Help save Wordsmiths Books
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Wordsmiths Books could be shutting its doors soon.
The Decatur bookstore responsible for scores of literary workshops, quirky local music showcases and inventive author events can’t pay the bills. Debt left over from its former location on W. Trinity Place (it’s now located around the corner in the old Sun Trust building on N. McDonough Street) and an unprofitable recent event have left owner Zachary Steele in the red.
From a blog by Steele:
The reality of Wordsmiths is that, though it began with a great push, it did so in the wrong location. That location drained its resources and left a lagging parachute of debt … to compound our difficulties, we handled the sales for a large scale event recently that did not return the investment that we were required to pay up front. Such is the way, I could say, but the timing was incredibly poor.
For the next couple of weeks, Wordsmiths will be collecting donations to help pay off the debt and keep the store open. The fundraising push culminates Aug. 15-17 with the Saving Bookstores is AWESOME!!! Night of AWESOME!!!! in conjunction with PASTE magazine and BabyGotBooks.com. The event features local fave Jack Pendarvis and his new robot-love novel Awesome, a performance from Atlanta indie outfit the Sealions, and a silent robot art auction. E-mail Wordsmith’s director of marketing Russ Marshalek (russ@wordsmithsbooks.com) about creating and donating a robot for the auction.
The shop’s also accepting donations of all sizes at its website or mailed to 545 N. McDonough St., Decatur, GA 30030. It wouldn’t hurt to visit the store and buy some books either.
The Fulton County High School summer reading list is 18 pages long (already about 15 more pages than the average Atlanta-area high-schooler cares to make time for, I reckon), and if you’re looking for a great young adult novel, or you haven’t read Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees* yet, 