain wisdoms are available only from whistlers, frauds, and sinners, so I try to slide them a line or two as well.”

Raised in a church so austere that hymns were sung with no choir, no accompaniment, and no church (the congregation met in a farmhouse and sat on straight-backed wooden chairs) Perry and his brother learned to sit side-by-side and work out harmonies on the fly. Those Sunday mornings instilled in Perry a love of singing “clear and pure” that can be heard throughout Tiny Pilot – most especially on the songs, “842 Miles,” “If They Give You Wings,” and “Sweet Edge of Time.” Conversely, anyone introduced to Ol’ Waylon by means of a four-wheeling 8-track is bound to shoot for some boogety-boogety now and then, as Perry and the Long Beds do on “Undone,” “Somewhere South of Sunday,” and (in a respectful nod to Ol’ Hoss himself) “After Waymore’s Blues.”

Perry began writing songs in the early 1990s during long nights when he was struggling to survive on prose (he is the author of four books: Population 485, Truck, Off Main Street, and Coop). With no arts background (he has a nursing degree) he found himself drawn especially to the work of poets and singer/songwriters. (In interviews Perry tends to list his greatest literary influences as Dylan Thomas and Steve Earle – and not necessarily in that order.) “I remember writing late one night and hearing a Kevin Welch song with the line, ‘I whiskey’d up my coffee cup… sittin’ here tryin’ not to call you up,’” says Perry, “and I was floored by the rhythm and the story in that single line…” He began writing songs as a way to break up all-night typing sessions, and eventually he had enough of them that a musician friend invited him to play a coffee shop. “I’m not saying I was nervous, but I ripped out a sixty-minute set list in thirty-two minutes flat,” says Perry. By 2004, he had begun recruiting Long Beds. In 2006, he released his first album, Headwinded.

While the music made by Perry and the Long Beds has been variously described as ‘country folk,’ ‘roughneck folk,’ ‘folk-twang,’ and Americana, they prefer the description given by an audience member after a benefit concert in Perry’s old high school gym: “You sound just like Gordon Lightfoot… only zippier!” Nice – but there are limits. “Zippy or not,” says Perry, “when ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ comes on the radio, we sit down, shut up, and listen.”

Michael Perry resides with his family on a small farm in rural Wisconsin.

You can always get to the Midwest Connections Picks individual title pages for each book we’ve chosen  from 2006 through the present from any Midwest Connections related page or post.  Look to the right hand side of the web page for the Recent Picks list and click on Browse All Titles to get to the entire alphabetically arranged list.

Individual web pages for all Midwest Connections Picks titles through February 2010 are available at this time. March 2010 Midwest Connections Picks web pages will be up soon.  Please check back again!

The following lists are updated as of the date indicated below:

• 2010 Midwest Connections Picks Title List (PDF)    
  – NEW UPDATE 2/15/10
  – includes Spring and Summer 2010 titles confirmed to date
  – This list can be posted in your store and given to your store’s customers, too.
• Primary 2010 Midwest Connections Picks Title List (Excel file) – legal size page –  NEW UPDATE 2/15/10
  – includes Spring and Summer 2010 titles confirmed to date
  – You can use this Excel file for ordering and tracking inventory and sales, entering your own information into the spreadsheet as desired.
• Primary 2010 Midwest Connections Picks Title List (PDF) – legal size page — NEW UPDATE 2/15/10
  – includes Spring and Summer 2010 titles confirmed to date
  – This is a PDF of the Excel file above.  You can print it out and write information on a hard copy, but you won’t be able to enter details directly info the file.