Gale Massey interviews Florida author Lauren Groff about her new bookstore “The Lynx”

The Lynx Bookstore

601 South Main Street

Gainesville, FL 32601

Photo by Gale Massey

Photo by T-Rex

Introduction:

Walking into the bookstore, I noticed the open and high ceilings, the quiet hum of shoppers, the bookstore’s staff, and immediately felt at home. To my right, a large window let in an abundance of natural light, and just beyond that was a wall of books banned in Florida over which a Florida state flag with rainbow colors hung. I had driven to Gainesville to interview Lauren Groff about her new bookstore, The Lynx. It was the middle of the holiday shopping season, the café was serving lattes, as customers thoughtfully sorted through books and gifts. Lauren was busily stacking the shelves, but graciously took time to answer my questions over lunch at the Humble Pizza, next door.

Interview:

Gale Massey: Congratulations on creating such a beautiful space. The space itself reflects love for community and art. There was a great deal of planning and thought put into opening The Lynx and the effort to accomplish that received support from booksellers and readers nationwide. In order to accomplish that level of support, I have to think there was deep passion driving the project. Talk to me about the purpose of The Lynx.

Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff: The bookstore purpose is manifold. One of the purposes is to create a lighthouse, sort of showing that the rest of the country and world that Florida is not an intolerant backwater. It is full of good people who work very hard to allow for the freedom of expression, tolerance, and love of all people. And it’s not a narrow-minded place. It’s a place of many stories and one of them that’s being projected to the world is one of intolerance and hatred. But that’s not the story you live or I live. Part of the bookstore is serving as a giant symbol. But also, it’s a place of love in its own right. It’s a space where people can feel that they are accepted. They can see themselves in books. A lot of my LGBTQI+ often didn’t quite understand who they were until they saw themselves reflected in books.

GM: That’s a crucial moment for many people. I remember the first moment I saw myself reflected in a book, and it was pivotal. I know this is true for many people.

LG: Yes, and it’s very important to have this reflection happen at a time of life when you need it most. A lot of these important books are being withdrawn from schools and libraries. Where else are people going to find them? We love people coming in and just exploring. If any of the politicians who are in support of banning books were to come into the store, we would love it. Because we would love to pile these books into their arms.

GM: This speaks to the purpose which is to bolster resistance to oppression, but The Lynx also celebrates the joy found in books in diverse voices.

LG: Yes! We’re here to be a place of celebration. We’re celebrating LGBTQI voices, we’re celebrating the voices of Black, Brown, Indigenous writers. We’re celebrating the stories that are being cut from text books, because they make certain people feel uncomfortable about our collective past. We believe that a society in which there are many voices, many opinions, many strains of thought is a rich and worthy society to be in, and shutting down other people’s avenues is only going to harm us all, harm the entire community. So, I see the bookstore as not only a symbol of resistance, but an actual space of resistance.

Gale Massey

GM: There’s a lot of power in building a physical space of resistance. That’s reflected in the many literary and art events that are hosted here. And now there is The Lynx Watch. Tell me about that.

LG: It’s a non-profit that we started in May. So far, the purpose of that is to give out banned and challenged books. We’ve given out more than twenty-thousand dollars in books. We want to be the Dolly Parton’s of Florida. Because we believe that people need to see themselves. We believe the authoritarian imposition of which narratives are correct is the point of the spear of worse things. In 1823 the German poet, Heinrich Heine said, “The places which burn books will also one day burn people.”

GM: So, The Lynx is here to fight against the authoritarianism that the governor and legislature have brought to Florida.

LG: And we don’t want this authoritarianism to spread. We want to put up as much resistance as possible. It’s going to get darker into the future and I also think that Gainesville is progressive. So, if there is going to be a place that is subversive against the loud voices it’s going to be Gainesville. Even though we’re in the center of the state and the center of the swamp. This is the place where things happen in Florida.

GM: How do you see this fight against authoritarianism affecting the children who are in school right now, growing up in a society that bans books?

LG: I have children so it’s actually effecting my household. So, we have multiple avenues of trying to influence and expand people’s understanding. One is simply being here as a place where anyone can come in and spend hours exploring and learning and finding themselves. It’s important that that be the case because of what’s happening in the libraries and classrooms in the state of Florida. So, over five-thousand individual titles have been banned or challenged in the state of Florida. The mere fact that we have a lot of these books in the store is really important. The 501C3 allows us to give these books out to people.

GM: How does the purpose of the bookstore support and interface with local schools and libraries?

LG: Librarian and school teachers are the avantgarde of the resistance in this country. They are the ones doing the work. And it’s not just the overt acts; there’s a chilling effect because now there’s an environment of terror, a very oppressive environment. A friend who is a fifth-grade teacher used to teach the holocaust though the graphic novel, Mouse, a banned book in many counties. She took it off of her shelf because she was afraid a parent would come make a big fuss and she would lose her job. So that’s the chilling effect that’s the most concerning thing for me. These are people who have dedicated their lives doing something that’s poorly enumerated, out of love for children, out of love for education, and they’re scared. That’s really wrong.

GM: Giving out banned books flies in the face of what’s happening in Florida right now. It seems perfect to fight oppression.

LG: Yes. Books like Othello by Shakespeare, titles by Toni Morrison, and Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale have been banned. Frankly, it’s offensive. And one of the things we do is bring a lot of attention to the books that have been banned in the state. We give them away, which is another beautiful thing that’s happening. My publisher, Riverhead, and Brooklyn’s Books Are Magic, organized fundraisers for us. There are lot of people from all over the country who are engaged in the act of civil disobedience against the authoritarians. It’s not a taunt; it’s a promise. We’re not going to take this lack of tolerance, lack of freedom, without fighting back.

GM: What sort of pushback do you expect?

LG: The legislators love private business. It’s their realm in which they play. But if they start going after booksellers, which has happened historically, if we get in trouble for selling for instance, Gender Queer, which is the number one most banned book on the planet and booksellers started getting arrested, they should arrest me first. There are a lot of people all over the country who are invested in the success in what we’re doing.

GM: That would be a dark day in Florida.

LG: They would do it to make a statement. I am more than happy to be the person. The bookstore is in my name. So, if anyone gets arrested, it will be me. It’s better me than anyone else.

GM: Thank you, Lauren. There may indeed be dark days ahead, but your courage is contagious and inspiring booklovers to unit. The Lynx is indeed a lighthouse for the Florida and the U.S.

Donate to The Lynx Watch 501c3

Gale Massey is the author of the novel, The Girl from Blind River, which received a Florida Book Award, and the collection, Rising and Other Stories. Gale’s stories and essays may be found in Lambda Literary, the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Bay Noir, and Saw Palm. Massey, a Florida native, lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Lauren Groff has written five novels and two short story collections, including Fates and Furies, Florida, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds. She was named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME in 2024. Her short story collections include Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.