News

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The Carla Gray Memorial Scholarship committee—made up of seven representatives from across the book industry—has selected a scholarship winner from a pool of exceedingly qualified applicants. The committee used an anonymous application process to ensure their final choice was selected as fairly as possible. On the applicants, Carla Gray committee members, Jenna Johnson, MaryBeth Long, and Hannah Harlow said:

“All of the applicants showed a passion for books and paid tribute to their potential impact as booksellers. Their projects were innovative and deeply engaged, focused on finding new readers and ensuring access to books that improve readers’ lives, all while integrating bookstores even more fully into their communities. It was an incredible first crop of proposals that shared Carla’s indomitable spirit. We can’t wait to see what new brilliant projects will be proposed next year!”Kelsey Nolan, scholarship winner and Skylight Books events manager, will be using the $1000 grant to create a 4-6-week intern position. On the importance of building a staff that reflects the diversity of her community Nolan said, “We at Skylight Books have discussed at length how crucial it is to hire more diversely, and I believe that outreach, combined with the ability to pay, would be a fundamental way to implement an internship program to people of color as a way to introduce bookselling as a profession.” In her two-part plan, Nolan and Skylight will first focus on outreach then hire and train a bookseller from a historically marginalized community. Through outreach and a new paid internship program at Skylight Books, she hopes to begin to address the historic lack of diversity in bookselling.

As part of the scholarship, Nolan has also been awarded up to $1,000 to cover travel and hotel for attendance to Winter Institute in January and up to $1,000 for attendance to her region’s fall tradeshow in 2019. Nolan’s proposal demonstrated she shares Carla’s enthusiasm for books and faith in the bookselling community. And these professional development opportunities will give Nolan the ability to connect face-to-face with booksellers from across the nation, publishers, and organizations like We Need Diverse Books, the ABA’s diversity task force, and Minorities in Publishing to discuss, receive feedback on, and build her internship program.

On her acceptance of the award Nolan said, “I’m so honored to be given this opportunity. I know Carla made an extraordinary impact in the bookselling world and, on behalf of Skylight Books, I am humbled by the chance to live up to her legacy over the course of the next year. I am truly grateful to the Binc Foundation for that chance.”

“The Binc Foundation is honored to commemorate Carla’s legacy with this scholarship,” says Pam French, Binc’s executive director. “It has been a privilege for Binc to participate in this inaugural year of the award, and we look forward to facilitating the award for many years to come.”