Literary Arts is entering a new chapter. During this time of exciting change, we are opening our very own bookstore! Our new headquarters, which is currently under construction, will serve as a community and cultural hub with a bookstore that aims to celebrate diverse authors and add more to the amazing literary community of Portland.
All bookstores need managers. We are delighted to introduce Dustin Kurtz, the new bookstore manager and lead buyer at Literary Arts. He has a background in bookselling and book publishing in New York and Grand Cayman and is using his expertise to help us get our bookstore up and running.
Dustin is working tirelessly to get books on our shelves prepping for our grand opening later this fall. Here’s what our executive director has to say:
“We are thrilled to have Dustin Kurtz join the Literary Arts team to help us launch our very first bookstore as part of the opening of our new headquarters in the core of Portland. Dustin brings with him not only years of experience as a bookseller but also phenomenal marketing skills that will help the this new venture take flight. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 40th Anniversary than joining the national community of bookstores”
Andrew Proctor, Executive Director
While we anxiously await for the grand opening get to know our new bookstore manager Dustin Kurtz.
Q&A WITH DUSTIN
What is your bookselling background?
I’ve been a bookseller for, well I guess most of my adult life now. I started out as a bookseller at the first McNally Robinson location in SoHo. I’ve done stints in publishing, been a manager at the Books & Books location in Grand Cayman, and have been based in Portland for a while. Bookselling is my vocation!
What are you most excited about for the Literary Arts bookstore?
I’m probably most excited for the simplest, most straightforward part of what makes a bookstore a bookstore. Every single day people in Portland will be walking out of the store with work that will, through some odd craft, become a part of the weft of their being, and through them the community around us. Books matter because people matter, because books shape our selves and our selves shape each other and on and on, a wild, hungry forest of curiosity and beauty and feeling. I’m excited to let people weave the glorious snarl of themselves.
What four words would you use to describe your vision for the Literary Arts bookstore?
I like this question, but I want to push back just a bit and say that my vision for the store matters less to me than the vision folks in the community are bringing to it–the literary community, the youth community, the neighborhood, and the writers we serve. I’d like the store to feel welcoming, accessible, a place you can see yourself represented. A true third place is one we build together, right? That said, I’d also like the store to be surprising. A good bookstore should have things to rekindle even the most well-worn curiosity, and I hope to be that.
What excites you about the bookstore being in the Central Eastside of Portland?
I love the Central Eastside. So much of the history of Portland is written in the landscape there—a neighborhood built around labor, cleft by 20th century car infrastructure, a staging ground for protest and music and great food and our odd little rainy lives. And the building! The building itself is so very cool. Even with construction dust and plywood everywhere it’s a thrill to be in there. New steel is going up alongside the old masonry and timber—I can’t wait to invite everyone in to spill their words all over the place.
What kinds of booksellers do you hope to hire?
I don’t look for a set type of bookseller—a bookstore team is stronger and better if people are bringing experience to it that I might not even know to look for. Bookselling is a job where people are encouraged to bring themselves to it, and a good bookstore makes space for staff to do exactly that.
What kind of events do you hope to host in the bookstore?
I’m a huge weird softy so, hopefully events that won’t make me weep too loudly. Hearing people read their work is a magic—a ritual—in a culture too often stripped of them. A ritual in which I cry, I guess?
Actually the bookstore programming is a fun opportunity for us to ask, how can we supplement the rich work already being done by Literary Arts to make space for writers at all stages of their career. I hope at the store we’ll find a niche hosting local authors, youth programming, book clubs, storytimes and the voices that make Portland exceptional, particularly from those who haven’t always found themselves invited to the microphone in the past.
How will this bookstore be part of Portland’s rich indie bookstore ecosystem?
This is a great question, and one I know the team has put a lot of thought and time into. Portland is such a literary destination already, and I hope we can be just another part of that inky archipelago of stores. The new location won’t be too far from some of my own favorite bookstores in town–Mother Foucault’s, Belmont Books, Floating World and Third Eye Books. We all have a different emphasis. I hope we’ll be the bookstore some folks call their favorite, but the joys of a reading life include discovery, and the more bookstores we have in town the richer our potential for discovery, right?
Anything else?
No, don’t give me any more space or I’ll just start recommending books, like some kind of huge nerd.
Wait one thing—I meant it about meeting your dogs. Don’t let me down, Portland.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?
Bookstore Recommendation
Dustin wants to know what you want to see at our bookstore! Leave your recommendation below.Have a question for us? Ask away.
