Opening Chapter
With their collaboration, the newly opened Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, Beth Murray and Rachel Pastan celebrate literature and community.
A new independent bookstore opening its doors is a reason to celebrate. Just ask anyone who spends time in Swarthmore, the town that recently welcomed Celia Bookshop, brought to life by two familiar faces within the community: Beth Murray, who owns the store; and Rachel Pastan, the store’s literary director.
“It’s been amazing so far,” says Pastan, a novelist whose titles include In the Field, Alena, and Lady of the Snakes. “We had so many people at the grand opening, we couldn’t move in the store for part of the time. … We really have been overwhelmed, mostly in good ways.”
In Celia, Murray and Pastan saw the fulfillment of a community need and a good business opportunity, but they also just really adore books. For Pastan, recent favorites include The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai and The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. Murray counts Orbital by Samantha Harvey and The Original by Nell Stevens among her most memorable reads.
Celia has thousands of titles from which to choose, and Murray says she also wants the shop to serve as a “third place”—apart from work and home—where people can “feel comfortable wandering and hanging out.” The coffee station, snacks for sale, and café tables will certainly help, along with the team of booksellers eager to discuss their favorite reads.
“We have seven employees, including three adults who are doing this only because they love books,” Murray adds. “We have two college students who are really helpful, plus two high school students, and we’re leaning into them about what high school kids want to read. We feel really lucky to have a terrific group of fun and kind people who are choosing to work here.”
Q&A
Rachel, you’re a novelist, and Beth, you have a rich background in education, community outreach, and environmental work. How and why did you two decide to join forces in this endeavor?
Pastan: We’re both active in town in lots of ways, and Beth especially has been heading up all kinds of things to help the community. She’s also someone who goes to bookstores whenever she’s traveling. She was having coffee with a friend at a coffee shop in town, looking at a building right across the street, and said, “Wouldn’t an independent bookstore be a great thing for the community?” That wasn’t the building we are in now, but that was the start. I was at a writing conference [in 2023] when she called me and said, “Do you think you and I should start it?”
Rachel, you’re a novelist, and Beth, you have a rich background in education, community outreach, and environmental work. How and why did you two decide to join forces in this endeavor?
Pastan: We’re both active in town in lots of ways, and Beth especially has been heading up all kinds of things to help the community. She’s also someone who goes to bookstores whenever she’s traveling. She was having coffee with a friend at a coffee shop in town, looking at a building right across the street, and said, “Wouldn’t an independent bookstore be a great thing for the community?” That wasn’t the building we are in now, but that was the start. I was at a writing conference [in 2023] when she called me and said, “Do you think you and I should start it?”
Murray: From that initial call in July 2023, we started doing our homework and research, having fun ideas to think about, and interviewing other bookstores. Bookstore owners and managers are happy to talk to other people who want to open bookstores. We also decided we had to join the American Booksellers Association, which has an annual conference every February. That year [2024] it was in Cincinnati, so we went to Cincinnati, and at the end of the conference, we said, “We can do this. We have enough support in this independent bookstore world, and we can make this work.”
Rachel, as literary director, there’s a lot to choose from—almost an infinite universe of books. Tell me about the lineup of books you’re curating at Celia.
Pastan: It’s still a work in progress. There are books I love and communities I love, and as a bookstore the inventory needs to reflect who we are and what our tastes are. Our vision leans more literary, and it leans more into fiction than general interest. We have a lot of literary fiction, but also plenty of mainstream fiction, a nice selection of horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and a great kids’ section.
Pastan: It’s still a work in progress. There are books I love and communities I love, and as a bookstore the inventory needs to reflect who we are and what our tastes are. Our vision leans more literary, and it leans more into fiction than general interest. We have a lot of literary fiction, but also plenty of mainstream fiction, a nice selection of horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and a great kids’ section.
For anyone who hasn’t been to the store yet, what can they expect, besides a bunch of books to add to their TBR piles?
Murray: We’re reaching into our connections in the literary community and lining up authors. We can never compete with Amazon on price and selection, but we do have resources like Swarthmore College. What we can do is bring people in who are experts at what they do and host events with them at the center. We’re doing something called “In Case You Missed It,” about a book you might have read but don’t quite understood what it’s about. For our first one, we have a professor of Russian literature [Sibelan Forrester] who will be discussing Anna Karenina. … We’re also working to celebrate writers in the community who want to do a book launch here with friends and family. We’re serving the community while also serving our literary and intellectual aspirations.
Murray: We’re reaching into our connections in the literary community and lining up authors. We can never compete with Amazon on price and selection, but we do have resources like Swarthmore College. What we can do is bring people in who are experts at what they do and host events with them at the center. We’re doing something called “In Case You Missed It,” about a book you might have read but don’t quite understood what it’s about. For our first one, we have a professor of Russian literature [Sibelan Forrester] who will be discussing Anna Karenina. … We’re also working to celebrate writers in the community who want to do a book launch here with friends and family. We’re serving the community while also serving our literary and intellectual aspirations.
Photo by Andy Shelter Photography, courtesy of Celia Bookshop
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life, September 2025.
