Verdun's Pulp Books & Cafe
Verdun's Pulp Books & Cafe: A Bookstore, A Community, An Experience
If you’ve been in Montreal for a while, you probably noticed that the neighborhood of Verdun has undergone quite the transformation over the past couple of years. This lowkey Southwest borough has become almost unrecognizable with the influx of new businesses and a sudden array of public activities ranging from pedestrian-only streets in the summer, to cozy holiday markets in the winter. This transformation has been met with mixed feelings. Like other parts of the city, this change is tinged with the familiar air of gentrification. Many of the local businesses in the area find themselves trying to cement their place in this ever changing community. This is no easy task, especially during an era where local arts and education spaces are dealing with problems from soaring rent to rising conservative sentiments.
Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe, a perky anglo bookstore, finds itself in the middle of this new era for Verdun. It is difficult to miss Pulp Books when you’re strolling down Wellington. The bookstore beckons you with the word, ‘PULP,’ in bold bubble letters, emblazoned atop a display window that flaunts an array of colorfully curated books. Once you enter Pulp, you are welcomed by a funky color scheme and delectable scents emanating from the little corner cafe. “What we chose to do with the design and the space harkens back to 70’s Montreal, which is very intentional on our part to keep the soul of this area [intact]. I grew up in this area, the design of the store is basically modeled after my grandmother’s basement. Where it’s cozy, it’s warm, there’s lots of places to cozy up, and it smells like coffee and books in here.” Alex from Pulp books spoke with me about their journey so far into Montreal’s literature scene.
Pulp is the passion project of co-owners Alex Nierenhausen and Daphnée Anctil: “We were booksellers in Montreal for several years and at a certain point we just thought, why don’t we give this our own shot? (…) We already have the experience, we have the community, so we figured we would give it a go, and it has been a really great year.” Pulp opened on December 9 of 2023, yet in this short time they have managed to gather a hearty community of book lovers.
“Like any good bookstore, we have several book clubs. Right now we have four book clubs that meet here on a monthly basis. We always like to round it out with at least 2 book launches every month, and if we have time, we like to do poetry readings too. The poetry readings tend to be the most well attended events, (...) We also do other smaller, collaborative events. For instance, we do Reel Gay which are film screenings every month. We’re always doing something here.”
When speaking with Alex, it becomes clear that this bookstore is not just an endeavor between two book lovers, but an answer to a growing need for more accessible literature in a neighborhood that’s going through constant change. “There really was a need for a locally owned English language bookstore, in Verdun specifically. A year in…people still come in every week saying ‘Thank God you guys are here. We needed this. Verdun has been extremely warm and extremely welcoming.”
Alex expressed further how one of Pulp’s goals is to make reading more accessible, especially during a time where educational texts are under attack and misinformation runs rampant: “Literature has been gatekept for a long time…That’s not what the world of literature is anymore. It’s not reflective of that. This whole culture needs an overhaul. It’s happening and we want to be a part of that new generation… There’s a great literary community that spans all of Canada and it’s definitely more and more young people taking up the mantle. There is a changing of the guard occurring.”
This changing literary culture can definitely be felt once you walk into the bookstore with vibrant flowers, stripes painted on the walls, and cozy nooks framed with delightful houseplants. While you can find your typical classics like War & Peace or Jane Eyre, Pulp also carries a fair share of contemporary, entertaining, or just straight up campy reads. Visiting Pulp was the first time I discovered Julia Fox not only had a memoir, but that memoir was the current pick being discussed in one of Pulp’s book clubs! This lighthearted attitude towards reading is a breath of fresh air in a medium that can often be spoiled by its elitism. “We’re fun people – well, WE think we’re fun people [laughs], and we want our customers to have fun,” Alex expressed to me. “If you’re doing community work and you’re running a business for a community, there’s a way of doing it that is kind of sterile. [But] when you introduce fun and you introduce play into that, it becomes something more…We always say here that the experience is never ending. You buy the book, you read the book, you can come here and talk to us later about the book, and the experience keeps going. It’s this ever growing, ever moving thing.”
I was finding it difficult to not get lost in the sheer range of book selections. To browse the shelves and jump from the works of Angela Davis, to the latest disquieting Ottesa Moshfegh, to Cher’s memoir gave me the literary whiplash that I didn’t know I needed. This eclectic mix of literature is part of what makes Pulp unique, since the community plays a vital role in how Pulp curates its collections. “People place special orders for books with us like, literally every single day. It helps us keep our finger on the pulse of what people in the neighborhood want to be reading, which is a huge part of how we run this business. I always say half of the books on our shelves are picks from us, and the other half of the shelves are picks from our customers… The whole thing is this beautiful kind of collaborative experience.”
The community collaboration doesn’t stop at book selections. Touches of Verdun’s locals can be found across the bookstore. Pulp keeps a regular rotation of posters for nearby theatre productions, teach-ins, and open mics. Upon entry, you are greeted with a mini gallery featuring framed prints for sale from local artists, political posters free to the public, and little postcards stacked by an old school gumball machine that dispenses book recommendations (if you’re ever feeling stuck).
Beyond the fun and quirkiness though, Pulp also carries a more serious mission at the heart of its bookstore. Pulp’s book selection is vast, but it is also very intentional and carefully curated for a reason. “We have the things that we’re passionate about. We’re anti-genocide here, so we’re gonna be stocking literature that’s reflective of that…we’re stocking Palestinian literature here and our customers come in for that. That was one of the benefits of already having a presence in the city as booksellers, [especially] as very face forward booksellers. People knew who we were, they knew what our politics were… and for the new people who are finding us for the first time, you can pretty quickly look at our tables and find out if this shop is for you…People appreciate just the honesty behind that, of us saying, these are our politics… and that we do have a stance. I think it’s important for a lot of people, especially readers.”
During a time where education around topics like critical race theory, colonialism, gender and sexuality are under constant attack, safe literary spaces like Pulp are becoming more vital. “When you boil it down, we are in the business of entertainment, [but] we’re also in the business of education,” Alex explained, “so it’s important to us that people are given proper sources to educate themselves…the majority of people who walk through the door are so happy to see this literature, activist literature, front and center, not relegated to a little shelf in the corner of the shop, hiding and getting dusty, [but] showcased very intentionally in our window.”
In just a year, Pulp has managed to carve its own little nook in the larger Montreal literary community, and they don’t have any plans to slow down anytime soon. Even their recent merch drop is a series of shirts and totes featuring an imaginative vision of what Pulp might’ve looked like if it existed for 100 years. “I think we want to grow the space. What that looks like when that happens, we’ll see. Right now we’re very comfortable here… I think we have our footing pretty solid, but we want to leave room for growth. If we box ourselves in tomorrow…it doesn’t really allow for us to be flexible, and in this industry, you have to be flexible. I think it’s true for any small business. You have to be able to pivot immediately…So I think that’s kind of our long term plan is to remain flexible, grow with the business, don’t force it, and in the end always come back to our community and to our customers and listen to them, and to hear them and what they’re looking for out of spaces like this.”
With the impact they’ve had so far, Pulp aims to continue playing their part in making literature more accessible and knowledge sharing more fun! Alex ends our chat by reiterating, “At the end of the day, we want people to be learning, we want people’s perspectives to be changed by the literature that they’re engaging with, and we want to have fun!”
