Bookshop co-owner Terry McCoy with poet Anne Waldman - photo: Lauren at www.maepoe.blogspot.com

WHO WE ARE:

St. Mark's Bookshop, a beloved independent bookstore doing business for 37 years in New York's historic East Village, seeks funding so it can carry on its mission in a new location.

St. Mark's has been regularly lauded as one of New York City's top bookstores. Over the years we've developed nurturing relationships with noted authors such as Patti Smith, Sean Wilentz, Junot Diaz, Anne Carson, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and many others. Through weekly events our bookstore has offered ample opportunity for writers to promote their work while offering readers the chance to interact with authors they are just discovering and those they already adore.

We've also been an important community space. As you know, independent bookstores are vanishing all over the country. But establishments such as ours still serve as vital neighborhood centers that foster cultural exploration and intellectual growth as well as lively conversation and debate. Can you help us continue serving our community?

WHERE THE FUNDS WILL GO:

With your help we can make the move and remain in business for years to come. In our new home we'll be looking at alternative business models that will allow us to flourish in the face of the complex factors forcing so many independent bookstores out of business.

Your donation will help us to:

• Remodel the new location and transform it into a contemporary bookshop and events space.
• Cover the costs of moving our current inventory and equipment to the new shop.
• Strengthen our inventory with a fresh injection of the quality books and periodicals for which we're known. 

With your help, we'll have the new St. Mark's Bookshop up and running in June. We just have a little more to go!

Interior at 31 Third Ave

A LITTLE HISTORY:

For 15 years we thrived on St. Mark's Place, the East Village street from which we take our name. In the early 90's we were offered an opportunity too good to pass up: a move around the corner that came with a 15 year lease, a manageable rent, and an affiliation with neighborhood art and engineering college Cooper Union. We loved our new locale so much that we decided to renew our lease when it expired in 2007. Over the last several years a number of factors--the proliferation of e-books, a sluggish economy, the changing nature of the neighborhood--have made staying in business difficult.

But last year came another opportunity: the chance to lease a city-owned property at an affordable rent, only a few blocks away from our current location--136 East 3rd St off Avenue A--where we can continue serving our community as we've been doing for almost 40 years.

WHERE WE ARE NOW:

We are close to signing the lease and we're raising the funds we need, thanks to over 400 people like you who have already contributed. A little more will help us reach our goal.

Exterior of the store's prospective location

PERKS:

Please check out our generous perks to the right. Most of them offer gift certificates at cash value. Signed first editions personalized by the authors are thank-you gifts to our more generous campaign supporters.

IN CONCLUSION:

The right book is a tool for entertainment, intellectual inspiration, and personal transformation--and the physical bookshop remains, even in this digital age, the best, serendipitous place to discover that book, elbow-to-elbow with other voracious readers and writers. We want to be that place for many years to come--your contribution will help make it happen.