Olivia Nightingale’s bookstore will be called Crowne Books.

Olivia Nightingale is on a mission. She’s going to open Utah’s first Black bookstore.

A bibliophile, romance author and book editor, she has gone “book hopping” all over Utah at indie bookstores.

As such, she knows that Utah has an appetite for niche bookstores: the Beehive State is now home to four romance bookstores (Lovebound Library, Lagg, Enemies to Lovers and The Romantics Archive) as well as speciality fantasy (The Legendarium) and LGBTQ+ stores (Under the Umbrella).

Those stores have become a third space, a social environment outside of work and home, for many book lovers.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that we are really kind of lacking third spaces for Black people,” Nightingale, who moved here in 2021, said. “I think Utah, not only could support, they want to see a Black bookstore in our state.”

Nightingale took that test to social media. On Sunday, she shared an Instagram video pitching her idea: The National Association of Black Bookstores found in a 2025 report that there are 14 states without a Black-owned bookstore. Utah is one of them.

In less than a week, on Juneteenth, she’s going to try to open her bookstore. Or, the starting version of it.

“What’s becoming really popular … and a great way to test the market, especially with a niche concept with a Black bookstore, is to run a pop-up or a book mobile,” she said.

Several bookstores in Utah — like the 1974 Bookstore and The Book Box — started off as book carts or book trucks. Ultimately, Nightingale hopes to open her brick-and-mortar in Utah sometime in 2027. But in the meantime, she has started a GoFundMe to kick-start things.

Launching the endeavor during Juneteenth is important to Nightingale. The federal holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

“I do really see Black books as a liberating thing. … Literacy is liberation,” Nightingale said, “Because for many, many years Black people weren’t even legally allowed to read or write; it was outlawed, and so that’s why I really want to push the fact that literacy is not only important, but it is actually a real blessing if you are around today in the United States, and you are Black.”

Nightingale plans to call her bookstore Crowne Books, a name that stems from her own journey with her natural hair.

“Kind of treating your crown, treating the knowledge you put into your head, and Black literature as something that is royal [and] precious,” Nightingale explained.

At her mobile, and later her store, Nightingale will carry books written by or about African Americans in the African diaspora.

The importance of opening this store in Utah — where the latest Census data states that 1.7% of the population identifies as Black, and where a list of banned books in public schools continues to grow — is always on her mind.

“Utah’s Black population is small but mighty,” Nightingale said. “We are long overdue for something like a Black bookstore.”

Nightingale said people can keep up with her book mobile and store journeys on social media.