NEW YORK (AP) — Physical bookstores faced extinction when Ann Patchett launched Parnassus Books in 2011, as Nashville witnessed the closure of two major book retailers while Amazon’s market dominance continued expanding. Though Amazon maintains its leading position, traditional bookshops have made a comeback — with author-operated stores like Patchett’s forming their own specialized category, spanning locations from Brooklyn to New Mexico.
Below is a cross-country look at bookstores run by published writers.
In Key West, Florida, Judy Blume and her spouse George Cooper have established themselves as community mainstays. Cooper assisted in transforming a former movie theater into a multi-purpose complex, while both helped establish the nonprofit Books & Books — a satellite of the Miami-based chain that launched in 2016 — situated near the town’s primary thoroughfare. Though Blume gained international recognition for works like “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” visitors often encounter her working the cash register, assisting customers with book selections, or welcoming devoted readers who’ve journeyed considerable distances to meet the writer they credit with transforming their lives.
Louise Erdrich established Birchbark in Minneapolis in 2001 with a purpose deeply connected to her Ojibwe heritage (she holds citizenship in the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians). The shop focuses on Indigenous writings and describes itself as a gathering place for “literate Indigenous people who have survived over half a millennium on this continent.” Birchbark even inspired Erdrich’s 2021 work “The Sentence,” told through the perspective of a bookstore worker whose supervisor happens to be named Louise. “I guess I have some things in common with her,” the writer revealed to GMToday.com.
Lauren Groff’s Gainesville, Florida establishment represents both the author-owned movement and a recent trend of bookstores with broader social purposes. Operating in a state ranking among the nation’s top book banners, The Lynx is a general bookstore that Groff and spouse/co-owner Clay Kallman launched in 2024, highlighting titles banned from schools and libraries. “One of the purposes is to create a lighthouse, sort of showing that the rest of the country and world that Florida is not an intolerant backwater,” Groff, writer of National Book Award finalist “Fates and Furies,” shared with the Southern Literary Review in 2025. “It is full of good people who work very hard to allow for the freedom of expression, tolerance, and love of all people.”
Independent bookstores typically operate on a smaller scale, but the massive success of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” franchise allowed author-owner Jeff Kinney to pursue superstore ambitions. Rather than renovating an existing structure, he commissioned an entirely new building with premium features. An Unlikely Story operates from a colonial-style, three-story structure in downtown Plainville, Massachusetts, incorporating a cafe, event venue and creative workspace for the author. Kinney, who launched his shop in 2015, recently announced plans to develop a restaurant, beer garden and park in the downtown district.
Similar to establishments operated by Groff and Erdrich, Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Beastly Books directly reflects its owner’s perspective — “A Game of Thrones” writer George R.R. Martin. The store functions as a “cozy den” for speculative fiction, per its website description, and serves as a sanctuary for banned titles, local authors and rare first editions. Opened in 2019, Beastly Books sits near another Martin property, the Jean Cocteau Cinema, taking its name partly from Cocteau’s renowned film version of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Few bookstore launches result in appearances on Stephen Colbert’s show, but one year following Parnassus’s debut, Ann Patchett appeared on “The Colbert Report,” where the host compared her project to the Nora Ephron romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” featuring Meg Ryan as an independent retailer forced out by a nearby chain. The Nashville-based Parnassus has evolved into one of America’s premier independent booksellers, welcoming visitors including “You’ve Got Mail” co-star Tom Hanks, while providing Patchett a venue to promote fellow writers.
Emma Straub, like Patchett, entered bookselling following a local void: BookCourt, where the writer previously worked, had shuttered. She and spouse Michael Fusco-Straub established Books Are Magic in Brooklyn in 2017. The shop featuring pink exterior murals became a neighborhood favorite and earned national attention, receiving endorsement as a personal preference by “Today” show’s Jenna Bush Hager. Straub and her husband have subsequently opened a second Books Are Magic site within the borough.
