Neil Clarke, founder and owner of Clarkesworld Books, has announced that he’s closing the business when the inventory is sold. “The reason for closing the store was the impending birth of our third child. Unfortunately, that will not come to pass. Shortly before St. Patrick’s Day, we lost the baby. In the seven years I’ve been running this business, I never realized how many friends we had made. I can’t thank people enough for all the prayers, thoughts, emails, and posts offerring us support at this time. It means a lot to us and I’ll never forget it.” Clarke goes on to say “The question on some people’s minds is ‘does this change your plans?’ The short answer is no. My wife and I may still decide to try again and that would just force me to start the whole process all over again. I just don’t have that in me, especially after everything else.”
Marked down books are still available at www.clarkesworldbooks.com.
In related news, Clarke says that Clarkesworld Magazine will continue. The April issue is currently available, with “The Third Bear” by Jeff Vandermeer and “The First Female President” by Michael De Kler. Indeed, Clarke says, “the magazine’s anthology spurs on the creation of a new small press which will be called Wyrm Publishing.” He hasn’t yet released any other details about the new venture, other than a url, www.wyrmpublishing.com.