A driving force behind the growth and depth of Minnesota’s literary community for more than three decades, the advocate, organizer, and activist will be honored Saturday, April 16, at the 28th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony.
January 22, 2016, SAINT PAUL, MN – The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and the Minnesota Book Awards are pleased to announce Jim Sitter, advocate for literary nonprofit organizations and Founding Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, as the winner of the 2016 Kay Sexton Award. Sponsored by St. Catherine University’s Master of Library and Information Science Program, the award is presented annually to an individual or organization in recognition of long-standing dedication and outstanding work in fostering books, reading, and literary activity in Minnesota.
For more than thirty years, Jim Sitter has been one of the most prolific and effective arts leaders in the state. He embodies the spirit of the Kay Sexton Award with an extraordinary array of accomplishments, helping to make the literary and book arts community in Minnesota what it is today. As David Unowksy, founder of Hungry Mind Bookstore and fellow Kay Sexton Award recipient says, “Jim’s work has benefitted every aspect of our literary culture: writers, publishers, booksellers and other non-profits.”
After attending Macalester College and working at the Hungry Mind Bookstore (where he initiated the Hungry Mind Reading Series), Sitter acquired Truck Distribution in 1979 and renamed it Bookslinger. He refocused the company and turned it into a national distribution service aimed at providing more visibility to books from independent literary presses, thereby beginning the process of fostering a national audience and appreciation for Minnesota’s great presses.
During this time, Sitter developed an appreciation for the craft of bookmaking and conceived a vision for creating the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA). He assembled a board of highly influential arts and civic leaders, including former Governor Elmer L. Andersen, and served as the founding executive director of MCBA until 1989. Early in his tenure, Sitter invited Allan Kornblum – then head of Toothpaste Press – to move to Minnesota and become the organization’s first press-in-residence. In addition to motivating Kornblum’s move and the creation of Coffee House Press, Sitter played a crucial role in the press’ development as a nonprofit organization and influenced the decision to begin publishing full-length trade editions. He was also responsible for persuading Scott Walker, founder and Executive Director of Graywolf Press, to relocate from Washington State, further cementing his integral role in the creation of what has become a vital literary community.
Sitter’s expertise led him to New York, where he became the executive director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), expanding the funding opportunities for small presses across the country. He advocated for support from national foundations, raising $9 million dollars in grants to nonprofit literary presses – of which Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, and Milkweed Press were three major beneficiaries.
He also helped to form LitNet, a coalition of nonprofit literary organizations from throughout the United States that supports freedom of expression and promotes funding for the literary arts. As its chief lobbyist, Sitter was instrumental in saving the National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for writers and helping to ensure that agency’s survival in the 1990s. Longtime friends, Page and Jay Cowles call Sitter “a natural entrepreneur, committed to the highest standards of literary publishing as well as the book arts.” They laud his leadership, his knowledge of the field, and his deep empathy for the artists and supporters with whom he has worked, adding, “It generated confidence and sophistication in the literary and book arts fields.”
Sitter will be honored on Saturday, April 16, at the 28th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony at Saint Paul’s Union Depot. Awards will also be presented in eight book categories, as well as the annual Book Artist Award and the biennial Hognander Minnesota History Award. Tickets go on sale in February.
For more information on the Minnesota Book Awards, visit www.mnbookawards.org, or call 651-222-3242.
About the Minnesota Book Awards:
The Minnesota Book Awards is a project of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, with the Saint Paul Public Library and City of Saint Paul. The program was created in 1988 by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and other organizations as a part of the Festival of the Book. Awards are presented each year to books in eight categories by Minnesota writers or illustrators, as well as the Kay Sexton Award, Book Artist Award, and the biennial Hognander Minnesota History Award. Through its work with the Book Awards, The Friends was designated the Minnesota Center for the Book, a state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. To find out more about the Minnesota Book Awards and the Center for the Book, please visit www.thefriends.org/mnbookawards.
Contact:
Bailey Veesenmeyer, Program Coordinator
The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
651-366-6497
[email protected]