Congratulations to Heartland 2016 scholarship winners! The booksellers listed below will receive a $400 scholarship to defray their lodging travel expenses and help contribute to a well-attended and successful show. 

Booksellers praise the show in their scholarship applications. Kathleen Angelone from Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN, said, "the interaction with other booksellers and book professionals stokes my enthusiasm. Every year, I am reminded why I love being an independent bookstore owner. I return to Indianapolis re-excited by the world of the written word."

Thank you to the following publishers and people for generously donating to our scholarship fund. Since the founding of Heartland, we've made it our goal to maintain a generous scholarship fund to help two regions of bookseller more easily travel to the show. It's your help that makes this a reality! Thank you!

​HarperCollins, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Scholastic, Macmillan, BINC, Roy & Judi Schonfeld, and the GLIBA Karl Pohrt scholarship fund

The winners are...
​
Gillette L Kempf, An Open Book, Wadena, MN
John Christensen, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI 
Melanie Green, Bluebird Books, Hutchinson KY
April Gorski, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA
Joanna Parzakonis, Bookbug Kalamazoo, MI
Kathleen Angelone, Bookmamas  Indianapolis, IN
Chris Fairchild, Bookshelf, Batesville, IN, 
​Mary Gehring, Bookshelf, Batesville, IN
Kate Weiss, Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, KY
Nadine Melahn, CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, KY
Ethan Hill, Craft Port Washington, WI
Kate Rattenborg, Dragonfly Books, Decorah IA
Leslie Huerta, Francie & Finch Bookshop, Lincoln, NE
Shirley Mullin, Kids Ink Indianapolis, IN
Tamzin Malone, Main Street Books, Lafayette, IN
Joanne Berg, Mystery to Me - Madison, WI
Kathy Magruder, Pageturners Bookstore, Indianola, IA
Shelley Olsen, Paperbacks and Pieces, Winona, MN
Jill Miner, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI
Dana Schulz, Snowbound Books Marquette, MI
Beverly Bartczak, The Fine Print, OH
Connie Reece, The Windowsill, Ludington, MI
Nathan Montoya, Village Lights Bookstore, IN
Sean FitzGerald, Village Lights Bookstore, Madison, IN
Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL

If you have questions about our scholarship program, please contact Deb Leonard at deb@gliba.org.

The Boards of Directors of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association take great pleasure in announcing that the Wendell Berry is the recipient of the 2016 Voice of the Heartland Award.

This award is given in recognition of a life of dedication and service to independent bookselling, and there are few writers in our region who fully embody this dedication more than Wendell Berry.  His body of work encompasses more than 50 volumes of essays, poems, and fiction, all with an eye to celebrating the local and the Independent--two values that are very dear to the hearts of our members, and central to our mission as independent booksellers.

His writing is inspired by the landscape of the Heartland, both the natural world and the people who live there. As a promoter of Localism long before the term existed, Mr. Berry has championed the both the spirit of independent bookselling and publishing.

Mr. Berry’s national honors include the National Humanities Medal, a Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at the Kennedy Center, a Stegner Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and in 2013 The Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, among many, many others.

​The Voice of the Heartland Award will be presented to Mr. Berry at the Book Awards Dinner at the Heartland Fall Forum on Wednesday, October 5 at 7:00 pm at The Depot in Minneapolis, MN.