Cool Bookish Places

How to Support the Most LIT Bookstore in the Bronx

Nicole Brinkley

Staff Writer

Nicole Brinkley has short hair and loves dragons. The rest changes without notice. She is an independent bookseller and the founder of YA Interrobang. Follow her on Twitter: @nebrinkley.

​​The Bronx doesn’t have a bookstore. A place with over a million people — many of them hungry, voracious readers — and it doesn’t have a bookstore.

One badass woman is about to change all that.

Noëlle Santos is a brilliant woman with a charming smile — and I can say that having met her at Winter Institute, the American Booksellers Association’s yearly conference. She’s both passionate about books and soundly smart, with master’s degrees and multiple designations. Her business plan for The Lit. Bar won her a business competition two years ago, and now The Lit. Bar is close to becoming a reality.

What is The Lit. Bar?

Well, it’s lit.

Lit like literature.

(Lit like drunk.)

The Lit. Bar will be the ONLY bookstore in the Bronx, a place where people of all backgrounds can come to relax. Half bar, half bookstore, it will serve as one of the Bronx’s cultural hubs.

Of course, it has to get off the ground first. There’s a reason some bookstores choose to operate as nonprofits: it’s much closer to how bookstores run as a business, with margins of less than 1% in many stores. (In real people terms: we only make enough money to cover salaries and insurance and actual products and not much more.)

To help get The Lit. Bar off the ground, Noëlle is fundraising money. The Lit. Bar will totally be worth the investment, and with a $100,000 fundraising goal, it’s totally within our reach to make it a reality.

I know I want to see a goddamn bookstore come to the Bronx — and anybody who has ever loved a book might, too.

The Lit. Bar is currently fundraising on IndieGoGo; you can support it by clicking here. (Every bit helps!) There’s more information available at their website.

Frankly, if you’re doubting Noëlle’s passion, check out this pitch. Yes, it’s delivered in slam poetry form.

It’s awesome.

You could even say it’s lit.​