Letter from Board President Tegan Tigani

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

At this year’s Children’s Institute in Milwaukee (Ci2023), Daniel Nayeri opened the conference with a rousing keynote titled “A Town Without a Bookstore Is an Oversized Gas Station.” I am excited that more booksellers could hear his message at Virtual Children’s Institute, and if you missed that, it will be posted in our Education Resources on BookWeb.

In the meantime, I want to share with you some of my takeaways from his speech because he articulated beautifully things I want to focus on in my roles at Queen Anne Book Company and in my new role as ABA Board President. 

“Bookstores are the beating heart of the community, and its people are the lifeblood,” Nayeri shared. I have been returning to this page in my notebook, savoring the way it encapsulates my experiences in the book industry as well as in my neighborhood. My neighborhood bookstore grounded me when I moved across the country to Seattle. On my first day in my new city, I visited the bookstore in Queen Anne and met one of the store’s owners. I left the store not just with new books, but also a new sense of belonging. Within the week, I had been hired for a part-time position. Within a few weeks, I was hired for a full-time position with benefits at the Seattle Children’s Museum, but I didn’t want to give up the community and joy I felt as a bookseller; I figured out a schedule of Sunday–Thursday at the museum and Fridays at the bookstore. When I woke up on Fridays, I would declare, “Happy bookstore day!” 

My bookstore colleagues and bookstore customers sustain me. When I couldn’t fly home for the holidays, I had plenty of cheerful book buyers and colleagues to distract me and a store owner who invited me to her home for Christmas morning. When I was trying to figure out how to make friends in a new city, coworkers and customers invited me to dinners and dance performances and walks. Book club became a way to push myself to read differently and get to know new people from multiple generations and varied life experiences. As Nayeri went on to say, “Books have always been a panacea for loneliness.” Bookstores can be uniquely healing places.

The store owners and managers of Queen Anne Avenue Books, where I worked from 1999 until it closed in 2012, and Queen Anne Book Company, where I have worked since it opened in 2013, have prioritized what Nayeri described as the “total life and well-being of staff.” That dedication (and honestly, a lot of privilege and luck) has allowed me to enjoy over 20 years in bookselling. The trust and encouragement of store owners Cindy Mitchell, Patti McCall, Janis Segress, and Judy and Krijn de Jonge meant that over the decades, I attended regional shows, served on the PNBA Awards Committee and Indies Introduce Committee, presented on panels for PNBA and ABA, joined the PNBA Board, became the PNBA President, was on the ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Committee (BAC), joined the ABA Board, and am now the first ABA Board President who is not a store owner. My bookstore community now reaches nationally and even internationally. 

I believe that these connections have kept me in bookselling. As life changes and opportunities led to staff turnover in our store recently, I joked with Krijn and Judy that they know I’m locked in for at least two more years because I just started my new term with ABA. It is true that my involvement with ABA provides the QABC team with a sense of long-term commitment and with that, some security in a much-pivoting world. While it can be a hassle to schedule around my Board meetings and conferences, my service means that I am able to represent the store beyond our walls, our website, our offsites, and our newsletter. With my role at ABA, I can help our store by helping all of our stores — I can bring my enthusiasm and energy to a larger audience in hopes of spreading the word about all the good work we do together. 

It is my honor to serve our industry in the role of ABA President. I hope to listen to you, support you, and advocate for you the way you have done for me. I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
Tegan Tigani, ABA Board President and Children's Book Buyer/Bookseller at Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, WA