The Midwest Independent Booksellers Association has named CJ Arthur as the recipient of the regional booksellers’ association’s 2025 Bookseller of the Year Award. The award was presented by board president Melissa McAllister, the owner of Dragon’s Gate in Ankeny, Ia., on May 12, during MIBA’s spring gathering in Mineral Point, Wisc.
Arthur is the owner of WordHaven BookHouse, a bookstore and writing center in Sheboygan, Wisc., as well as an author, educator, public speaker, and equity consultant. They previously worked as an English teacher at Tokata Learning Center in Shakopee, Minn., and an adjunct professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, and were named the 2018-2019 Minnesota Teacher of the Year by Education Minnesota.
Sheboygan poet Emalie Kamin nominated Arthur for MIBA's Bookseller of the Year Award, stating that Arthur has “faced harassment, death threats, and picketers outside and inside the shop—especially when there are events that include drag queens—but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to support their queer community and people with identities that are historically marginalized and oppressed.”
WordHaven offers a robust slate of events and programs such as book clubs (including a banned book club), tarot clubs, author talks, workshops, retreats, classes, night markets, and writing circles. Arthur, Kamin said, “has continuously spoken up against prejudice and discrimination and in support of equity and inclusivity in a town that includes some people who don’t always appreciate their advocacy. They have made WordHaven one of the only safe spaces in Sheboygan.”
In accepting the award, Arthur called upon their fellow MIBA booksellers to continue to stand up to authoritarianism, declaring, “we are a force for equity and democracy, and it is an honor to be amongst you. I am confident that we will make John Lewis proud and continue to get in ‘good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.’ Please, lean on the characters who help you endure, because, booksellers, there is still so much work for us to do, and this country needs us.”
