Booksellers from three mission based bookstores in conversation about their roles in their communities. With Hillary Smith (Black Walnut Books - Glens Falls, NY), Hannah Oliver Depp (Loyalty Books - Washington, DC), and Danielle King (Left Bank Books - St. Louis, MO), moderated by Lisa Swayze, Buffalo Street Books.
Hillary Smith Hillary is a lifelong book lover from a family of readers. She is Southern Pomo and Coastal Miwok and a member of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. She has worked in bookstores since 2009 and loves how books forge connections.
Hillary started Black Walnut Books on Instagram in the Spring of 2021 as a way to share book recommendations and create a community of readers that are actively focusing their reading on books that are anti-racist, inclusive and decolonizing. In May 2021 she co-founded Indigenous and Lit, a book club focusing on current Native American fiction and non-fiction. And in December 2021 Black Walnut Books officially became an Native and queer owned bookstore that sold books online and at pop-up events. In March of 2023 Black Walnut Books celebrated it’s grand opening at a brick and mortar location in the historical Shirt Factory in Glens Falls, New York. In March of 2024 Little Black Walnut Books, a children's bookstore, opened just down the hallway from the flagship store. Hillary is the secretary of both the Lower Adirondack Pride and New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's board of directors. She also sits on the American Booksellers Association's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee in an emeritus position.
Hannah Oliver Depp
Danielle King is General Manager of Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MO). Previously, they worked at Left Bank Books as part-time bookseller, full-time Used Books buyer, & assistant manager; the bookstore saved them from graduate school, and they're ever-thankful! They can occasionally be found sneaking into the bookstore's IG reels, on a panel, or buried under the capsized pile that is their eternally growing TBR.
Lisa Swayze is the Executive Director of Ithaca's Nonprofit Independent Bookstore, Buffalo Street Books.