What’s at stake?
Independent bookstores have struggled to stay open in Fresno. But with a few new ones cropping up as well as literary events like the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest May 4, authors and booksellers say there’s new momentum building.
Fresno’s getting its very own literary festival this May – and organizers say there’s a clear “hunger” for it among both writers and readers.
In addition to a rolling stage of local authors hailing from various genres, one of the main attractions of the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest on Saturday will be a pop-up bookstore selling “100% San Joaquin Valley authors,” according to Fresno’s poet laureate Joseph Rios.
That’s important, Rios and other writers behind the event say, because local authors don’t easily come by opportunities to sell their work to local readers in the city.
“I don’t think that we have one independent bookstore that’s aimed at the adult reader, selling a wide variety of current work,” said Danielle Shapazian, the director of the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest.
Fresno does have a beloved independent children’s bookstore called Petunia’s Place that’s been open for over 40 years. The city has several used bookstores, including one called Bookish that planted a flag on Olive Avenue, just east of the 99, as recently as 2021.
Neighboring Clovis has a 7,000 square-foot used bookstore called A Book Barn – the largest in the San Joaquin Valley, its owners say. As for corporate bookstores, Fresno has one Barnes & Noble location in the River Park shopping area.
But Fresno doesn’t yet have an obvious answer to, say, San Francisco’s City Lights, or Los Angeles’ The Last Bookstore – “literary landmarks” of those respective cities where both local authors and visiting authors go to share their work, Rios said.
That makes it all the more difficult to “champion” Fresno writers’ work for local readers.
“The bounty of writers here,” said Fresno-based California poet laureate Lee Herrick, “I wish could be more readily available.”
“I honestly think it improves the quality of our lives – having great art readily available. Just like we would have great produce readily available at our amazing farmers markets.”
This is what pushed Shapazian to plan the first-time event with help from Rios and Fresno journalist and author Mark Arax.
Combined with momentum from Measure P sales tax revenue – the never-before-seen, multi-million-dollar pot of annual grant funding for the arts and parks in Fresno – and other successful literary events like LitHop, the organizers hope this can be the start of something new for the city.
“You’re seeing LitHop do what it did. Yes, bookstores are dying, but you’re seeing a few open up,” Arax said. “There’s these embers, right? We’re blowing on the embers, trying to ignite a flame.”
Writers and readers are excited about the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest
Over a dozen poets as well as nonfiction, fiction, and children’s book authors will take to the stage at the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest, which will take place outdoors at the Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Over 50 writers with San Joaquin Valley roots are signed up to sell their books at a pop-up that will accept both cash and card payments with help from the event’s fiscal sponsor, Fresno Arts Council.
The organizers are expecting anywhere between 400 and 500 people to come by throughout the day to hear folks read.
“There’s definitely a demand from the authors and there’s a demand from the readers to have more of these types of events,” Rios said. “There’s a hunger for it.”
Armida Espinoza is one of the writers lined up to read on Saturday.
She has self-published two children’s books that focus on the experiences of second-language learners after having been one herself as a child.
She’s written two books – “Brave Lolis Learns English” and “Brave Lolis’s Box of Hope” – and promoting them has become a full-time job since her retirement from working for Fresno County schools.
Even though Barnes & Noble carries her books, she said readings at events like the Bookfest and other local venues are critical for making a name for herself with local audiences.
“The odds of me walking into Barnes & Noble and picking up a book that was done by a local person, if I didn’t know about them … are pretty slim,” she said.
Why is it so difficult to sustain a neighborhood bookstore in Fresno?
That’s often where the independent sellers come in with a more curated selection of local writers’ work. But for as many local bookstores that have survived in Fresno over the past few decades, the city has seen as many of its neighborhood bookstores shutter.
“In the ’80s, we had a good three or four bookstores around town,” Arax said. “They were selling all the new releases.”
Fresno’s not alone in this – the rise of online shopping and Amazon precipitated the fall of even national bookseller chains like Borders.
But the city is a uniquely difficult place for small businesses in general to thrive.
A recent study from the Urban Institute found that Fresno was one of the worst-ranked large cities in the country in terms of small business lending.
Some also think sprawl could also help explain why bookstores struggle in Fresno.
“When your ethos, the way you operate is abandoning communities and then going out to the fringe,” Arax said, “that is not kind to the notion of bookstores. Bookstores are part of neighborhoods.”
Jean Fennacy, owner of Petunia’s Place alongside her late business partner Deborah Manning, said the opening of corporate bookstores and their migration north took a toll on neighborhood bookstores over the years.
“A year after we purchased the store, Barnes & Noble moved in at Shaw and Blackstone, which was only a mile away from us. That impacted us. Then Borders came in, and then they all moved out to River Park, and that impacted us. Then the recession hit,” she said.
“We just kind of weathered the storm and hung in there. In the meantime, a lot of independent bookstores folded.”
Why local bookstores matter
It’s hard to recreate the magic of an independent neighborhood bookstore anywhere else, Fresno authors and booksellers said.
Fennacy has witnessed that firsthand, running Petunia’s Place over the past 30 years after purchasing it from the previous owners.
There’s no feeling quite like seeing young people return as grown ups, she said, or children who once came to storytime at their store returning as adults with their own kids.
“A local independent bookstores can create those connections,” Fennacy said, “those relationships with people.”
A Book Barn in Clovis has also been open for more than two decades and also knows their customers by name, said Peggy Dunklee, who owns the store with her husband, Dan.
They also have unique offerings you wouldn’t find anywhere else, she said, including books on the history of the Fresno and Clovis areas.
“We have a nice local book section, local history,” she said, “which is kind of hard to find.”
In addition to the stores that have held on through the years, up-and-coming bookstores like Bookish and pop-up and online store Judging by the Cover are a good sign for the future of Fresno’s literary scene, said Andrea Mele, a program coordinator with Fresno Arts Council.
“They do support local authors,” she said, “so that’s been really exciting to see.”
Vanessa Garabedian, who opened Bookish in late 2021 with her fiancé Lorenzo Martinez, has big dreams for what their relatively young store can become to the Fresno community.
Right now, Bookish sells primarily used books and a variety of merchandise including custom bookmarks and mugs. But the store also has a curated selection of work by local authors, and they partner with these authors on book-signing events.
In the coming weeks, Garabedian plans to introduce more new releases into their collection that readers will be able to purchase online.
By the end of the summer she wants to open a hot coffee bar at the shop too, with the goal of having a full coffee bar up and running by next year.
This has been a lot to manage for just her and her fiancé. Garabedian also has a baby coming too, and will temporarily close the store when she goes on maternity leave starting May 6.
But the store is like a child to her, too – and she said she’ll do “everything in my power” to grow the business and connect with more people.
“Blood, sweat and tears, I’m going to do this,” she said. “It’s going to be my baby.”
What to know about the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest
The San Joaquin Valley Bookfest is a free event for all ages. Folks can get tickets online through Eventbrite.
It will take place at the Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club, located at 4722 N. Maroa Ave. Shapazian said on-site parking is limited and that attendees are encouraged to park on side streets as well.
The pop-up bookstore will accept both card and cash payments, Rios said.
Children’s book authors will kick off the schedule of readings at 9 a.m. Fiction and non-fiction writers are set to take the stage at 10:30 a.m., followed by poets at 1 p.m.
A series called “Tapestry of Family and Place” will close out the day at 2:45 p.m.
