Winter Institute

TikTok cruise or a Cincinnati hotel in February?

Winter Institute (WI) is one of those inside-publishing events that carry enormous importance, but few people know about. It’s coming up in a few weeks, and I’ll be attending.

WI is put on by the American Booksellers Association (ABA), and it’s a wonderful party for independent booksellers—last year, 900 of them showed up. Publishers help fund the event by paying to underwrite keynotes, lunches, receptions, and the like. They do this so they can get their forthcoming lead titles in the hands of booksellers. And many of them have the authors of those books come to the conference as well.

I remember years ago someone mentioning “bringing an author to Winter Institute” and having no idea what that meant. It means being on this program, which includes Hanif Abdurraqib, Rumaan Alam, Laurie Halse Anderson, Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Lethem, Casey McQuiston, Claire Messud, Lydia Millet, Connie Schultz, and—heads up!—Belt’s own Zito Madu (who has the best headshot of them all).

That’s a lot…