Happy New Year to all from the board of directors of the New York Book Forum! We had our first annual members meeting on January 11, 2022, followed by a board meeting where officers were elected for the upcoming year. Results are as follows:

  • Janet McCarthy Grimm, President
  • Martha Hanson, Vice President
  • Richard Bretan, Secretary
  • Mel Cowher, Treasurer
  • Michael Kwan, Asst. Treasurer

Meanwhile, as Omicron continues its march, we will host additional virtual programs. Everyone is welcome to attend these events free of charge. On Tuesday, February 22, we will be holding a panel discussion exploring how streaming services impact book reprints. Watch for our flyer announcing the event. If you want to be certain to see the flyer, just go to our website in advance and add your name to our mailing list. The program committee is hard at work planning other meetings for the upcoming year and we welcome your ideas! You can share those with us at info@newyorkbookforum.org. We hope you do!

Just in case you missed any of the programs from last year, those events are archived on our website. You can listen to Ann Friedman describe the incredible new museum she has opened in Washington, DC: Planet Word. Naomi Baron, professor at American University, talks about the value of print as compared to digital materials in the educational process. In another session, Dr. Camea Davis discusses the National Youth Poet Laureate program and introduces two new voices in American poetry, Meera Dasgupta and Serena Yang, who share some of their work with us. Our inaugural program features Kyle Zimmer, CEO of the amazing organization First Book, and she describes the extraordinary breadth of services they offer to the underserved communities in the education space. These programs are available to you at your convenience simply by going to newyorkbookforum.org.

There is also an interview write-up on our website with Jay Diskey about the educational publishing space. He addresses a variety of topics in the piece, including the impact of the pandemic on the learning divide between socio-economic classes. Have a look at that too! One of the primary objectives of the New York Book Forum is to celebrate reading! So I will end with a favorite quote of mine from Barbara Tuchman, American historian and two-time Pulitzer prize winner.

“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.”

–Barbara Tuchman

Especially during these challenging times, as we muddle through our days making books, buying books and reading books, we need to remember how incredibly valuable they are on so very many levels!

Again, best wishes for a productive and healthy 2022!

Janet McCarthy Grimm
President
New York Book Forum, Inc.