Here’s a quick press release from Sisters in Crime — good things going on on Saturday, April 21, across the nation!
Sisters in Crime (SinC), an international organization founded to support the professional development of women writing crime fiction, is holding a “Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day” event on Saturday, April 21, to thank librarians and booksellers for 25 years of support of the mystery genre.
“In honor of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, we are very pleased to be able to thank some of the people who work the hardest on the front lines of publishing by rolling up our sleeves and working beside them,” said Frankie Y. Bailey, President of Sisters in Crime.
The April 21 celebration launches a pilot program that will bring a select group of Sisters in Crime member authors into bookstores and libraries in hometowns from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they will work as volunteers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (local time) on that day. The authors will work in the stacks, on the sales floor, and behind the scenes to do whatever a manager asks of staff members—shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, and more.
“We know that, in their efforts to help readers find the right books at the right time, booksellers and librarians solve countless mysteries every day,” SinC board member Jim Huang, the coordinator of the event and a former independent bookstore owner, said. “This is our opportunity to thank them in a tangible way—and to find out what the publishing world is like from their perspective.”
The participating authors, bookstores, and libraries include:
- Frankie Y. Bailey, at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, NY
- Gail M. Baugniet, at the Maikiki Community Library in Honolulu, HI
- Charlotte Cohen, at the Santa Ana Public Library in Santa Ana, CA
- Kathy Lynn Emerson, at the Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, ME
- Barbara Fister, at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN
- Susan Froetschel, at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC
- W.S. Gager at the Jackson District Library in Jackson, MI
- Kathleen Heady at the Haverford Township Free Library in Havertown, PA
- Lee Kelly at Barnes & Noble in Marietta, GA
- Molly MacRae at the Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign, IL
- Robin Murphy at the Sharpsburg Library in Sharpsburg, MD
- Chelle Martin, at the Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library in South Amboy, NJ
- Denise Osborne, at the Mid-Continent Public Library, Raytown branch, in Raytown, MO
- Bernadette Pajer, at the Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, WA
- Karen Pullen, at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC
- C. L. (Cheryl) Shore, at Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN
- Mary Stanton/Claudia Bishop, at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, FL
- Lane Stone, at the Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria, VA
- Susan Van Kirk, at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, IL
- Kathryn R. Wall, at the Beaufort County Library, Hilton Head branch, in Hilton Head Island, SC
- Tina Whittle, at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA
In addition to the in-store and in-library volunteer project, SinC’s more than 3,000 members are gearing up to support the “Solving Mysteries Day” event by going into libraries and bookstores on April 21 to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks.
“The plan is to show booksellers and librarians how much we really care about the work they do. We couldn’t do our work without them,” Bailey said.
Sisters in Crime is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year. The organization was established with an organizational meeting held in New York City in the spring of 1987. Today, SinC is made up of more than 3,000 members and 48 chapters worldwide—authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, and others who love mysteries. Sisters in Crime is online at www.sistersincrime.org.