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Beth Uznis Johnson

Eat, Drink, and Storytell: Life’s Essentials at M. Judson Booksellers

January 24, 2024 Leave a Comment

by Beth Uznis Johnson

The exterior of M. Judson Booksellers impresses with 1918 architecture.

The women who founded M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, SC, were not deterred by the economic reality in 2015. At a time when many indie bookstores were closing across the US, and amid the rise of a certain-unnamed-profit-gobbling-ecommerce-giant trying to force customers to buy and read books on screens, they accomplished an incredible feat: bringing the experience of books and stories back to downtown.

In a ‘go big or go home’ move, M. Judson Booksellers opened its doors in the historic courthouse building in the center of Greenville. The store’s exterior is impressive, with brick pavers, antique street lamps, grand stairs, and 1918 architecture with its ivory-colored façade and terra cotta ornamental trim in the Beaux Arts style. Once inside, the landmark experience of M. Judson continues to inspire not only readers of all ages, but lovers of food and drinks, and anyone looking for the perfect South Carolina gift.

“You’ll find our shelves bursting with books we can’t wait to tell you about, bestsellers and new releases, everything from poetry to Southern Lit to cookbooks, as well as gift items gathered from all over the Upstate. We’re proud to be more than just a bookstore; we’re a home for stories,” says Ashley Warlick, an M. Judson founder, novelist, and creative writing professor.

M. Judson event manager Alyssa Fiske showcases the fiction section.

The store is named after Mary Camilla Judson, a historic Greenville feminist and the first Lady Principal (they really called her that!) at the Female College of Greenville. Camilla Kitchen is the café inside M. Judson serving up delicious treats and drinks with stories of their own.

M. Judson is a general interest bookstore with selections in every genre. The children’s section is huge, with areas to read and play at a 14-foot community table. It is built around themes children love, such as cooking, STEM, art, trucks, and animals.

Guests attend a Sunday Sit-Down Supper to enjoy a literary-themed meal.

Literary-themed events are an important aspect of the M. Judson experience, with most events requiring tickets, including a book, and selling out. These are not your traditional bookstore events with an author behind a table signing books. Most are interactive, such as the Sunday Sit-Down Supper series where a chef prepares a meal inspired by a novel and attendees gather around a beautifully set table to dine and discuss. Camilla Kitchen offers book-themed cooking classes or demonstrations. The events calendar is packed with experiences, like an evening with symphony music, open-mic nights for writers, book and wine pairing events, and more.

“I think we have found the way to connect with our community and our readership here in Greenville and show them how to better support the literary world. Our goal is success for the people who are making and telling these stories. I do feel committed to that mission,” Ashley says.

The community component of bookselling has surprised her the most, with deepened ties as the store pivoted during the pandemic to meet its customers’ reading needs. Some patrons have continued having M. Judson staff read, select, and recommend books for them long after shutdown ended. Greenville is also a popular tourist destination, with M. Judson a must-visit destination for travelers. Ashley describes a beloved customer, who actually lives in California and saw on social media that the store offers book recommendations. Three years later, M. Judson still sends her books.

Author Katherine St. John discusses her book with event guests.

Nine years after opening an independent bookstore at a seemingly impossible time in history, M. Judson and Camilla Kitchen are thriving businesses in downtown Greenville. Firmly rooted in books and storytelling, often centered around food and drink, and providing a breathtaking experience both inside and outside the store, it is woven into the fabric of the city.

“We believe that stories don’t just come wrapped in book jackets. Sometimes they’re bottled in a wine, roasted in a bean, baked in a bread, woven into a tea towel, or created in a moment,” Ashley says.

Learn more about M. Judson Booksellers, upcoming events, or contact them to send you one of their famous “blind date” book selections to change things up in your reading life. You won’t be disappointed.

Beth Uznis Johnson’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Massachusetts Review, Broad Street, Mississippi Review, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Gargoyle, Southwest Review and elsewhere. Her essay, “Your Friend/My Friend, Ted,” was included in The Best American Essays 2018, edited by Hilton Als. Beth is the author of Coming Clean, released by Regal House Publishing on January 9, 2024.

Filed Under: Book Bound, Regal House Titles Tagged With: Beth Uznis Johnson, BookBound, M. Judson Booksellers

Volumes Bookcafe: A Beautiful Day in My Neighborhood

January 9, 2024 Leave a Comment

Volumes Bookcafe, Wicker Park in Chicago, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave.

By Beth Uznis Johnson

Who remembers that glorious day in May 2020 when 28 authors from around the country released a reenactment of the library dance scene from The Breakfast Club to the song “We Are Not Alone”? I’d seen their faces on book jackets, Twitter, and a few in person at writing events over the years. Amid the isolation of the pandemic, to get this inside peek at their homes and dance styles was beyond thrilling.

Themes of social justice proliferate all sections of the Wicker Park store.

Not only did they dance their asses off, they did it in support of Volumes Bookcafe, an independent bookstore in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. The video was conceived by Chicago author, Rebecca Makkai, who is also the artistic director of the nonprofit literary organization, StoryStudio Chicago. At the time, I was a Michigan-based writer without a neighborhood bookstore. To see the literary community rally behind a beloved bookseller touched me deeply.

It was a great day on literary Twitter. I watched the dance video at least 10 times.

It made me long to move back to Chicago, a vibrant literary community, with many indie bookstores sprinkled around its more than 200 neighborhoods. Flash forward to 2023 and I did move back. With the launch of my debut novel, Coming Clean from Regal House Publishing, slated for January 2024, I vowed to never live in a community without a bookstore again.

“Volumes, on Milwaukee Avenue,” my friend Claude said without hesitation, when I asked for the best bookstore around my new condo in West Town. I scrambled to open my maps app and couldn’t believe my luck: Volumes Bookcafe of Wicker Park was only 0.7 mile away. A 15-minute walk! A 7-minute bike ride! A 4-minute drive if I could talk my husband into dropping me off.

Even better, I can pick up Claude on the way. She’s only 0.2 mile away.

Come to find out my kickass neighborhood bookstore has an amazing neighborhood story. When a new landlord upped the rent (during the pandemic, no less), forcing Volumes to temporarily close their doors in Wicker Park, the neighbors rallied. They found a great location, crowdsourced funds to BUY the store space, and partnered with owners, sisters Rebecca and Kimberly George, to open a new, forever location at 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave.

With the community deeply invested in the store and the days of pandemic isolation in the past, Volumes has everything a reader (or writer) could ever need, starting with the heavenly new-book smell and knowledgeable staff who love and care about literature. Foot traffic in the store has returned and the in-person event schedule is back and growing.

Owner Rebecca George greets guests at an author event.

Rebecca, who spends the bulk of her time at the Wicker Park location, gives me her take on the book business, including:

  • 1. Physical books are a much-needed escape in a world where people spend far too much time on screens.
  • 2. Community bookstores are a reflection of the community itself and, in Wicker Park, that means a focus on fiction, science fiction, kids’ books, and nonfiction on topics of social justice, popular culture, and true crime.

Volumes offers handwritten recommendations for books in all categories around the store, from its section featuring Chicago authors to carefully curated literary fiction, best-selling graphic novels, mysteries, memoirs, and on and on. The notes include quick plot summaries, staff picks, who liked the book and why. There are also novelty items and gifts for readers (and writers) like literary-themed mugs, t-shirts, bookends, and socks. There are cozy nooks for reading, a picnic table for discussions, and tables for work-oriented patrons. There’s a café with baked goods, coffee drinks, teas, and other refreshments.

Fiction, memoir, and biography, also popular in Wicker Park.

I sit with Rebecca while she checks out a customer, a man she obviously knows based on their rapport. He’s finally decided to use the gift card he’s been hanging onto, selecting a cookbook with glossy photographs.

“You’ll have to bring in some of the dishes you make and we’ll sample them,” Rebecca jokes. The customer laughs and pauses, seeming to seriously consider it. We chat for a few minutes and I wonder if there is a way to ask them to call me for this sampling party; I like to eat, especially when someone else cooks, and I’m new in the neighborhood and looking for friends.

After the customer leaves with his book, Rebecca shares there’s a story behind the joke: some amazing cookbooks were released in the spring of 2020, the early days of the pandemic, and a local mom and her kids had—indeed—continued to visit Volumes with samples of baked goods they’d made together.

Authors Bradeigh Godfrey and Alison Hammer (aka Ali Brady) at the
launch of The Comback Summer

The café, Rebecca says, is especially nice to have during author readings and other events at the store. She tells me about a literary-themed private event the night before: a husband planned a surprise party for his wife that included an 8-course meal with themes from her favorite classic books. She was one of Volume’s first Wicker Park customers. She was really surprised.

Rebecca also tells me about a children’s book, The Story of Ukraine: An Anthem of Glory and Freedom, that Volumes took to local schools for student readings over the course of a week. The Wicker Park neighborhood is next to Ukrainian Village, where many Ukrainian families live. One child, from a refuge family, read the book to his mom three times and insisted on sleeping with it. Other classmates got enthused and decided to do an action project to support Ukraine.

My new Chicago neighborhood suddenly feels distinctly more intimate than the bookstore-less Michigan suburb I’d lived for more than 20 years. Strange how a big city can feel quaint; a suburb can feel vast and never ending. During the brief years a Border’s Books opened and closed, I never heard friendly chats between shop owners and customers.

Rebecca says Volumes loves to support new authors and local writers. She encourages me to attend some events at the store and recommends an upcoming Ali Brady launch, a summer beach read titled The Comeback Summer. So, I go. It turns out the author is the writing team of Chicago writer, Allison Hammer, and her friend, Bradleigh Godfrey. I’m amazed at the turnout: the bookstore is packed! It turns out the authors are members of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, which has a large Chicago contingency. The WFWA members have come in droves to support the book.

As a proud member of the WFWA since its 2020 pandemic write-ins, I feel the warmth of the Chicago literary community like an embrace. How lucky to be here for the launch of Coming Clean. How amazing that Volumes Bookcafe is my neighborhood bookseller. How exciting to have Volumes in Wicker Park hosting my launch event on January 13, 2024.

How lucky I donated so many books before I moved and can now refill my shelves with all the great new literature. Volumes will see a lot of me in the years to come.

Visit Volumes for the launch of Coming Clean by Beth Uznis Johnson: Saturday, January 13, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Volumes Bookcafe, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622 Website: www.volumesbooks.com ; Instagram: @volumesbooks ; Facebook: @volumesbooks ; X: @volumesbooks

Beth Uznis Johnson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Massachusetts Review, Broad Street, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Southwest Review, “The Best American Essays,” and elsewhere. She lives and writes in Chicago. Coming Clean is her first novel. www.bethujohnson.com

Filed Under: Book Bound, Regal House Titles Tagged With: Beth Uznis Johnson, BookBound, regal house publishing, Volumes Bookcafe

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