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| Jeff Deutsch | |
Jeff Deutsch has left his position as executive director of Seminary Co-op Bookstores and 57th Street Books, Chicago, Ill. Deutsch joined the co-op in 2014, almost exactly a decade ago, after having been director of stores for the Stanford Bookstore Group for two years. Earlier he led the Cal Student Store at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 2019, Deutsch helped incorporate the Seminary Co-op Bookstores as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling. In 2022, Princeton University Press published his In Praise of Good Bookstores, and this year, Ode Books, which the co-op co-founded and for which Deutsch still serves as co-publisher, released its first title, Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale by Paul Yamazaki of City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, Calif.
He told Shelf Awareness his next project is founding the first official religion of books, the Temple for the Unchosen People of the Book, "for anyone who believes that books, bookspaces, and book sanctuaries provide spiritual meaning and enrichment." He's created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the sanctuary. (It is, he noted, an outgrowth of the Parallel Campaign, a guerrilla marketing campaign for Reading the Room.)
In an announcement, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores wished Deutsch "the very best in his future endeavors" and said that Noor Shawaf and Clancey D'Isa are serving as acting co-directors until an interim executive director is found. At that point, the board will launch "a more formal search" for a permanent executive director. Shawaf joined the co-op in 2022 as director of events and finance. D'Isa is managing director.
Deutsch may be reached via e-mail.