Outside, the Alabama Booksmith is so unassuming it's as if Reiss had forgotten that he was running a retail business: a two-story, nearly windowless structure, surrounded by office parks and parking lots, on a dead-end street in a suburb of Birmingham. Inside, the vibe is half 1970, half 1870, with wood panelling, rattan chairs, and a drop-tile ceiling-but also patterned tablecloths, cozy curtains, a functioning fireplace, and an oversized hourglass.
"I went to Wordstock in 2005 when it was still Wordstock, and I felt like I had walked into the world I should have been in my whole life," Emmerling said, referring to what is now called the Portland Book Festival. It wasn't long after that Emmerling and her husband, John, a blacksmith, were delivering a fireplace he'd crafted. When they drove by a bookstore, Emmerling recalled, "I said, 'You know, when we retire, it would be fun to open a bookstore.'"
Nomadic Bookshop hasn't had its grand opening yet. Still, the shop is already creating buzz. The name is likely familiar to many bibliophiles, who may remember the independent publisher of the same name that specialized in queer and BIPOC titles. And neighbors are thrilled to have a new small business along the 23rd Street stretch. The Oaklandside visited the bookshop on a recent Wednesday morning, about a month into the store's soft opening, joining around a dozen others who'd stopped in, curious about the storefront.
Willa Robinson's passion for reading began in childhood, inspired by her father. She has collected Black literature since the late 1970s, seeing it as a way to fill personal loss.