Paul Constant is a co-founder of the award-winning Seattle Review of Books. He has written about books, authors, and bookstores for the L.A. Times, The Stranger, Literary Hub, i09, the Seattle Times, and many other magazines, newspapers, and websites. A comic that he co-created, Planet of the Nerds, was recently optioned by Paramount Players for a possible film adaptation, and his second full-length comic, Snelson: Comedy Is Dying, was a New York Public Library Best Adult Comic selection for 2022.

Jeffrey Cheatham is a children’s book author and owner of the Seattle Urban Book Expo, an organization that helps the BIPOC community navigate the self-publishing industry by offering writing & promotional services. Jeffrey was named as a Jack Straw Cultural Writers Cohort for the 2020 class.

Shahina is a leader in the Seattle literary and arts community focusing her time and energy on promoting South Asian culture as an expatriate. She has lived in Seattle for over 30 years and is a book reviewer for Shelf Awareness. She serves as co-chair of the National Council of Graywolf Press and is a former Board President of Hugo House, a literary center for aspiring and established writers, and Tasveer, a local social justice and arts organization. Her philanthropic work includes serving on the founding board of the Islamic Council of USA for UNHCR.

Sarah Neilson (they/she) is a freelance culture writer, interviewer, and creative based in Seattle. They are the interviews editor at The Seventh Wave. She writes about and reports on all kinds of queer art, local literary culture, the ways in which creative people work and live, and sometimes even agriculture (which was their first career). She has also worked as a social media manager for RunTriBike Magazine and blog content creator for Ember Education.

Publisher at Triangle Square Books for Young Readers and Seven Stories Press

Spencer Ruchti is the Author Events Manager at Third Place Books. Ruchti started as a bookseller in 2017, where he helped curate the author series of the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. He's worked in editorial roles at Boston Review, Camas magazine, Tin House Books, and is currently the co-editor of Du Mois Monthly, a newsletter about literature in translation, with Du Mois creator Justin Walls.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is a literary institution of the Pacific Northwest, now celebrating 25 years in business. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

Elliott batTzedek works in the intersection of bookselling worlds - as event manager for Main Point Books in Wayne, PA, as the member manager for NAIBA, as the administrator for the Professional Booksellers School, and as Dean for the PBS Event Management course.Her background includes program management in literacy nonprofits and teaching in a graduate program in Publishing. She's also a poet and liturgist.

Main Point Books turns 10 this spring, and is celebrating by doubling the size of the store, including an expanded children's space and dedicated event space. We're a mid-sized store in an affluent, mid-sized city 40 west of Philadelphia. We're in a high foot-traffic business district and have long-term, active partnerships with libraries and public and private schools. Our strongest events are book launches with area writers, from both Big 5 and Indie presses.

Rick Simonson has worked as a bookseller and buyer at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company since 1976. Rick has served on boards for the King County Arts Commission, Copper Canyon Press, the Central District Forum for Art & Ideas, and the University of Washington Press. He has participated and/or presented at book and literary festivals and conferences in the US, Canada, Mexico, China, India, the UK, Palestine, and United Arab Emirates.

Kait Heacock is a writer, publicist, book reviewer, and readings coordinator at Elliott Bay Book Company. Before joining Elliott Bay in 2022, she worked as a publicist for an array of independent and academic presses, including Feminist Press and the University of Washington Press. Outside of work, she is the West editor for the literary site Joyland, and serves as a mentor in the Portland State University book publishing mentorship program.

Located in the heart of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, The Elliott Bay Book Company offers one of the region's best selections of new books, with over 150,000 titles. In addition, Elliott Bay hosts an unparalleled schedule of author readings and partners with venues across the city to host offsite events throughout the year.