It\u2019s been a long time since Fairbanks had an independent bookstore, so when Solstice Books opened its doors this summer, local readers rejoiced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI opened a bookstore for many reasons, but at the core of it all is because I love books,\u201d owner Savannah Fletcher said. \u201cAnd in rediscovering that love recently, I felt a lack in our community. We don\u2019t have an indie bookstore and it\u2019s just a different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher said what separates locally owned bookshops from box stores is the personal relationship that customers experience when they step through the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you walk into a small community bookstore and the owner knows you,\u201d she said, \u201cthey know what kind of books you like.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s had a steady stream of customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a whirlwind,\u201d she said of opening night. \u201cWe sold over a hundred books.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI interned for Scholastic Books while in college,\u201d she said, \u201cbut when I graduated, I realized it\u2019s hard to get a job in the publishing industry. So I became an archaeologist.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found a location in Gather, the building run by Isaiah Mangum,\u201d she said. The location hadn\u2019t held a retail store in years, so, \u201cwe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe indie bookstore community in this state is so supportive,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a ton of information I didn\u2019t even know I should be considering,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for people that showed me the way, I wouldn\u2019t know what I don\u2019t know. And the checklist of the things you need seems to be never ending sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is Fletcher\u2019s first experience as a business owner, and there were many details she had to master.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned that you have to be a jack of all trades when you\u2019re opening a small business,\u201d 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, \u201cit\u2019s worth it to pay for a bookkeeper. That is one thing I\u2019ve outsourced as some stress relief. It\u2019ll make my tax filing easier come tax season.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she chose the shop\u2019s name \u201cbecause the solstice is the extreme. It\u2019s the darkest night of the year. It\u2019s 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.\u201d And, she added, \u201cSolstice is a very significant time in our community generally, so it also resonates on that level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community is what her store is most deeply focused on, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come into Solstice Books, you\u2019ll find cards that say \u2018community picks\u2019 on them. Folks who see a book on my shelf and say, \u2018oh, I love that book, that\u2019s one of my favorites,\u2019 I give them a card, and they write out their review and they try to sell you on it. It\u2019s the best way that people discover books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher is also holding public events once a month with Fairbanks and Alaska writers for talks that include discussions with attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to talk about the process, talk about what inspired them, and be in conversation with one another. Because that\u2019s when you find out cool things you otherwise wouldn\u2019t have discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also supporting local writers by carrying their work. If they bring their books to her, she said, \u201cI\u2019ll always buy a copy and I\u2019ll say, \u2018I\u2019ll put it on the shelf. When it sells, I\u2019ll call you to pick up another one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And she stocks a wide selection of titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take pride in Solstice Books not being snooty. There is no book that isn\u2019t fancy enough or too fancy for us. We\u2019re game for all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher is enthusiastic about what she is offering Fairbanks readers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so much of a bookstore is that art of the browse. Of discovering. Of exploring. And I promise you, we\u2019re always going to have something new to explore whenever you come in.\u201d<\/p>\n
David James is a freelance writer who lives in Fairbanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long time since Fairbanks had an independent bookstore, so when Solstice Books opened its doors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,7429,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-204424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-special","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}