Manteo Booksellers, flooded during Irene, needs your help

Dear Readers,

What follows is a call to action to help save one of North Carolina’s coolest bookstores, Manteo Booksellers, on Roanoke Island. Currently, the little store is shuttered, its contents destroyed by Hurricane Irene.

We here at the UNC Press love Manteo Booksellers for many reasons. Some of us know it personally, and, like me, are fans and shoppers.

Others of us here work directly with Steve Brumfield, the proprietor, to get our books and our authors in the store.

Others of us are authors, who have appeared in the store to sign books and meet readers.

A child of the coast, I’ve been visiting the store for years—browsing their shelves, poring over their postcards, scratching resident kitties, and, in recent years, picking out the UNC Press books I’ve worked on and noting them with pride. I always stop in when I’m in town and rarely come out empty-handed.

This little store is packed with an amazing collection of books, from beach books and children’s literature to local and regional titles, serious fiction, and art books—I could go on and on. It is a treasure.

So we were devastated to hear that our dear bookstore was wiped out by Irene. The water rose throughout the day of Hurricane Irene and into the night. You can see, from the pictures, just how bad it got.

And now, we hear, we are able to do something for them. So, I call on all of the UNC Press family and all our friends, all our authors, and all you readers to make your voices heard.

Here’s an appeal from Jim Fineman, a potter on Roanoke Island, and a good friend of Manteo Booksellers:

Manteo took a big hit from Irene – more water than anyone can recall – and the town has changed radically. Some businesses have closed forever, and the flood prone locations may be vacant for a long time. There are mountains of debris and an abundance of emergency crews, disaster mitigation teams, newscasters, contractors, soup kitchens, politicians, & gawkers. Manteo Booksellers was one of many businesses wiped out by the flood. US Senator Kay Hagan walked the streets, saw the devastation, & talked to people, including Steve. A positive & speedy settlement on his FEMA insurance claim is the only way he can consider reopening, and there have been serious roadblocks to this process. Please take a moment to write to Senator Hagan. Urge her to expedite this process and tell her what the bookstore has meant to you and the community. This needs to happen as soon as possible; anything you can do will be greatly appreciated.

And a note from Steve Brumfield, himself:

I’ve already had many people email me, send cards, call on the phone and just plain stop me on the street to tell me how sorry they are about the bookshop being closed. They all want to see the bookshop re-open. And many of these folks have had stories about growing up with the bookshop over the past quarter of a century, and often now their kids are growing up with it too (or they did until the Hurricane).

Then my request is that anyone who wants to see Manteo Booksellers re-open write to Senator Kay Hagan. Her web address is: http://hagan.senate.gov/contact. Emails might be ok. But real letters with real signatures might be better. Phone calls aren’t bad either.

What I’m hoping is that people will share a little of what the bookshop meant to them as a cultural, economic and literary place, and how vital it is to our little town to not only keep all of us going, but those of us (like the bookshop) who were devastated. If just ½ the people who have contacted me with support contacted Senator Hagan, I think it might make a difference.

So, dear readers, we ask you to do your part, if you feel so moved. We hope you do.

–Beth