On Friday, November 4, Francie & Finch will have a soft opening in Lincoln, Neb., Bookselling This Week reported.
The store is owned by Leslie Huerta, who quit her job earlier this year in the travel industry "to fulfill her dream of opening a bookstore." Last year, Huerta attended the "Owning a Bookstore: The Business Essentials" workshop facilitated by the Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates and co-sponsored by the ABA. This year she also attended the Winter Institute and the Heartland Forum.
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| Francie & Finch in progress. | |
Named for two of Huerta's favorite literary characters--Francie from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird--Francie & Finch is a general-interest bookstore with 1,500 square feet of space, including a children's room.
Huerta told BTW, "My focus is going to be books with a good story: literature, biographies, and memoirs, and also a large focus on the arts, including beautiful art and design books and architecture books. And, of course, the selection will also depend on what my customers want."
She also plans to carry literary paraphernalia and gifts, including stationery, writing paper, pens, reading glasses and coffee mugs, as well as art from local artists and a selection of literary and art magazines.
Francie & Finch is located near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the convention center, an area with "a large concentration of professionals and students." There is also "a thriving tech start-up scene in downtown Lincoln recently led to a new nickname for the area: Silicon Prairie." The soft opening on November 4 coincides with the downtown business district's annual arts walk.
"It's a new business, but even more than that, it's going to be a new lifestyle for my husband and for our family," Huerta told BTW. "We're committed to building a little treasure here in Lincoln."