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Macarthur "Genius" Kelly Link and her husband Gavin Grant are the forces-of-nature behind the amazing Small Beer Press (
Now, the pair have announced that they are to buy a bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts, acquiring from its current owner, and reopening it this month as .
The pair have lots of bookselling experience, having met while working at Boston's Victor Hugo Books, and Link previously worked at B Dolphin's, a children's bookstore in North Carolina.
Link used some of her Macarthur money to acquire the store, which is a brilliant use of those funds.
Owning a bookstore of their own, Link said, is something they've been considering for a while. "Years ago, in Northampton, we made an offer on a used bookstore," she said. "We actually thought it was unlikely that we would be able to afford to start or take over a bookstore. But last year I got a MacArthur Grant, and when we were talking about different things we could do with some of that money, White Square Books came up for sale."
"We read about the bookstore for sale in the local paper," Grant added, "and we kept thinking, surely someone will buy that, what an opportunity! And then we realized, actually, it's us who want that opportunity."
Book Moon, Link said, will be a family endeavor. "My mother and I worked together at the children's bookstore in North Carolina, and she will also be working at this bookstore," she said, "and we have a 10-year-old who is also very excited about hand-selling and helping to pick books."
[Emily Behnke/Bookweb]