Sure, New York’s filled with writers and wannabe writers, but with all the noise, nightlife and other distractions (not to mention, that pesky rent thing) aren’t exactly conducive to penning the next Tender Is The Night. That’s one of the reasons why writers’ retreats like Bread Loaf in Vermont and Mesa Refuge in California are so popular: they give budding Virginia Woolfs and Truman Capotes the chance to isolate themselves from the rest of the world and work on their Great American Novels with other writers around to inspire them and egg them on. With that in mind, Cobble Hill bookstore mecca BookCourt‘s trying to get their own writers’ lair in the Catskills off the ground, and they’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to help drum up the funds for it.
Apparently, the property that holds Catskills’ rare and used bookstore standby Bibliobarn is now up for sale, and BookCourt hopes to snag the space and turn it into a bookshop, event space, and writers’ retreat in the near future. The project’s tentatively titled BookCourt North, and according to the Indiegogo page, BookCourt’s owners need at least $300,000 to get it off the ground. They’re offering some pretty cool rewards for contributors, like cute postcards for $35 donations, a travel notes book through Brooklyn by James Agee for $175 donations, and if you’re really rolling in it (or are just dying to see this project become a reality) a Brooklyn basket filled with Kings County-themed signed edition books for $855. For upwards of a thousand bucks, you can also snag events at BookCourt and your own Writer’s Shed for $15,555, but considering we’re all working on a writer’s salary ($0) let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
The campaign ends on July 11th; if it falls through, you might want to consider donating your snazzy new Catskills bungalow instead.
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This place is right by my hometown. It's super awesome. The proprietors/founders are getting older and want to retire to the city so that they don't have to drive around all the time and do yardwork (or so I recall hearing). They've been trying to sell the place for years now. It's pretty remote, but totally worth visiting (if you're AT ALL into used books/cool shit/cozy nooks). I'd love to see a great indie bookstore like BookCourt take it over!
Bibliobarn is still very much in existence. It isn't "the property that once held Catskills rare and used bookstore standby Bibliobarn"