Midwest Bookseller of the Year
Celebrating booksellers who have made an extraordinary impact on their community
Celebrating the Midwest Bookseller of the Year award is one of the highlights of our year. This award is designed to highlight the excellent work happening each year in stores across our region. As such, nominees are judged according to the impact they made on their community and the industry at large in the previous year.
The most compelling nominees are booksellers whose work goes beyond their own store to impact their community and region. Qualities that demonstrate an impactful bookseller are many, including effectiveness in handselling titles, passion for books and the bookselling industry, uplifting underrepresented voices and communities, creative marketing campaigns, effective community outreach, inspiring customers, co-workers, or the industry at large, taking risks, showing excellence in customer service, implementing effective business practices, developing new sales models, giving back to one's community, and much more.
Nominate a Bookseller for 2026 here!
2025
CJ Arthur, owner of WordHaven BookHouse in Sheboygan, WI
The Board of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association is thrilled to give CJ Arthur the 2025 Bookseller of the Year Award. The award was presented by board president Melissa McAllister at MIBA’s annual Spring Road Trip in Mineral Point, Wisconsin on Tuesday May 12th. CJ is more than a bookseller and bookstore and writing center owner, they are a teacher, trainer of teachers, public speaker, writer/author, and equity consultant. CJ was born and raised in Minnesota and now lives in Sheboygan, Wisconsin where they own WordHaven BookHouse. This honor is just one of many CJ has been awarded, including Minnesota State Teacher of the Year.
Poet Emalie Kamin nominated them revealing that CJ has “faced harassment, death threats, and picketers outside and inside the shop - especially when there are events that include drag queens-, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to support their queer community and people with identities that are historically marginalized and oppressed. They do numerous book clubs, including a banned book club and a TreeHouse Bookclub, in addition to Tarot Clubs, author events, workshops, retreats, classes, night markets, and writing circles. They have continuously spoken up against prejudice and discrimination and in support of equity and inclusivity in a town that includes some people who don’t always appreciate their advocacy. They have made WordHaven one of the only safe spaces in Sheboygan. They are truly an incredible human and bookstore owner.”
CJ has been a generous member of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, offering to host a busload of booksellers for Heartland Fall Forum and pitching Sheboygan for our Spring Road Trip. Grace Hagen, executive director of MIBA shares, “CJ is brave. Their bravery is particularly remarkable given how many examples we currently see of people in power choosing cowardice and self-interest over telling the truth without anonymity. CJ is steadfast in their commitment to their values. From giving a TED-Ed talk on the importance of being an advocate, to continuing to provide inclusive programming at WordHaven in spite of harassment and threats, to kneeling on the football field with President Trump only feet away during the national anthem at the College Football Championship – a game at which they were being honored as Teacher of the Year – to declining an invitation to visit the White House due to President Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ choices, noting: ‘The words and practices and policies of this administration have been filled with a lot of hate toward the LGBTQ+ community, so I didn’t feel comfortable in that environment.’ Their everyday choices are examples for all of us on how to advocate, to call ourselves and others in, and to be courageous in the face of power and pressure.”
In accepting the award CJ called upon the booksellers in the audience saying, “we are a force for equity and democracy, and it is an honor to be amongst you. I am confident that we will make John Lewis proud and continue to get in ‘good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.’ Please, lean on the characters who help you endure, because, booksellers, there is still so much work for us to do and this country needs us.”
2024
Barbara and Valeria Cerda, co-owners of La Revo Books in Milwaukee, WI
Carrie Obry, executive director of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, says, “Barbara and Valeria are ideal candidates for this award, having done work that goes beyond the parameters of their own business to inspire an entire community and our bookselling region. These are two working class women from immigrant families who have created a city-wide inspirational bookselling model out of scratch and made the industry stand up and pay attention.”
2023
Pamela and Jeffrey Blair, owners of EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore
EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri, carries an impressive array of books, but perhaps its most powerful story is the one between its own four walls. Co-owners and married business partners Pamela and Jeffrey Blair have created an extraordinary place that gives Black and brown children the powerful experience of seeing themselves in the pages of a book--and not just a select few books, but every book in the store.
2022
Alex George, owner of Skylark Bookshop
In Columbia, Missouri, a mid-America college town with a population of just over 100,000, you’ll find Skylark Bookshop, an elegant bookshop with a simple
motto—“Because Books.” But as anyone who knows Skylark understands, this seemingly simple philosophy is also a deeply held value of the store’s owner, Alex George, and it has led him to become a powerhouse of literary accomplishment.
2021
The booksellers at A Room of One's Own in Madison, WI
The Midwest Bookseller of the Year award is an annual award that celebrates a bookseller who had an extraordinary impact on their community within the previous year.
Congratulations to the staff at A Room of One’s Own, Midwest Booksellers of the Year.
- First picture, left to right: Caide Jackson, Anada Werner, Misian Taylor, Sydne Conant, Alej Pérez
- Second picture, left to right: Gretchen Treu, Russell Potter, Sam Faulkner, Wes Lukes
- Not pictured: Gideon Ariel
One of the Midwest’s proudly queer-owned bookstores, A Room of One’s Own found a voice in 2021 as a staunch defender of trans rights and a vocal advocate for queer, trans, and BIPOC people everywhere. This commitment to uplifting historically unrepresented communities is present in everything they do—social media, events, custom merchandise, the books they stock and promote—and has been especially uplifting during a year of isolation and political strife.
2020
Angela and Jamie Schwesnedl, owners of Moon Palace Books
At our annual membership meeting on October 26, Danny Caine, owner of Raven Book Store, granted the Midwest Bookseller of the Year award to Angela and Jamie Schwesnedl, owners of Moon Palace Books. As Danny said, "It’s not just that I’ve never heard anyone say a critical word about Minneapolis’ Moon Palace Books; it’s that I’ve never heard anyone say anything less than absolutely effusive."
Moon Palace's dedication to their community, in good times and bad, inspired not only those in the Twin Cities but countless people across the country.
2019
Danny Caine, owner of The Raven Book Store
We celebrated the transformative role booksellers play in the world by granting the 2019 Midwest Bookseller of the Year award to an independent bookseller who had an extraordinary impact on their community, Danny Caine, owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas.
Running a successful independent bookstore involves so many moving parts, coordinating them all demands the skills of an orchestral conductor. But when a store gets it right, they find their voice and become a beacon for booksellers, publishers, authors, and readers locally and nationally. With Danny Caine as its owner, The Raven has found its voice and is using it to strengthen independent bookselling.
2018
Judith Kissner, owner of Scout & Morgan Books
The winner of the inaugural Midwest Bookseller of the Year award in 2018 was Judith Kissner, founder, owner, and bookseller at Scout & Morgan Books in Cambridge, Minnesota.
Our board reached this decision by asking our membership to nominate booksellers, then working directly with community members and industry professionals to create a detailed picture of their accomplishments. The effusive, detailed testimonials we received about Judith’s work are truly inspiring and demonstrate what it means to embody excellence as a bookseller.
"At a time when so many people are trying to comprehend the changes happening in communities of the rural Midwest, there are reasons for hope and optimism beaming through the front door of Judith's bookstore."