Publishers Weekly announced the five finalists for the 2020 PW Bookstore of the Year and Sales Rep of the Year awards at Winter Institute 15 in Baltimore.

“The bookstores who reached the finals for this year’s awards represent a broad spectrum of general independent booksellers across the country that have weathered the changes that have roiled retailing in general and bookselling in particular,” said Jim Milliot, v-p, editorial director of Publishers Weekly. “I find it heartening that year after year we find so many strong contenders for the Bookstore of the Year Award.”

This year the youngest store on the shortlist recently turned 10, while one store is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Several stores have, or will soon have, multiple locations, with one growing from 750 sq. ft. when it was founded to nine locations today.

Milliot noted that all five finalists for the 2020 bookstore award, now in its 28th year, are active in their communities.

The finalists for the 22nd annual sales rep award include house reps for large publishing companies along with one for a university press that handles sales for other presses and one for a commission group.

2020 Finalists for PW Bookstore of the Year (in alpha order)

Blue Willow Bookshop (Houston, Tex.)

Copperfield’s Books (Sebastopol, Calif.)

Full Circle Bookstore (Oklahoma City, Okla.)

Porter Square Books (Cambridge, Mass.)

[words] Bookstore (Maplewood, N.J.)

2020 Finalists for PW Sales Representative of the Year (in alpha order)