Dear Booksellers and SinC Members, In this issue, you will learn why Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, North Carolina is Triangle Sisters in Crime Chapter member and author, Valerie Nieman’s favorite bookstore. As an additional bonus, if you didn’t already know, you will also learn what a scuppernong is! A new winner will be selected in May, so please apply for the Sisters in Crime We Love Bookstores $500 award. Find more information about the WLB award below. |
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My Favorite Bookstore: Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, North Carolina by Valerie Nieman |
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Scuppernong Books started small, in a 120-year-old former feed store that had seen lots of occupants but not much love in recent years. Eight years later, the downtown Greensboro, NC, storefront bursts with life and ideas, with thoughtfully curated selections of new books for adults (including mysteries!), young adults, and children. Used books and a homey assortment of chairs and tables make up the lounge and event space in the back. Co-owners Brian Lampkin and Steve Mitchell, both of them authors as well as booksellers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries, could see something special right from the start. “We opened the store with something in mind. You sort of learn what the community wants as well. Give and take,” said Lampkin. Of course, the store hosts readings. Lots of them. “We did 30, 40 events a month,” Mitchell said. Lampkin added that the break caused by Covid allowed them to look back “and think OMG how did we keep up that pace?” The store also works with local schools and backs voter registration efforts. To promote open discussion, it hosts programs such as a science forum, and book clubs including Reading the World. In addition, Scuppernong has writing workshops, and “ScupTV” on YouTube with book reviews, sock puppet shows, and clips from presentations. |
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A weekly online magazine, Renard and Raisin, keeps people up to date. That brings us to the foxes. Images of them are everywhere in the store, their bright eyes and red-brush tails appearing high and low in paintings, on pottery, and as stuffed animals. Scuppernongs are native North Carolina grapes, and that makes you think of the sour grapes fable—therefore, Renard and Raisin. The biggest event of the year is the Greensboro Bound book festival, started in 2018. The name comes from Greensboro’s history as a railroad hub, and the festival logo features crossed railroad tracks. “We bring sixty, seventy authors to town every May,” Lampkin said. Scuppernong Books has been featured in Time magazine and Southern Living and continues to seek new opportunities, launching its own press and bringing longtime employee Shannon Jones into the ownership. Like the slogan says: “Books – Wine – Community.” Connect with Scuppernong Books: |
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Valerie Nieman has been a newspaper reporter, farmer, sailor, editor, college professor. She is the author of five novels, three books of poetry and one of short fiction. Three of her books would fall into the mystery/crime sphere: In the Lonely Backwater, now in press, a YA mystery; To the Bones (2019) a folk horror/mystery; Blood Clay (2011) a Southern crime novel. A graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte, she has held state and NEA creative writing fellowships. She is a member of the Triangle (NC) Sisters in Crime group. Twitter: @valnieman |
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Apply for the We Love Bookstores Award |
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To find out more about all SinC offers, including live webinars, please visit our website. Thank you for all you do for your community. Sisters in Crime loves bookstores. Happy reading! Susan Hammerman Library Liaison Susan Hammerman, a former rare book librarian, is the Library and Bookstore Liaison and coordinator of the We Love Libraries program. Susan writes crime and neo-noir short stories. Her stories have been published by Mystery Magazine, Dark City Mystery Magazine, Blood and Bourbon, Mondays are Murder, and Retreats From Oblivion. We Love Bookstores Coordinator: Robin Agnew owned the Raven Award-winning bookstore Aunt Agatha’s Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for 26 years with her husband Jamie. Robin writes a review blog at auntagathas.com and the cozy column for Mystery Scene Magazine. WLL and WLB News Editor: Gail Lukasik’s latest book, White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing, was named one of the most inspiring stories of the year by The Washington Post. She is also the author of the Leigh Girard Mystery series and the stand-alone mystery, The Lost Artist. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, such as The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and The Georgia Review. Gail appeared in the documentary, History of Memory, which is available on Amazon Prime. Website: www.gaillukasik.com |
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We've put our member books in a spreadsheet that we'll update every month, and send as part of this newsletter. This month's releases are on a separate worksheet. Feel free to sort by author name, book title, or author location. |
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Sisters in Crime hosts LIVE webinars each month. Webinars last 60-90 minutes depending on the topic and the audience questions! These webinars are open to all. |
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Sisters in Crime is the premier crime writing association focused on equity and inclusion in our community and in publishing. Our 4,500+ members enjoy access to tools to help them learn, grow, improve, thrive, and reinvent if necessary. They also gain a community of supportive fellow writers and readers, both peers to share the peaks and valleys of writing, and mentors to model the way forward. |
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