It’s been a long time since Fairbanks had an independent bookstore, so when Solstice Books opened its doors this summer, local readers rejoiced.
“I opened a bookstore for many reasons, but at the core of it all is because I love books,” owner Savannah Fletcher said. “And in rediscovering that love recently, I felt a lack in our community. We don’t have an indie bookstore and it’s just a different experience.”
Fletcher said what separates locally owned bookshops from box stores is the personal relationship that customers experience when they step through the door.
“When you walk into a small community bookstore and the owner knows you,” she said, “they know what kind of books you like.”
Solstice Books is located on the Second Ave. side of the new community social space Gather. The shop opened on June 6, and Fletcher said that from day one, she’s had a steady stream of customers.
“It was a whirlwind,” she said of opening night. “We sold over a hundred books.”
For Fletcher, owning a bookstore was an idea that always sat in the back of her mind. A lifelong reader, she grew up on Whidbey Island in Washington State, and studied English and archeology at Columbia University in New York City.
“I interned for Scholastic Books while in college,” she said, “but when I graduated, I realized it’s hard to get a job in the publishing industry. So I became an archaeologist.”
Some years later she moved to California to earn her law degree at Stanford, and began spending summers in Juneau, where she fell in love with Alaska and decided to make it her home. After passing her bar exam, she moved to Fairbanks in 2018 and quickly became active in the community, including serving a term on the Borough Assembly.
Along with her public service work, Fletcher found a position with the Northern Justice Project, an Alaskan civil rights law firm where she still works. Among other projects, she represented students and parents who brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the Mat-Su School District after the board removed 56 titles from school libraries in 2023. Late last year, after a court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, a settlement for $89,000 was reached. The portion she received for her services provided the seed money for Solstice Books. From there, she said, she began moving quickly.
“We found a location in Gather, the building run by Isaiah Mangum,” she said. The location hadn’t held a retail store in years, so, “we had to build shelves, we had to build sales counters, we had to get signage, we had to paint the exterior, and then I had to get books in here.”
Fletcher said she received extensive help from the American Booksellers Association, as well as from several other Alaska independent booksellers including Fireside Books in Palmer and the Homer Bookstore.
“The indie bookstore community in this state is so supportive,” she said. The owners of the other shops walked her through the logistics, teaching her about point-of-sale systems, ordering, shipping, and how long books should remain on her shelves before being marked down, among other tips.
“It was a ton of information I didn’t even know I should be considering,” she recalled. “If it weren’t for people that showed me the way, I wouldn’t know what I don’t know. And the checklist of the things you need seems to be never ending sometimes.”
This is Fletcher’s first experience as a business owner, and there were many details she had to master.
“I’ve learned that you have to be a jack of all trades when you’re opening a small business,” She said her legal background did give her a leg up on contract management, taxes, licensing requirements and other necessities. However, she also discovered that, “it’s worth it to pay for a bookkeeper. That is one thing I’ve outsourced as some stress relief. It’ll make my tax filing easier come tax season.”
She said she chose the shop’s name “because the solstice is the extreme. It’s the darkest night of the year. It’s the brightest, longest day of the year. And I find that books allow us all year round to explore these spaces, to go to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows through a story. That is where you build empathy.” And, she added, “Solstice is a very significant time in our community generally, so it also resonates on that level.”
Community is what her store is most deeply focused on, she said.
“When you come into Solstice Books, you’ll find cards that say ‘community picks’ on them. Folks who see a book on my shelf and say, ‘oh, I love that book, that’s one of my favorites,’ I give them a card, and they write out their review and they try to sell you on it. It’s the best way that people discover books.”
Fletcher is also holding public events once a month with Fairbanks and Alaska writers for talks that include discussions with attendees.
“I want people to talk about the process, talk about what inspired them, and be in conversation with one another. Because that’s when you find out cool things you otherwise wouldn’t have discovered.”
She’s also supporting local writers by carrying their work. If they bring their books to her, she said, “I’ll always buy a copy and I’ll say, ‘I’ll put it on the shelf. When it sells, I’ll call you to pick up another one.’”
And she stocks a wide selection of titles.
“I take pride in Solstice Books not being snooty. There is no book that isn’t fancy enough or too fancy for us. We’re game for all of it.”
Fletcher is enthusiastic about what she is offering Fairbanks readers.
“I think so much of a bookstore is that art of the browse. Of discovering. Of exploring. And I promise you, we’re always going to have something new to explore whenever you come in.”
David James is a freelance writer who lives in Fairbanks.