New bookstore Upstart and Crow "A living room for the city"

A new literary space has opened on Granville Island to share stories with Vancouverites in new and innovative ways. 

Upstart and Crow Co-founder Ian Gill says the idea behind the space is to open up different types of storytelling mediums.

“Stories take many forms,”  says Gill. “We will revere and revel in books here, but our larger idea is...finding different ways to uncover stories that aren’t necessarily bound in a book.”

Featuring a towering 10-foot shelf, dubbed “The Wall of Words,” the space is enticing from the very first glance. It holds three large tables for browsing, and an upstairs loft intended for writers in residence that also functions as a gallery. A comfy-looking sofa protrudes from the store’s back wall,  which is made entirely of cedar that was sourced and milled by the Heiltsuk nation. 

Imagine the undefeatable pairing of that West Coast forest smell, and the feeling of a new book in your hands.

 “A living room for the city,” says co-founder Zoe Grams. “Not the kind of living room where you kick your shoes off and binge watch Netflix, but the kind that feels very welcoming, very comforting— a space for feeling at home and feeling creative.” 

Upstart and Crow is more than just a house of books designed for a quick browse or shop. The space intends to serve as an intersection of narratives, a connective exchange of unexpected ideas and viewpoints, and a platform to uplift voices that are in the sprouting stage or have been squashed by societies ‘preferred’ narratives. 

Co-founders Zoe Grams and Ian Gill (Photo: Olivia Leigh Nowak.)

Gill and Grams are no strangers to creating opportunities to tell stories in an environmentally and socially conscious way. Grams is the founder of ZG Stories, a feminist marketing agency dedicated to story tellers and uplifting narratives or projects that effect positive social change. Gill is one of the individuals behind Salmon Nation, a story telling network and effort to re-frame the ways in which we understand the economy and the environment. Salmon Nation collaborates and works with communities spanning from California’s Sacramento River to Alaska’s Yukon River in Alaska. Through Upstart and Crow, the pair hopes to continue engaging with different communities. 

“Our first impulse is to have Indigenous storytellers here on location,” says Gill, “We want to be able to forge relationships with various communities up and down the West Coast”. 

While the co-founders are concerned with honouring local relationships and story, they also acknowledge the treasures and necessities of international perspectives and narratives. 

As Grams points out, only two percent of Canadian book sales are from international authors, so she hopes that Upstart and Crow can weave in international narratives and perspectives into the book choices of Canadian readers. “It’s incredible that we have such a strong tradition in supporting Canadian voices,” says Grams. “Place is very important to us, but, we are not just of this place, but of this time. We want to offer people stories and ideas that support them through this time period that we are all collectively in.” 

The curation of the books support the pair’s vision. The books will not be organized by genre, author or press, but by the type of experience a visitor might be interested in. Picture a Pulitzer Prize Modern Fiction title nestled next to a little-known, international non-fiction piece. Gill and Grams hope to curate literary curiosity. 

In addition to books, the space will sell products that they hope will pair perfectly with a book. 

“Candles, chocolate, tea, bath products, and stationary! Wherever possible, we chose women owned and Indigenous or Black owned companies, who each have their own interesting and individual story," says Grams.

“At Upstart and Crow, we want to acknowledge the significance of stories in our lives, and the significance of stories as a force of change, whether that be positive or negative.” 

This is a place where a visitor can explore unexpected narratives, feel welcomed to spend time with new perspectives, and leave with much more than just a book.