IndieBound Blog

Pranati "Pranoo" Kumar (she/they/we) is the owner and founder of Rohi’s Readery, a social justice driven children’s bookstore (and learning center) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Since opening in 2021, Rohi’s Readery has since built a strong community presence with a collection designed to center historically marginalized communities and an event schedule packed with educational programming for all ages. And in the last six months, the Readery has added a nonprofit arm and won a bid to purchase a property in a historic Black community.

Linzi Murray is the founder and owner of Reading in Public, a bookstore and cafe located in West Des Moines, IA. Murray drew on her graphic design background and her lifelong love of reading in order to build the beautiful and welcoming shop she has today. Reading in Public recently passed its one year anniversary, so Murray sat down with me to discuss her inspiration, operation, and the challenges she faced along the way.

Dr. Clover Tamayo (they/siya) is the founder and owner of Clover Daydreams in Tacoma, Washington. As a queer, disabled, Filipino American, Tamayo created Clover Daydreams with the goal of being a safe and inclusive book space and curates a collection that centers queer, trans, BIPOC, disabled, and marginalized voices. Tamayo sat down with me to discuss the origin of Clover Daydreams and the store’s unique environment and services.

Kaila Boulware Sykes and Raymond Sykes are the owners of Hidden Gems Literary Emporium, a non-profit bookstore in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Sykes never charge for a book and never say no to a community in need. Kaila Boulware Sykes sat down with us to talk about the store’s origin, operation, and future. 

When Ted and Nicole Wheeler opened Dundee Book Company in Omaha, Nebraska in 2017, it started out as a book cart. Not only has the company since transitioned to a fully stocked brick-and-mortar, the couple maintains traditional full time jobs and runs the store on the weekends.

You’ve probably heard of The Novel Neighbor. The shop in St. Louis, Missouri, first opened in 2014. In the ten years since then, they’ve expanded, added a nonprofit arm, and recently announced their latest project — Open Door Romance. I sat down with Holland Saltsman, Owner; Kassie King, Director of Social Media and Marketing; and Stephanie Skees, Director of Events and Curated Collections; to learn about the past and future of The Novel Neighbor.