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| Josh Niesse and Megan Bell with new owner Anna Anabseh Clark.
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Josh Niesse and Megan Bell are selling Underground Books in Carrollton, Ga., to longtime store manager Anna Anabseh Clark. Clark will assume ownership of the store in July and will change the bookstore's name to the Underground Bookshop.
"We're proud of what we've built with Underground Books and deeply grateful to the community that has supported us every stop of the way," said Niesse and Bell, who founded the bookstore in 2011. "Passing the torch to Anna feels not only right, but exciting--we know she will honor the spirit of the bookstore while bringing new energy and ideas."
Clark, who is Palestinian American and is a graduate of the University of West Georgia, was the store's first salaried manager. She remarked: "I've found a home at Underground. To be entrusted with its future is an incredible honor. I'm excited to deepen its roots in the community and carry forward its spirit of curiosity, inclusion, and literary magic."
Bell and Niesse will continue to operate Underground Books.net, their rare and antiquarian business, as well as Hills & Hamlets Bookshop, which they opened in 2016 in Serenbe, a planned community in Chattahoochee Hills, Ga. They are in discussions about a leadership change and "independent future" for that store as well.
The bookstore will celebrate the ownership transition with a special event on Saturday, July 5.