It has been a wonderful first year of Maria’s Literary Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Maria’s Bookshop.
Our team began this organization in 2024, the year that Maria’s Bookshop celebrated its 40th anniversary. Forty years of bookselling in Durango have shown us that books build community. They create connections between strangers, inspire us, foster empathy and give us the chance to run into our neighbors (and, of course, their dogs) at the bookshop. Our goal in establishing a nonprofit arm of Maria’s Bookshop was to make that sense of connection and belonging available to everyone in our community, beyond those who could afford to buy books or already saw themselves as readers.
This year, we worked toward that goal through three programs: new book donations and Golden Bookmarks, community literary events and The Reading Room.
In just over a year of operations, we distributed nearly 4,000 new books to Title I schools, families and community organizations, including Manna and Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Our Golden Bookmark program allowed first-time visitors to Maria’s Bookshop to shop and take books home at no cost. We organized over 50 free community events, from author visits in schools to poetry open mics and comic book illustration workshops for kids. We opened The Reading Room, a community space, reading nook and free bookshop for youths and welcomed about 2,500 visitors this year. We began working with the volunteer librarians at the La Plata County Jail to refresh their library and cataloging system, and ensure inmates have access to books they want to read, now that books can no longer be sent by mail.
Our work is about more than making the Maria’s Bookshop community available to everyone. There is a real need for programs that not only reduce barriers to book access but also make reading fun and accessible to kids and adults. Nationally, reading scores have steadily declined since 2017. Public schools are losing libraries and librarians, and nearly 50% of American children lack access to books at home. It is a testament to Durango’s schools and educators that our reading scores outpace the national average: 59% of K-5 students are reading at grade level and reading proficiency increased this year among K-3 students. However, we are not immune to the post-pandemic struggles students are facing across the country, and reading proficiency is decreasing for middle school and high school students. The problem is not limited to youths – according to a YouGov poll, about 50% of American adults did not read a single book in 2023. Our attention is more divided than ever before, with screens in our pockets and the internet at our fingertips.
Addressing the literacy crisis involves more than teaching kids and adults to read (a solution best tackled by educators, and one our own school district has invested heavily in), but also building an inclusive reading culture. At Maria’s Literary Foundation, our focus is less on the question “can you read?” and more on “do you read?” This is why our programs are designed to create joy around reading. It is why we created a space where kids and teenagers can play games, make art or hang out with their friends, while new books (free for them to take home and keep) are all around them. It is why we center freedom of choice and give folks the chance to build their own home libraries with the books that interest them. Our Golden Bookmarks go to schools, community organizations such as Manna or the Durango Adult Education Center, and to people getting on their feet after experiencing homelessness or incarceration. Everyone deserves access to books that make them feel seen, transport them to worlds and inspire them to change their own.
Maria’s Literary Foundation is still a new organization, building programs that supplement the work of this community’s excellent public library, schools and other nonprofit organizations. At our core, we are a community bookstore, which means we will always listen to the needs and interests of the people we serve and respond in the best way we know how – by building community through books.
Nina Lundstrom is executive director of Maria’s Literary Foundation.
