Fall and Winter is Southern Book Prize Season! Nominations for the 2026 Southern Book Prize close on October 1st. Nominate here.

Nominations must come from a SIBA member bookseller. Nominated books must have been published within the 2025 calendar year and be Southern in nature; either by a Southern author or about the South, preferably both. See the 2025 Southern Book Prize winners at The Southern Bookseller Review

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Royal Liars by Lindsey Duga. I’m near the end and still lost, having not read the previous book, but sticking with it. Looking forward to reading Susan Coll’s The Literati next.
Listening: I am really (as usual) enjoying quiet. The background noise of the occasional car driving slowly past, the chatter of children, or someone calling out, “Watch out for that huge mama bear and her cubs!” add interesting distraction.
Watching: Now that new episodes of The Great British Baking Show are on every Friday, I can count on once-a-week thrilling television viewing. I’m also heading almost nightly to Nova Scotia to catch the very soapy but heart-filled Sullivan’s Crossing.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor for book club. And the new issue of Slightly Foxed Quarterly arrived this week, always a pleasure. It is a journal devoted to people writing about the books than made an impact on them. If I ever wrote anything for them, it would take up a whole issue, because books make an impact on me all the time.
Listening: Arundhati Roy's Mother Mary Comes to Me, plus I'm also catching up on my Between the Covers podcast, an island of sanity in an insane world.
Watching: SP and I did The Parallax View (1974) for movie night. It was highly unsettling -- one of those movies that makes you doubt everything and everyone. I was also weirded out that I found all the silent psychopath guys more interesting characters than Warren Beatty.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I am starting Elizabeth Mavor's A Green Equinox for book club tonight, and very much looking forward to it.
Listening: This week's song is "What I Like About You" by the Romantics, in honor of whatever song made nineteen-year-old you dance 'til your head fell off.
Watching: So many British murder shows. The grittier, the gloomier, the colder the rain, and the warmer the beer, the happier I am.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: The Body by Bethany C. Morrow. It's definitely scratching my current horror itch.
Listening: Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone. Funny, mystery, and reality TV - all of my favorite things
Watching: The temperatures dropping on a really lovely autumnal day in Richmond!

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Royal Liars by Lindsey Duga. I’m a bit lost, having not read the first book in this series, but I’m carrying on with hope. Just finished re-reading Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell, which I loved, and about to start Autumn by Ali Smith, both for my book club.
Listening: To beautiful instrumental music and the quiet hum of my aromatherapy diffuser.
Watching: We’re moving between Nova Scotia (Sullivan’s Crossing, what a soap!), Texas (Young Sheldon, so good!), and England (Great British Bake Off, the best show ever!).We visited England again with The Thursday Murder Club movie, which had some wonderful poignant moments about growing older.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: My first shipment of books just arrived at my new home! AND, I finished unpacking the two boxes of books I had labelled "currently reading" because they had been stacked all around my couch and beside my bed. Despite diligently reading ebooks, I feel much more like myself with books on my bookshelves. Currently reading A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor for book club. Mom has been reading The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides and talking about it constantly over dinner, so I also feel like I have been reading that.
Listening: I have Arundhati Roy's Mother Mary Comes to Me on audio for listening to during housework.
Watching: The Yankees games never end. Last week I did watch Damn Yankees with SP, which was wonderful for Gwen Verdon and the choreography. Also oddly intense for a musical. And the folks, when they are not watching baseball, are somewhat addicted to British crime television shows, so we are in the middle of season six of Unforgotten, the cold case crime series. It originally starred Nicola Walker (who will always be "Ruth" from MI-5 to me) but the new season features Sinéad Keenan, who was one of my favorite actors in Being Human.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: Not much reading this week, as I (literally) picked an unfinished craft project back up. Obviously, that hasn't stopped me from adding more books to my wishlist, like Christiane Ritter's A Woman in the Polar Night, a reprint of her 1934 book and Anna Schectman's The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, which had me at "A surprising and ambitious investigation of language and the varied ways women resist the paradoxes of patriarchy both on and off the page."
Listening: I cannot resist a good scammer podcast, and Unicorn Girl is most definitely a good scammer podcast. I can't narrow down a song of the week, but the album of the week is Euro-Country, from the Irish (but don't expect any tin whistles, pipes, or jigs) singer CMAT, aka Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson. If I had to choose one song, it would probably be "The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station."
Watching: Recent watches/rewatches have included Damn Yankees (Team Gwen Verdon for life), The Pajama Game (ditto for Team Carol Haney), Nashville, Grosse Pointe Blank, Velvet Goldmine, and Desert Hearts.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am currently eyeballing my TBR trying to decide what's next! I am really ready for spooky season reading though.
Listening: When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole. It's a perennial favorite of mine and it suited the vibes for my road trip last weekend.
Watching: Bring on the scary movies, it's Fall!

SIBA's new logo on display at NVNR 2025. Photo credit SP Rankin

With the launch of SIBA's new logo and branding at this year's New Voices New Rooms conference in Atlanta last month SIBA has completed the first phase of its 50th Anniversary "A Bright Future" campaign. As we move into September, SIBA enters phase two: upgrading and refining SIBA's member database to better serve all its member bookstores, including those that operate beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar model.

Updating the member database will not affect the status any current members of SIBA, nor any dues or invoice payment schedules. However, members may see some small changes to address and email fields as SIBA prepares its member database for its upgrade to a new platform.

All SIBA members, including all booksellers, publishers, and authors, are encouraged to log in to their account before the end of September to confirm the information SIBA has is accurate.

If you need help logging in, or have questions about what SIBA's database upgrade means for you, contact Nicki Leone at nicki@sibaweb.com.

October 30, 1:00 p.m. Eastern, on Zoom (register)

The SIBA Board of Directors invites all members to attend the 2025 SIBA Annual Meeting and Town Hall. The meeting will include a report on the State of SIBA and the Board will report on the work being done on behalf of the membership. There will also be time for questions from attendees. The event will be recorded.

What to look forward to:

• Update on SIBA's transition to a new website and upgraded member database and how it will affect members
• Responses to NVNR 2025 Conference
• Upcoming Spring 2026 programming
• Update on the Southern Book Prize

See the State of SIBA as reported at the SIBA Town Hall Meeting at NVNR 2025 in August

October 2, 1:00 PM Eastern on Zoom (register)

This October the SIBA Staff will take booksellers on a fun tour of their member benefits and and the SIBA website. Learn what benefits SIBA offers members, and how to use the site to get the information, including marketing and education materials, to improve their business bottom line.

Areas covered on the tour:

• Education opportunities, financial assistance, and scholarships
• Networking opportunities with bookstore, publisher, and book industry colleagues
• Consumer outreach and marketing programs to increase sales
• Online DIY resources for bookstores
• Upcoming events

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia. Hariri-Kia was at NVNR’s fabulous Sip & Sizzle reception. I fell in love with dual storylines that blend into each other and center strong women and, well, hunky mermen. Re-reading Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance for my book club.
Listening: In my post-con reset of my nervous system, I’m enjoying as much silence as I can get, with the occasional gentle music or guided meditation.
Watching: Young Sheldon, which I LOVE, the newest season of Madame Blanc, and the last fireflies of the season sparkling across our front yard after dark.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: I ended up listening to Xenobe Purvis's The Hounding on my drive to New York. Now, I have the book because I have to read it.
Listening: Aside from the road trip audiobooks, the various snarky comments from the GPS system in the car telling me I needed to get into the other lane to get to the upcoming exist. I swear once it suggested I stop for some rest and a cup of coffee. I blame AI.
Watching: Mom and dad are Yankees fans and suscribe to the all-Yankees cable channel. I'm not watching the games, exactly, but they are part of the ambiance.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: The Hounding, by Xenobe Purvis, about a family of five unusual sisters in an 18th century English village. Utterly original and beautifully written, it makes me think of everything from Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre to Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes to Midsomer Murders.
Listening: I know my internal order has been restored when my days and evenings are full of music again (also when I've finally finished all my laundry from NVNR, but that lacks poetry). This week's song is Shelby Lynne's "Dreamsome" from her 2000 album I Am Shelby Lynne. It's one of those songs that is one of those songs, if you know what I mean.
Watching: Drive-Away Dolls (2024), a picaresque lesbian roadtrip movie set in 1999, just before ubiquitous cellphones made picaresque lesbian roadtrip movies obsolete, and directed by just the one Coen brother. I laughed, which is my favorite thing to do. And "Won't someone save Curlie?" has now become what I say when I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am about to get into my panel prep for NVNR! I am lucky enough to be moderating the horror panel - Kalynn Bayron, Ryan La Sala, D Elizabeth, and Adam Godfrey - so that's what I'll be reading for a while.
Listening: I finished The Long Walk by Stephen King most recently. I's my favorite of his stories and there's about to be a movie so I wanted to refresh my memory of it.
Watching: A fin little show called Upper Middle Bogan on Netflix. I love an Aussie accent.

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director :
Reading: The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang. What a bittersweet feeling this novel evokes, about coming to terms with a life that isn’t what you’d hoped for, but one you learn to accept and even treasure for what it is.
Listening: To restful music on my Calm station, to birdsong, and the sounds of lawn maintenance equipment. And sometimes, to the early hour booms and crashes when bears raid the neighbor’s garbage cans.
Watching: Young Sheldon, Madame Blanc, and my husband laying down cards in a competitive game of double solitaire.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: My "reading" this week belongs under "listening," because I'm picking out the books I want to listen to during a very long car trip...
Listening: ...and had settled on the audio versions of Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy books. But then, I read what booksellers had to say about The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis, and moved that to the top of the queue.
Watching: The road!

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: After NVNR, so many books have been added to my "can't wait to get my hands on" list, but right now I'm reading It Came From the Clost: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese, which came home with me from Charis Books & More during Bookstore Bus Tour #3. 
Listening: After a busy week in Atlanta, the quiet hum of my house and rain on the roof. 
Watching: One of my top five comfort movies, Dazed and Confused (1993): the most acutely accurate portrayal of high school in the 1970s in all of movies. I even had the same haircut and the same Adidas t-shirt as Mitch Kramer, though my role model is (obviously) Parker Posey as Darla.

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am about to get into my panel prep for NVNR! I am lucky enough to be moderating the horror panel - Kalynn Bayron, Ryan La Sala, D Elizabeth, and Adam Godfrey - so that's what I'll be reading for a while.
Listening: I finished The Long Walk by Stephen King most recently. I's my favorite of his stories and there's about to be a movie so I wanted to refresh my memory of it.
Watching: A fin little show called Upper Middle Bogan on Netflix. I love an Aussie accent.

(Asheville, NC) The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) today unveiled the new logo for the organization. The new design – the first in twenty years – is the first step in an extensive update and rebranding project announced earlier this summer as part of the organization's 50th anniversary campaign, "A Bright Future." 

The book industry has evolved and SIBA has evolved with it, said SIBA Executive Director Linda-Marie Barrett, "We want our new brand to reflect the forward-thinking and innovative nature of our diverse Southern bookselling community." 

Since its establishment in 1975 (then known as the Southeast Booksellers Association), the organization has only changed its brand one other time, when in 2005 it began doing business as the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and dropped the original rural-focused design for a more modern look. 

At the start of 2025, SIBA began working with the design firm Matchbook Marketing to create a new logo that was brighter and more dynamic, better representing the organization and its membership as it exists today. SIBA consulted with its membership and stakeholders during the six-month-long process, both of whom were instrumental in determining the final design. Four colors instead of two, with the static book replaced by an open book and a rising sun, the new logo invites its booksellers into a community that excels in overcoming challenges.

Beginning July 31, the organization will start updating the logo wherever it appears online. Booksellers attending SIBA's annual fall conference at New Voices New Rooms will have a chance to see the new logo "in the wild" on conference materials and signage, and be able to take home a celebratory 50th anniversary coffee mug.

“We are excited about the new look,” said Barrett, “and we’re looking forward to having our rebranding fully integrated by the end of the year.

SIBA members can follow the progress of the organization's rebranding and website upgrade on the SIBA website.

Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Finished The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley. It was a lot of fun, with clever, beautiful language, and I look forward to the sequel. Just started The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang, a SIBA Read This Next selection for July, and looking forward to where it takes me!
Listening: Now is the season of endless lawn care, so it’s hard to avoid the sound of loud machinery, but when that’s not happening, it’s mostly quiet except for birdsong or afternoon rainstorms.
Watching: Young Sheldon continues to entertain. I’m not sure if it’s alarming or comforting to discover the many ways I relate to Sheldon’s POV, but I sure do love his quirky, loving family and the sensitive way the show’s writers take on hard subjects.

Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Almost nothing. NVNR keeps me too busy.
Listening: Also almost nothing except sporadic podcast episodes.
Watching: Right now, a deer that has found her way into the abandoned garden, eating her way through the pole bean plants and amaranth that I won't be harvesting as I will be gone by the time they are ready to be picked.

SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I practice ethical non-monogamy, with books at any rate, and I have a number of them in various stages of being read. We're all very happy with the arrangement. I'm currently in the middle of Andrew Sean Greer's Less Is Lost, the sequel to his 2018 Pulitzer-winning novel Less. It follows his constantly bemused and entirely lovable protagonist, Arthur Less, on a quest through the middle of America and is hilarious, tender, light but deep, and brilliantly written.
Listening: Two songs of the week, both fresh as paint! "Amazing" by Yola and "A Little More Too" by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
Watching: Still watching Midsomer Murders while I eat lunch or make the bed. I discovered a six-degrees-of separation connection to one of the guest stars, which was exciting, and as usual I alert Nicki if Harriet Walter is ever in the cast!

Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I am about to get into my panel prep for NVNR! I am lucky enough to be moderating the horror panel - Kalynn Bayron, Ryan La Sala, D Elizabeth, and Adam Godfrey - so that's what I'll be reading for a while.
Listening: I finished The Long Walk by Stephen King most recently. It's my favorite of his stories and there's about to be a movie so I wanted to refresh my memory of it.
Watching: A fun little show called Upper Middle Bogan on Netflix. I love an Aussie accent.