Nestled on the streets of Portland, Katherine Morgan welcomes everyone into her cozy and quaint bookshop named Grand Gesture Books. As the first romance-only bookstore in Portland, Katherine creates an inclusive and fun space to find your next favorite romantic read. In this week’s One on One Interview, we will discuss with Katherine the importance of diversity in the romance genre and how community has been an essential component in the opening of her bookshop.
Thank you, Katherine, for accepting our invitation. Let’s begin the interview!
Opening a bookstore is a major decision and can take a lot of time and money. What led you to open your store? Did you feel that your area needed one?
There were quite a few reasons that I decided to open Grand Gesture Books, but the biggest one arose from seeing how publishers didn’t tend to send romance authors to Portland or the Pacific Northwest as a whole like they did for say, New York City or Los Angeles. I love getting to meet my favorite authors and attend events to discover new ones, but a lot of the time, it felt like we were getting bypassed. I kept thinking, “Well, maybe publishers don’t know how big the romance community is here in Portland.” I work at Powell’s, and I actually run that section and see how packed it gets. I kept thinking that someone should do it, and then my friend suggested that I should, so well, I did.
Bookselling can introduce you to people from all walks of life. What do you think is the most important or rewarding aspect of being a bookseller?
For me, the most rewarding part is being an advocate, whether for an author that I love or for the customer who is trying to find something to relate to. My favorite customer story will always be the time that I recommended We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby book to someone as a gift to his friend, and when I saw him a few weeks later, he let me know that he didn’t actually give her the book because he read it and loved it so much. I have loved books my whole life, so getting people excited about reading them makes my heart really happy.
What was the hardest part about opening your own bookstore? How did you overcome the obstacles you faced with that challenge?
Honestly, the hardest part for me is getting enough capital. A lot of the money has been raised by my community, and I’m so very grateful for them doing so, but you surprisingly need a lot of money to do anything. I also have a habit of second-guessing myself and being really hard on myself. I feel like if I miss up on one thing, then suddenly, everything will fall apart like a house of cards. It can be a very toxic and exhausting feeling, so I’ve been giving myself a chance to grow because I haven’t done this before. I can’t expect myself to be perfect at something that I don’t know about.
How do you curate your store’s selection to reflect the unique tastes and interests of your community? Can you share a story about a book that unexpectedly resonated with your customers?
While I would classify Grand Gesture Books as a romance bookstore, I like to personally think of it as a relationship store. I want you to walk into the store, and even if you don’t have the words for how you’re feeling, I want you to find something to take home with you.
Are you in a long-term relationship and hoping to rekindle the flame sexually with your partner? Great, here’s a copy of Come Together by Emily Nagoski. Are you asexual and looking for a really beautiful portrayal of queer friendships by a debut author? I love that, and I’d hand you a copy of The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford, who is also a local author. Maybe you just need a confidence boost, and for that, I’d slide milk and honey by Rupi Kaur across the counter to you. I want people to leave my store feeling hopeful, reassured, and like they matter. I hope to have a little bit of everything for people, but the nice thing is that I am on a block with some really great stores, like Crafty Wonderland, so if I don’t have it, they will.
Owning a bookstore often blurs the lines between work and personal life. How do you manage to maintain a healthy work-life balance?
Uh, I don’t. I’m a mentally ill Capricorn, so I’m a workaholic who is hard on herself. However, I have a great support system. I try to have a day or two where I can turn my brain off and watch television. I recently went on an antidepressant and started seeing a therapist, which has really impacted my brain in a beautiful way (I’m open about my mental health struggles and always have been). I think that anyone who starts a business should consider doing that.
I’m also friends with a few other bookstore owners, and it makes it really easy to have a sounding board but also talk shit when things are hard. I’m trying to get better at treating myself with kindness and reminding myself that as long as we give it our best shot, everything is going to be okay. We just have to try.
If someone is unable to visit their local bookstore, how else can they support stores like yours?
They can support me by shopping at my online storefront through Bookshop.org (note: I do work for them, but this is something that I do off the clock). My shop’s link can be found here.
So for those living or visiting Portland, make sure to add Grand Gestures to your wishlist of bookshops to discover. Katherine would absolutely offer grand gestures to help you discover your next favorite romance read!
Grand Gestures Books is located at:
814 SW 10th Ave
Portland, OR 97205
To read more on romance from black voices, check out our article Epic Love as a Catalyst: Insights From bell hooks’ Writings!
Make sure to check out our Bookshop bookshelf, Diversifying Your TBR: Beautiful Black Voices in Literature!
