Fellow is Shane Mullen of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo
BAB aims to connect U.S. booksellers to the international book community through sponsored trips to the world’s premier book fairs. Fellowships include fair attendance, travel expenses and stipend, networking events with international book professionals, the opportunity to report on the event in Shelf Awareness, and participation on a panel of professional relevance or interest to the fellow.
We have asked Shane to share his expectations with the Saloon community of readers:
Hello from Missouri! So much of my life has been spent in the middle of the US landlocked with very little escape to the greater world except through the magic of literature. Through books, I have been able to explore the world! I am very eager to bring my book world to reality travelling to Italy. Through the words of Calvino, Starnone, Eco, and Lahiri, I feel ready to explore. St. Louis will be honoring Jhumpa Lahiri with the prestigious St. Louis Literary Award, so I am very much looking forward to an opportunity to meet her.
The importance of programs like Salone and Books Across Borders help all of our communities. I hope to learn as much as possible about the amazing things that are happening across the world of literature. Since I have attended multiple US conferences, I hope to bring knowledge that will be useful to an international community. From years of working events and celebrating authors, I want to bring back ways that my store and others can help usher in lesser known names into our market and event programming. And personally, I hope to bring back some stories that will continue to allow my world to expand.
I will be speaking on the state of banned books in the US. As a member of the queer community, I will be sharing how groups have targeted people of color and the queer community at an incredibly alarming rate and how we, as an international community, can fight back. When we are able to see ourselves in books and media, we can find new ways to celebrate ourselves and the people around us.
Seeing new and emerging trends at the fair and what is most exciting to the readers will be a fun thing to bring back to my friends and fellow readers. As a
fan of genre fiction (particularly mystery and romance), I will have a very keen eye towards emerging talent.
I am going to drink all of the coffee and am super eager to explore the food and art and experience the culture.