New Bookstore Café in Saint John features exclusively Atlantic Canadian authors

A new café in Saint John delivers coffee, snacks, and books written by Atlantic Canadian authors

There is a new place in Saint John, N.B., for book lovers to grab a coffee and enjoy a read from their favourite Atlantic Canadian author.

The Write Cup Bookstore Café opened this month on the main floor in Market Square, and a little over a week into brewing coffee and stories the excitement among residents is high.

“Overwhelmingly accepting and overwhelmingly happy,” says bookstore café co-founder Amanda Evans on the response from the community in the early goings of operations. “Everybody that comes in has a smile and we’ve been having fun.”

The bookstore café has around 500 unique titles on their shelves from nearly 200 different Atlantic Canadian authors. The store only sells titles written by Atlantic Canadians, with some titles for sale like “Bone Jaw” written by author Isabelle Cullen when she was just nine-years-old.

“We’re so proud of the Atlantic Canadian talent that we have,” fellow café co-founder Shannon Dykens admits. “We want to get as much of these books into as many people’s hands as we can. We’re constantly promoting them because we love them so much.”

“Our food is local, our books are local, our furniture is local, everything about us is local because it is so important to us.”

The pair believes they may be the only bookstore in the region to sell only content from East Coast authors. All the books around the store are front facing to ensure customers can see the books to their full effect.

In its first few weekends, the café has routinely welcomed authors to talk about their books and meet their fans. For the pair, the space is not just about selling local books, it’s about creating a community.

“We had workshops last week for five to 10-year-olds and then 12 plus so it’s very much a community building and a supporting local initiative,” says Evans. “Because those kids are going to get in here and they’re going to be writing their books.”

There are a number of events planned in the weeks and months ahead ranging from more workshops to author meet-and-greets.

The pair says it has been a joy in the first few days since opening to get to introduce customers to local authors they may not have heard of before, noting some have already came back claiming they have found a “new favourite author.”

They say the turnout through 10 days has been overwhelming, with the co-founders admitting they figured they would have to do a lot more marketing to get the word out about their new location.

“We still haven’t made a cup of coffee for our customer yet,” jokes Evans.

The new café is not only a dream come true for the co-founders, but also fellow local authors.

In the days and weeks ahead, local Saint John author Carolyn Harris will have her “The Garden Crew” series on sale in house as well.

Harris says she has long wished for a bookstore on the east coast that features content exclusively from her part of the country.

“It’s a dream actually come true and I’m not even exaggerating,” Harris beams, adding everything from the coffee to the furniture was perfect. “I’m just so excited that this is here in Saint John.”

The bookstore also arrives in Market Square at a time where there are a lot less vacant store fronts then years past.

For Evans and Dykens who grew up in the city, they look forward to being apart of the revitalization of what was once one of the city’s bigger attractions.

“I remember when the talk was there’s a building coming up, or did you know that this shop is going to be coming in,” Evans says on the hype that once surrounded Market Square. “The fact that we got our feet in just before it started so that we can we’ll be here so nobody else can take our niche, we’re very proud of that.

“We both remember what it was like here in the 80’s and 90’s because we would we went to high school right down the street,” says Dykens. “We’re hoping that that kind of comes back. This was a great place to be, still is a great place to be, but it’s a little quiet. It’s getting better and we we’re really thrilled to be here to see the growth.”

The owners say the sky is the limit when it comes to what the future may hold for the new shop.

The Write Cup Bookstore Café is open seven days a week, with more details available on their social media pages.

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