Just as booksellers in Washington, D.C. and Chicago faced hardship when the Trump administration sent National Guard members and federal agents to their cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul’s indie booksellers say they have been negatively impacted by the deployment of ICE agents that began in December and accelerated after the holidays.

While most of the dozen booksellers that PW spoke to this past week report that the financial impact has been minimal, as sales typically slow down in January, every bookseller stressed the emotional toll the experience has taken on them and their customers, especially following the murder of poet Renee Good by an ICE agent on a residential street in Minneapolis on January 7.

All of the booksellers PW spoke to emphasized their commitment to serving as a community hub, where information about one’s Constitutional rights and resources for non-citizens are readily available. Every bookstore is currently handing out free whistles; some are also giving away anti-ICE posters and signs and participating in patrolling and protesting.

Inkwell Booksellers, located in a large industrial space across the Mississippi River from downtown, has established itself as a place for activists to drop off and pick up deliveries. “We have the space,” owner Elizabeth Foster told PW.

A few Minneapolis booksellers requested anonymity: one bookseller expressed concerns for the store’s “more vulnerable customers,” saying that ICE is harassing and detaining Indigenous people, as well as children.

“One of the concerns that we have about talking,” an employee at one bookstore in the vicinity of Good’s murder said, “is we don’t want the stuff that we are doing to make our store and our staff a target.” Like every bookstore PW reached out to, this bookstore is maintaining regular hours and an unlocked door, with signage stating that all are welcome to enter except for ICE agents.

Full Post @ Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/99471-twin-cities-bookstores-contend-with-ice.html