After nine years of hand-selling books, championing Borderland authors and cultivating a space for literary exchange, Literarity Book Shop will close its doors on El Paso’s Westside.
For owners Bill and Mary Anna Clark, the decision to close the store at Pepper Tree Square, 5411 N. Mesa St., was not a simple business calculation but the conclusion of what Bill Clark describes as a deeply personal calling.
“When one has invested nine years in a venture that is more than just a business, something that is more of a personal mission, a decision like this is never easy,” Clark said. “Our decision was based on a number of factors, both business and personal. Mary Anna and I concluded this week that it was time.”
The Clarks announced the closure on social media, writing, “After nine years, we’re closing the book on Literarity Book Shop –– the end of Literarity as we now know it.”
The store will wind down operations over the next three months, offering discounts on new and used books, including collectible and signed editions.
When Literarity opened in 2017, Clark said there were no locally owned independent bookstores remaining in El Paso.
Clark said what he and his wife set out to build was not merely a retail storefront but a cultural space that he felt the city lacked. Both lifelong readers, Bill and Mary Anna Clark had spent years immersed in bookstore culture long before opening their own shop. In the 1980s, while living in Los Angeles, they regularly spent evenings and weekends in independent bookstores — attending readings, browsing curated shelves and occasionally encountering well-known authors in informal settings.
“A significant portion of our non-working hours over our 15 years in Los Angeles were spent in bookstores,” Clark said. “The L.A. area had lots of great independent bookstores. Readings and book signings were plentiful and it was also not uncommon to run into authors like Ray Bradbury, Charles Bukowski, Eve Babitz, Steve Erickson and James Ellroy simply spending time in bookstores.”
He recalled those writers as accessible and accommodating.
“They were generous with their time and seemed to genuinely enjoy casual conversations,” Clark said.
When the couple moved to El Paso in 1993, that atmosphere was something they felt the city lacked.
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“That kind of vibrant literary culture was one of the things we missed most and hoped to recreate on some small level,” he said.
Opening Literarity more than two decades later was an attempt to do just that: to create a space where readers and writers could encounter one another casually, where books were curated intentionally, and where literary conversation was part of the city’s daily rhythm rather than confined to campuses or formal events.
From the outset, Clark said Literarity was designed to elevate Borderland writers — not as a niche category tucked away on a shelf, but as a defining feature of the store.
Books by local writers were displayed prominently just inside the front door, and new releases were featured on the main table.
“We don’t wait for people to discover those books on their own,” Clark said. “We proactively point guests to those books and tell them about those books and the authors.”
That approach meant introducing readers to writers whose work explores migration, identity, history and place — themes that define much of the region’s literary output. Clark noted that several of those authors, including Tim Z. Hernandez, Jonna Perrillo, Rosa Alcalá and Daniel Chácon, teach at the University of Texas at El Paso.
For Hernandez, an associate professor of creative writing, that visibility mattered.
“As an author in this city, there is no other bookstore in this community that has supported its authors more than Bill’s bookstore,” Hernandez said.
He described the store as “an intellectual hub” and said Clark frequently hand-sold books by local writers, sometimes purchasing new releases in large quantities.
“When people walk in, those are the first books I’m trying to sell — local authors,” Hernandez said, recalling Clark’s approach. “We don’t have a lot of infrastructure that supports literature in this city. So we’ve relied on people like Bill and his shop.”
Hernandez’s connection to Literarity also extended to the El Paso Matters Book Club, where his book “All They Will Call You” was selected as a featured read. Clark, a member of the El Paso Matters Board of Directors, helped establish the club, which spotlighted Borderland authors and brought them into direct conversation with readers through in-person discussions and community events.
Perrillo, professor of English education and author of “Educating the Enemy,” said the store’s advocacy translated into real readership.
“My own book broke sales expectations many times over thanks to Literarity’s tireless promotion,” Perrillo said. “Its closing will leave an enormous gap to fill.”
Perrillo’s work was also featured through the El Paso Matters Book Club, which selected her book for community discussion and hosted public conversations around its themes.
For both authors, the store functioned as a bridge — connecting academic presses and regional writers with general readers who might not otherwise encounter those works.
“We’ve worked to make Literarity Book Shop a platform for doing good and giving back to our Borderland community,” Clark said. “We’ve attempted in our own small way to improve the quality of life in our El Paso community by creating a space and events for sharing ideas and forging new friendships.”
That philosophy extended beyond author signings and curated shelves.
After the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, the bookstore worked with national media figure Rachel Maddow to help raise money for victims through the El Paso Community Foundation’s support fund. Clark also noted the store supported organizations, including El Paso Matters and KTEP public radio, and raised funds for various community causes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the bookstore adapted quickly — without receiving federal pandemic assistance.
“We survived COVID shutdowns without any government PPE money and were then immediately hit by a year or so of massive construction on Mesa,” Clark said.
Even during the pandemic, Literarity partnered with a federal social services task force to provide Spanish-language books to area hospital patients and their families. The store also supplied books to teachers building classroom mini-libraries to encourage student reading.
Clark added that many of the pressures the store encountered were structural rather than local. Bookselling, he noted, is a low-margin business in which prices are set by publishers and printed directly on book covers. That leaves little flexibility for retailers facing rising overhead costs.
In recent years, those margins have been squeezed further by rising commercial rent, increasing property taxes passed on by landlords and escalating energy costs. At the same time, publishers have raised cover prices while expanding direct-to-consumer discount sales, and online retailers continue to undercut independent bookstores.
“Amazon’s predatory pricing continues to be a big problem,” Clark said. “They frequently sell books at prices less than the wholesale prices indie bookstores have to pay to publishers and distributors.”
Despite the challenges, the store weathered particularly difficult stretches.
“You have to love it and believe it’s your mission, not just a business,” Clark said.
Clark recalled the gratification of watching guests from cities such as New York, San Francisco and London walk through the door and react with surprise.
“When someone … makes a point to say how pleasantly surprised and delighted they are to find a bookstore like Literarity in El Paso, it confirms my longstanding belief that our city leaders fail to understand that creating a world-class city is not only about big, shiny, expensive projects like ballparks, waterparks and amphitheaters,” Clark said.
For Hernandez, that role was central to the store’s importance.
“We’re the ones who are spreading the culture and legacy of El Paso beyond El Paso,” he said, referring to local authors whose books travel nationally and internationally. Without independent bookstores to champion those voices, Hernandez added, sustaining that literary ecosystem becomes more difficult.
“If we don’t show our gratitude — and that means going and buying books — they’re going to be gone,” Hernandez said. “And there goes a part of our own cultural face.”
Clark said some of the most meaningful moments over the years were quieter ones — customers returning to share how a book recommendation had moved them, or strangers introduced inside the store who remained in conversation long after their purchases were complete.
“There have been lots of small, but gratifying moments,” he said, including “when a world-class poet tells you that her reading at Literary attracted a larger audience than her reading in New York.”
For Perrillo, the store’s legacy lies in its ability to connect scholarship and storytelling with everyday readers.
“Their pride in local writers and in collecting everything from classics to truly eclectic literature has made our community more broadly and deeply educated,” she said.
Clark said opening Literarity transformed his own connection to El Paso.
“Literarity has been everything to us over the past nine years,” he said. “It’s been our raison d’être.”
Despite living in the city since 1993, he said he and Mary Anna “never felt deeply connected to the community” until opening the store. Through Literarity, they met readers, families and writers who became lasting friends.
As for what comes next, Clark remains guarded.
“Some of my writer friends are cautious about sharing work in progress,” he said. “I think I will follow their lead for now.”
He confirmed the store will maintain at least an online presence while he reflects on the future.
Asked how he hopes the store will be remembered, Clark pointed to a phrase hanging on the shop’s back wall: “Open books open minds.”
“We know that to be true,” he said. “We’ve witnessed it.”
The post After 9 years, Literarity Book Shop to close, leaving cultural void in El Paso appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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