Rick Simonson is senior book buyer and co-directs the reading series at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company. On the boards of Copper Canyon Press and University of Washington Press, he has served as juror for the STORY Prize, the DSC South Asian Literature Prize, and the National Book Award.

Robert Sindelar is the managing partner of Third Place Books, a general interest bookstore in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle.

Pam Cady has been a bookseller for over thirty years. She is currently manager of the General Books department at the University Book Store in Seattle, Washington.

Chuck Robinson is co-owner, with his wife Dee, of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, an independent bookstore they founded in 1980. He has served on the boards and as president of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association.

Janis Segress has been in the independent book industry since 2006 as a bookseller, head buyer, and currently as manager and co-owner, along with Judy and Krijn de Jonge, of Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, Washington.