Here’s our interview with the dynamic Maggie Pouncey, who is the co-owner of the new Stories Bookshop and Storytelling Lab in Brooklyn… Enjoy!
1) Tell us about Stories Bookshop + Storytelling Lab
My husband, Matt Miller, and I are opening, Stories, a new independent children’s bookshop, in Brooklyn this spring. The bookshop will sell a beautiful collection of children’s literature for ages zero through young adult, and will share the space at 458 Bergen Street with a Storytelling Lab where we will offer workshops for kids in creative writing, bookmaking, illustrating and other storytelling arts.
I am a mom, a writer, and a teacher of writing, and in some ways Stories seems like the perfect coming together of all of that. My husband, who has worked as a technology manager and entrepreneur for companies big and small, brings the business experience and savvy.
We are in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign, to help us raise funds for all the start-up costs associated with opening Stories, and to tell the story of Stories to as wide an audience as possible. It’s a small family business, and we’ve invested much of our personal savings and taken out a small business loan, but there is still a gap we are seeking to fill. The campaign is going well. We’ve been completely wowed by the generosity of people.
2) What are your inspirations for it?
So many! We really believe stories can change the world, and that the love of storytelling is one of the surest lifelong gifts you can give your children. We live in a digital age with so many assaults on our inner world. Bookshops and writing workshops are communal spaces devoted to honoring and nurturing that inner world. At the same time, we are in a golden age of children’s books. We’ve made so many discoveries as parents reading stories with our two small boys, and we can’t wait to share our favorites with our Brooklyn community.
3) What do you think it will bring to Brooklyn kids and parents?
We hope it will become a neighborhood hub, a real community of storytellers of all ages. We love the idea of connecting readers with new stories, and writers to their audiences. We plan to bring authors and illustrators in to teach master classes, and to feature the work of indie presses like Brooklyn-based Enchanted Lion. Our first event, on April 30, which is Independent Bookstore Day, will be with Kirsten Hall and Dasha Tolstikova, the author and illustrator of “The Jacket,” a brilliant and endearing picture book published by Enchanted Lion. From 11am-12pm they will be reading, and signing books, and then leading the kids in a How To Make Your Own Book Jacket activity. Then, from 2-4pm, teaching artists from the Children’s Museum of the Arts will be leading kids in the making of big art for our window displays. Both these events will be free and open to the public We’ll be open that day from 10:30am-5:30pm. We’re calling it a Sneak Peek Party — we will not have all our shelves, or books, or really truly resemble a bookshop yet — but we WILL have cookies and lemonade. Come see what we’re about and say hello!
4) What are your ties to Brooklyn and what do you think of raising kids here?
Brooklyn is our home. We’ve lived here since we got married, first in Park Slope and now in Clinton Hill. It’s the only home our boys have ever known and we hope it will be our forever home. We think it’s a pretty fantastic place to raise kids. The high-schlep factor, and high expenses are countered by the sheer exuberant abundance of culture, food, types of people and experiences available. There’s an incredibly charming children’s book called “Nana in the City,” by Lauren Castillo. In it, a boy goes to visit his grandmother who has just moved to the city. At first he’s scared by the noise and the crowds, but by the end he has discovered its wonder: “The city was loud. The city was busy. But Nana was right, the city was not filled with scary things… The city was filled with extraordinary things!”
