BookPeople’s Steve Bercu to retire

AUSTIN —Steve Bercu, who has been CEO of Austin’s independent bookstore BookPeople for almost 20 years, plans to retire from full-time bookselling this coming June.

As part of the transition, Elizabeth Jordan has been named general manager of BookPeople. She has worked at the store since 2002 as a bookseller, manager, adult book buyer and inventory operations supervisor. In her new position, she will oversee day-to-day operations of the store, with an emphasis on improving communication among departments, creating efficiencies and increasing sales.

Consuelo Wilder, a former sales floor manager at the store, has been named the adult book buyer and inventory operations supervisor. In her new role, Wilder will curate the selection of frontlist and backlist adult books and manage a staff of assistant buyers, inventory managers and the shipping and receiving departments.

During his time at BookPeople, Bercu built the store into a national literary destination and was a driving force behind the buy local movement–which in some ways started with Keep Austin Weird. He was also president of the American Booksellers Association, and during his presidency, he focused on expanding rapid replenishment programs, simplifying coop, extended terms for publisher payments and moving special sales to local independent bookstores.

(Compiled from media reports)

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Katherine Ann Porter House celebrates twenty years as a literary landmark

KYLE — March 9 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Katherine Ann Porter House’s purchase by Preservation Associates on March 9, 1998. The KAP House was the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Katherine Anne Porter, author of the besetselling Ship of Fools.

A national literary landmark, the house — which received a new roof last year — is part of the KAP Literary Center, which hosts the Visiting Writer Series of Texas State University’s MFA Creative Writing program.

Right: Jeremy Garrett, current writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House, looks over the delicious dinner (featuring beef tenderloin and macaroni & white cheese) he prepared Friday evening for the KAP House Committee.

(From media reports; images from Instagram)

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