‘Immersive and theatrical and strange’: Independent bookstore celebrates 10 years

Inside the Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas, visitors can drink a cup of coffee, write a letter to a pigeon, “adopt” an artificial bird and, most importantly, buy a book.

The independent bookstore and coffee shop’s maximalist decor and book selection have become a staple in downtown while the neighborhood has expanded in the past decade. The Writer’s Block is one of the few independent bookstores in Nevada focused on new books, and the store is now celebrating 10 years since the opening of its original location on East Fremont Street, where it operated until moving in 2019 to its current location at Sixth Street and Bonneville Avenue.

“Vegas has really come out for us, and I am really appreciative of that,” said Drew Cohen, who owns the store with his husband, Scott Seeley. “We’ve been able to create a bunch of jobs here, and I have a lot more faith that this business could outlast us if it had to.”

The actual anniversary of the store will be marked by Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30, capping off a series of author readings and other events the store has been hosting since October. Cohen said the store will celebrate the anniversary on Nov. 30 by giving away tote bags with a qualifying purchase.

Regulars at the store say that the Writer’s Block feels like a community resource combined with a bookstore. Noreen Nash, 62, said that before the store opened, she struggled to make friends in Las Vegas. Now she attends author events and runs a women’s book club at the store.

“It’s my church,” Nash said. “…It’s really a place where you can leave the house and feel a sense of belonging.”

‘Element of discoverability’

Cohen and Seeley are both dedicated to the idea of “earned media,” where visitors come in off the street and discover secrets hidden in the quirky gift items and shelves of fiction, poetry and art books. Those discoveries include life-size black-and-white cardboard cutouts of historical figures, a resident bunny named “The Baron” living in the Young Adult section, and countless fake birds for sale.

“I think that element of discoverability is really important in a business,” Cohen said.”I think people appreciate and enjoy the feeling that they’ve found something, rather than that it has been served to them.”

The fake birds all have a name tag and an “autobirdography,” which Cohen said are painstakingly created by the store’s employees to detail the birds’ passions and personalities. Nidia the penguin, for example, is a 44-year-old aspiring basketball player with an irrational fear of spheres, while Womack the sparrow is the CEO of a jelly bean company.

Eagle-eyed customers will spot the store’s King Pigeon, one of the only fake birds not for sale, wearing a tiny yellow crown. And for the cost of a quarter, customers can write a letter asking the King Pigeon for advice, drop it off in the bright red mailbox near the cash register, and expect a reply in a week.

Cohen said the artificial bird sanctuary aspect of the store evolved from tree decor in their original location. They started adding fake birds for sale, and then leaned into the motif at the current location by installing a giant bird cage around the cash register.

Seeley is behind the store’s design, and he’s constantly tinkering with the decorations and props inside the store, Cohen said. Before moving to Las Vegas, Seeley operated the literary nonprofit 826NYC in New York City. The nonprofit hosted writing workshops for students while running a “superhero supply store,” where Seeley sold high-concept, artsy items like “cans of bravery” and “anti-matter in a bottle.”

He brought that same whimsy to Las Vegas in a more “mainstream” way, Cohen said.

“Scott wanted to design something that would be a little more immersive and theatrical and strange, because we’re in Las Vegas, and we wanted to have a degree of showmanship in how we presented the books in the store,” Cohen said.

Why downtown

Cohen and Seeley were drawn to Las Vegas through the promise of Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project. The store broke off from the Downtown Project amicably, Cohen said, and partnered with local philanthropist Beverly Rogers to open in the larger space and expand their stock from about 5,000 to nearly 20,000 books.

The store now hosts events at the adjacent Beverly Theater, in addition to the student writing workshops, book clubs and local field trips held in the store’s classroom space.

Above the store sits several apartments that house writers from UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute literary program. Cohen said the name of the store references the “block” of writers living in the building, instead of the affliction that prevents people from writing.

Destiny Pinder-Buckley, a 27-year-old student at UNLV, said the store is particularly popular with fellow students pursuing their creative writing master’s degrees. After moving to Las Vegas from a small town in South Dakota, Pinder-Buckley said she was looking for a place where she felt like a local.

“They just so clearly care about trying to provide that literary community,” she said about the store owners.

Seeley wanted to create a space where newcomers and locals can meet “culturally like-minded people,” and the local community has grown to embrace him and Cohen over the past decade, he said.

“It’s literally a gift, a dream come true for the two of us,” Seeley said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.