Panel: The Value of a Literary Prize

Mitchell Kaplan is a co-founder of Miami Book Fair and serves as the Chairperson of its Board of Directors. He also serves on the steering committee of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, Miami-Dade College’s literary center. A Miami Beach native, Mitchell founded the independent bookstore Books & Books in 1982. It has since expanded to several locations. Mitchell recently served a two-year term as President of the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and continues an active involvement with the organization. He also serves on the Board of ABFFE, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

Valerie Merians is a poet and former sculptor and the co-founder, with her husband Dennis Johnson, of Melville House, an independent publishing company. They started the company to publish Poetry After 9/11, a book of material culled from pieces sent by writers and poets to the MobyLives blog in response to the attacks.

Dennis Johnson is a fiction writer and journalist and credited with creating one of the world’s very first book blogs, MobyLives. In fact, Melville House, the independent publishing company he co-founded with his wife, Valerie Merians, was started to publish Poetry After 9/11, a book of material culled from pieces sent by writers and poets to the blog in response to the attacks.

Clydette de Groot holds a doctorate in psychology and has done post-doctoral work in organizational development. She spent much of her career as director of behavioral sciences in family medicine residency training programs affiliated with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In addition to serving on a number of non-profit boards, she had an international corporate consulting business. Clydette and Charles currently co-chair of The de Groot Foundation focuses on innovation, education and culture, with particular interest in the visual and literary arts. In 2016, the Foundation partnered with the Miami Book Fair to launch the Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize which is awarded to an author for an unpublished novella.

Charles de Groot, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, worked in finance until founding a real estate company, which he listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He has served on the boards of directors of several for-profit and nonprofit organizations and lectured at international business schools. Charles and Clydette currently co-chair of The de Groot Foundation, which focuses on innovation, education and culture, with particular interest in the visual and literary arts. In 2016, the Foundation partnered with the Miami Book Fair to launch the Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize which is awarded to an author for an unpublished novella.