Wil Andruschak

I hear your new store is focusing on new literary books and shying away from popular fair.

Exactly. One of our mottos is that this is a bookstore for the unusually bookish.

Who would qualify as “unusually bookish”?

I’ve already seen our ideal customers. They walk into our store, looked around and their eyes widen because they love books. They love being around books, they love being around people who love books. It’s for people for whom a bookstore is a kind of sanctuary I suppose.

So where can “bookish” people find you?

We’re a block from the old, sandstone Central Library on the corner of Fourth Street and 13th Avenue S.W. Our neighbours are a beautiful old red-brick church where we get to watch weddings on Saturdays.

What’s the environment inside like?

It’s a very welcoming environment. It’s actually quite a large store, 3,500 square feet. We have alcoves with chairs where people can sit down and page through our beautiful books of which we are getting more and more of everyday.

Was there a book that changed your life?

The Diviners by Margaret Laurence was huge for me. It was about a woman, a Canadian woman, who became a writer. Laurence described it as her spiritual autobiography.

Is that what inspired you to write?

Yes. I have two books that I have published. A novel in 2000 called The Textbook of the Rose and it won the City of Calgary book prize. It’s not in print anymore. That’s often the fate of books from small literary presses. My second book is a non-fiction book. It’s a critical study of Alice Munro.

Is it tough to make it as a writer?

Oh yeah, but it’s worth it. It isn’t the making of it so much as the doing that’s satisfying. Most writers have day jobs — that’s a given.

Your day job was teaching writing for many years.

People have teased that this bookstore is kind of bringing me full circle. There’s almost no aspect except pulp and paper that I haven’t been involved in. I was an English prof for 20 years — a sessional lecturer, rather, at the U of C. And a grad student in English literature specializing in Canadian lit. And I also sit on a couple boards of publishing companies. I’m a voracious reader and now I own a bookstore. It’s like the whole circle, the whole food chain.

What’s the most common mistake young writers make?

Being more focused on fame and fortune than actually developing one’s voice.

How long did it take you to find your voice?

I’m still working on that; it’s a work in progress.

So what drove you to open a bookstore in the midst of a recession?

And in a time where we hear that Amazon is selling more digital books than physical books. I looked at Calgary and saw a city of a million people, a very vibrant city that only has a handful of independent bookstores, and thought there has to be a place for independent bookstores in a town like this. My goal is to not compete with my fellow independents but be a co-conspirator.

You mentioned Amazon — what’s your take on ebooks?

Some people will like them and some people will always want a physical book they can hold in their hands.

Which do you prefer?

The book. The weight of it, the solidity of it and the act of turning the pages and the presence of it. I’m a digital immigrant and for me reading on a screen isn’t really reading. For my children who are in their 20s it is, but for me even when I get something on the computer I print it out and hold it in my hands.

How do writers contribute to our culture?

Jonathan Franzen had some really interesting things to say in the Globe and Mail. Good writing goes deep; it doesn’t skim the surface. We live in such a fast and superficial world. According to Franzen, the novelist’s job is to avoid the digital junk and go very, very deep and thoughtfully below the surface of things. You know the whole slow food movement, maybe good writing is slow thinking.

So when’s the big opening?

We did a soft opening on August 26. We quietly opened our doors but we don’t have any signs up or fixed hours yet — we’re just practising. We’re going to have a very grand opening in October shortly after WordFest.