Amy Ryan is the new owner of Valley Bookstore in downtown Jackson, Wyo. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that Ryan, who was born and raised in the town, "is now a member of a few exclusive groups of people. Not just bookstore owners who also happen to be published authors, but also people who seem to love their job completely." She purchased the bookstore from Wendy Dodson, who opened Hummingbird Books in Chestnut Hill, Mass., last year.
"I feel like I'm about the luckiest woman in the world. I have no complaints," said Ryan, who has also published six novels. She credited the chance to buy her hometown's longest-standing bookstore to her father, Donovan Ryan. He was a climber in the 1960s, who made some "smart business choices" before the small town became a big deal.
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| Amy Ryan | |
A lifelong reader, Ryan studied anthropology and Spanish at the University of Wyoming, English literature at University of Vermont and writing at the New School in New York City. She has worked in Barnes & Noble, and intermittently for previous Valley Bookstore owners Wendy Dodson and Steve Ashley. The business was founded in 1949 and was located for most of its 74 years in Gaslight Alley before Dodson moved it in 2020 across from Persephone Bakery on East Broadway.
"Despite her constant contact with the book market, Ryan never really considered herself a business person," the News & Guide noted, adding that Ryan "almost didn't tell Dodson one day that she wanted her job. But, eventually, she did. And within a year Dodson was opening another bookstore in her hometown of Boston. The shot was Ryan's to take."
"I might learn this is a bad idea, but there are a few mid-list novels that I think are really just beautiful and wonderful and I want to keep them going," she said, noting that she also wants to give the community what they crave, including more YA and science fiction books, as well as a strong inventory in adventure and ecology, genres that do particularly well locally.
"The kids in Jackson are massive readers," she said.