Nancy Rutland, owner of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, informed store customers yesterday that, after more than 25 years running the full-service independent bookstore she opened in 1984, she is selling it to two employees. The new owners, veteran booksellers Wyatt Wegryzn and Danielle Foster, will assume ownership on Oct. 1. Wegryzn currently runs the back room at Bookworks, overseeing data entry and coordinating technology, while Foster is one of the store’s managers and buyers, as well as its bookkeeper and offsite events coordinator. Both previously worked for Barnes & Noble before joining Bookworks’s staff of six full-time and 12 part-timers several years ago.
“We’re doing great, it’s a wonderful time to leave the store to the next generation,” Rutland commented, “Wegryzn and Foster have books in their blood, they’re big readers, and they also have a lot of other skills.”
Bookworks, which expanded from a 600 square foot retail space to 3,000 square feet over the past quarter-century, is renowned for its lively author events drawing in huge audiences, and hosts more than 150 author events each year.
