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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

2025 American Library Association Conference in Philadelphia

July 01

by Claire Kelley

Seven Stories Press attended the 2025 American Library Association Conference in Philadelphia and exhibited in the Indie Press Pavilion. Thanks to all of the librarians who visited our display, picked up advance copies, admired our Kurt Vonnegut poster for the new 20th anniversary edition of A Man Without a Country coming this fall, and attended our session on "Building Radical Collections: Advocacy, Access, and Alliances with SRRT and Indie Presses" (a Library Journal program pick) hosted by the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT). 

We gave away posters featuring the line from our 20th anniversary edition of A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, which features a new introduction by Lewis Black. Here is the quote in full, which rings as true to today as it did 20 years ago:


"I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

Walter Schlect, Germanic Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature Subject Librarian at Washington University in St. Louis Library holds up an advance copy of Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance (Sept 2025) and the letterpress broadside of the title poem created by Hard-Pressed Community Printshop in Vermont.

Woman, Life, Freedom, which was created by Marjane Satrapi and features many illustrators, won an ALA ALEX Award Ceremony where Seven Stories Press publisher Dan Simon gave a speech.

Eileen Flanagan, author of Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation (August 2025), signed books for librarians in the Indie Press Pavilion.

Organizers and presenters at the "Building Radical Collections: Advocacy, Access, and Alliances with SRRT and Indie Presses" session included Olivia Blake, coordinator of SRRT, Claire Kelley, Seven Stories Press, Al Kagan, Professor of Library Administration Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, and Derek Willmot, Acquisitions and Collection Management Librarian at the University of Toledo. 

The Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) hosted the session. Librarians and independent publishers share a deep commitment to social justice, the public good, and equitable access to information. SRRT leadership shared the round table’s mission and legacy, then invited a panel of independent publishers—including Haymarket Books, Seven Stories Press, Pluto Press, PM Press, Beacon Press, Feminist Press, and Common Notions—to introduce their press and spotlight a forthcoming title.

The session culminated in a discussion of how librarians and independent publishers can work together to advocate for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable information ecosystem as well as deep and diverse library collections. Here is a photo of the beautiful audience:

We were so glad to meet so many wonderful librarians who were interested in our books and we also saw lots of old library friends. 

Lelabari Giwa-Ojuri loves A is for Activist, and discovered Together for the first time in our booth.

Dan Simon and Kim Wylie.

Claire Kelley

Claire Kelley and Joey McGarvey.

Leo Arellano, Collection Development Librarian at Boulder Public Library District in Colorado is a Gary Indiana fan. 

Patrick Hughes of Pluto Press and Lisa Peet, editor at Library Journal.

Ameriki Somers is a school librarian who loves Cory Silverberg's books.

Thank you to Library Freedom Project and Library Futures for hosting a fun meet and greet cocktail hour at a local brewery in Phildelphia. It was a wonderful evening.

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