Tuesday night, John Marshall announced his retirement from the bookstore biz. In an e-mail, he said his choice to sell Open Books—stock, name, and all—had nothing to do with "health or economics" and everything to do with the fact that he and Deavel were "running out of the initiative to maintain and improve" the shop.

The job now is to figure out who wants to buy a poetry-only bookstore. Since news broke of Marshall's retirement, Open Books has already received a handful of inquires. He told me he's in no rush: "This isn't like a traditional business deal (at least as I imagine them) where the dollar trumps all," he said, and he doesn't plan to judge applicants instantly.

Right now he's in the process of writing up a letter of intent, which should be ready next week. The letter will include cost of inventory at the end of the year, and a price for 'furniture and fixtures,' which I think would just be a handful of bookshelves, whatever stuff they stack in that back closet near the bathroom, a couple benches, and a till. Marshall told me doesn't have those numbers yet, and probably will only share them with people who are seriously interested in buying the store.

Marshall's looking for an owner who can "carry the store to the next phase with some grace and certainty." He reckons the new owner would probably want to implement some kind of social media strategy, the current lack of which, Marshall admits, "may be a drag on the store." Open Books stopped hosting readings a year and a half ago, which is something else that might change with new management. "These are the things I imagine," Marshall said. "A new owner will have her/his/their own imagination to call on."

Marshall and Deavel remodeled the apartment above the bookstore and have lived there for the last seven years, so selling the building is not their first choice. They are, however, "open to considering all sorts of configurations."

Whoever does take over the shop next will have the challenge of filling in two John-and-Christine-sized holes in the hearts of Seattle's poetry community.

Cali Kopczick, editor at Chin Music Press, told me she loved how John and Christine were approachable in a carefully balanced way: "Somehow, despite always being there, usually right when you walked in, they were never intimidating and they never asked too much of you; they'd let you walk and get lost, let your eyes pleasantly glaze over if you needed; but they were also incredibly friendly and ready to help. I'll miss that for myself and for other folks new to Seattle and/or poetry."

Poet and teacher Jane Wong said that John and Christine "immediately welcomed [her] to Seattle back in 2011." She then shared one of her favorite memories of working with the two bookstore owners: "I taught a critical studies in poetry class at UW, and we took a field trip over to Open Books. I crammed 45 students in there. John and Christine recited poetry to us and helped my students with reading suggestions, jokes, and palpable excitement!"

Jay Yencich, poet and prolific + very good baseball writer, said he and Christine would talk baseball at the register. They'd talk poetry, of course, too. "I'll miss bringing back a seemingly random collection of texts and seeing what unifying strands they might pick up," he said, adding, "I can't be alone in the sentiment that John and Christine were the equivalent of poetry godparents for me."

"Best. Intros. Ever," said Willie Fitzgerald, fiction writer and program director for APRIL Festival. "If I could introduce a reader as well as John Marshall or Christine Deavel do on their worst day, then I would be doing a service to the world," he said.

"I am pretending that it's not true—must be some sick prank by those kids," was the response I received from poet Ed Skoog.

I could probably collect a hundred more testimonials, and they'd all be variations on the theme. John and Christine are model stewards of their art, two kind and approachable people who daily advocated for a thing that should be better loved. Here's hoping the next owner will carry on that ethos, that love, as John says, with some grace and certainty.