A room of their own
Maria's launches nonprofit foundation, reading room to bring books to those without

Many of us have attended a lavish party with Jay Gatsby and traveled through space and time with Madeleine L’Engle. Or we have lived on an animal farm with George Orwell or become friends with Holden Caulfield. We’ve reached these worlds and made friends with characters by having the opportunities to read books in a cozy and friendly space.

Now, Maria’s Literary Foundation, a new local nonprofit, is offering this opportunity to anyone who wishes to pick up a book and get lost in its pages. The nonprofit distributes new books to folks who might not have the opportunity to own their own and now also has a brick-and-mortar reading room so kids and adults alike can have a comfortable and welcoming space to do so.  

The Maria’s Literary Foundation was the brainchild of Evan Schertz, owner of Maria’s Bookshop. After mulling over his appreciation for the Durango community and how much it has shown up to support the local bookshop over the years, he wanted to do something to give back. 

His idea for the foundation can be traced to other literary nonprofits, such as the World Literary Foundation and Room to Read, which provide free books to underserved communities.

After some research and applying for a seed-fund grant, the Maria’s Literary Foundation was solidified in the fall of 2024. It has been bolstered by a fiscal sponsorship from the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado and the logistical grit of Nina Lundstrom, now the Literary Foundation’s executive director.

Lundstrom has been working at Maria’s in various capacities for a few years, and in that time gained the knowledge, experience, passion and figurative dirt under her nails to run the organization. Regardless of her depth of experience, though, she was a little surprised when Schertz asked her to be the ED of the new nonprofit. 

“I said, ‘Heck yeah, I’d love to,’ and I also said, ‘I’ve never run a nonprofit before, are you sure you don’t want to pick someone who has?’” Nina jokes. Her humility shows through, but she’s obviously apt for the job. Day by day she is sifting through the slog of paperwork, logistics, program creation and grant writing – everything to make sure the organization grows and thrives. This has been her job since the foundation was announced at Maria’s 40th anniversary party in September. 

“Once we told people about it, we just hit the ground running,” Lundstrom said.

The announcement caused an onslaught of support that has helped the new nonprofit grow and connect with other local organizations. In four short months, the foundation has donated new books to Chapter One, a literacy program at public schools, and the La Plata Family Centers Coalition. It has installed a children’s book library near the food pantry at Manna, so while parents shop for food, kids can pick out a book. The foundation has also provided books by Indigenous authors for every Native American child at Park Elementary. 

They stocked a library full of books at Seed Studio for their Art and Lit program – a program in which preschoolers read a book and make art inspired by the book. In addition, the foundation has given out golden bookmarks – book vouchers – to individuals and organizations such as the Rainbow Youth Center so kids, adults or whoever, can come into Maria’s and buy a book at no charge.

Although Maria’s Literary Foundation is breaking new ground in Durango, a handful of bookshops around the country have created similar nonprofits. The King’s English, in Salt Lake City, created a nonprofit called Brain Food Books to expand book accessibility to the younger generation, as has Books & Books Literary Foundation in Key West, Fla.

It was a fortuitous connection when the latter helped create Maria’s Literary Foundation’s new Reading Room located at 145 E. College Dr. Ste. 10W (next to Lemonhead Salon). 

“The plan was to slowly launch Maria’s Literary Foundation,” said Lundstrom. “We thought we’d donate some books and figure out exactly what our programming is going to look like, taking it one step at a time… we certainly had not planned on opening a secondary space this year.” 

But when fate shows up at your door, as it did for the Maria’s Literary Foundation, you have to let it in. In this case, the owners of Books & Books happened to have a personal connection with the owners of a newly available downtown Durango storefront. When the space became vacant in the latter part of 2024, the owners hoped they could create something like what Books & Books had in Florida. 

It was about this time that the property owners caught wind of Maria’s Literary Foundation and approached Shertz and Lundstrom about using the space as a safe space for kids to hang out and read. 

“It was one of those wonderful moments where multiple people were seeing a need and thinking about the same thing all at once,” Lundstrom said.

The Literary Foundation moving into the space in mid-December 2024. Since then, Lundstrom has spent most of her waking hours preparing it for its soft opening Feb. 3 and its upcoming grand opening this Fri., Feb. 21. 

The Reading Room is filled with cozy couches, chairs, soft lighting, rugs, coffee tables and, of course, shelves of books, games and writing tools. There are even a few typewriters. 

Lundstrom plans on hosting writing workshops, classes, author events and even some game nights. (While I was visiting, two teens stopped in to ask about setting up a D&D night.) Whatever the community wants to see, Lundstrom said she is open to adapting the space as seen fit. 

“It’s a work in progress,” she says. “Sometimes just being surrounded by books is enough to get you inspired to write or create some art or whatever. You don’t have to be reading while you’re in here.” 

You don’t have to read, but it is advised that you at least admire the carefully arranged furniture (gifted from members of the community) and take note of all the nooks that coax you to sit down and go on an adventure with Huck Finn, Holden or Gatsby.

“I want it to feel like the magical experience of being in your indie bookstore, where it’s a carefully curated selection of new books,” Lundstrom said. “We’re trying to give that experience to folks who would otherwise not be shopping in an indie bookstore.”