New Bookstore, Writing Center to Open on Main Street

It all began with a dream Wendy Yusin shared with her mother.

And now, Yusin has purchased the old Suffolk Trust Building, located at 8 East Main St, in downtown Riverhead, for a place for the community to come together and nurture their artistic aspirations.

The new business, Jewl’s Book Shoppe and Writing Centre, will be a haven for readers and writers, Yusin said. “It will be the bookshop and writing center for the writers of today,” she said.

Although her mother, Jane Yusin, a registered nurse who painted watercolors, died in October, her dreams will live on in the vision her daughter helps to bring to life. Losing a loved one puts everything in perspective, Yusin said.
“I thought, ‘I need to do this.’”

Each letter of the new business’s name represents the first letter of her great-grandmother’s, grandmother’s, mother’s, and her own name -- a long line of women who nurtured Yusin’s hopes and aspirations.

A forensic accountant and teacher by trade, Yusin, who has long harbored a passion for writing, hopes to create a haven for writers -- and shepherd the idea of the traditional bookstore into a new age.

Writers will be able to attend seminars to help get their ideas for books into publishable form, then self-publish ebooks and even have copies printed, that will be sold in the book shop.

“I want to help them become successful, to realize their dreams,” Yusin said.

Suffolk County poet laureate Ed Stever will also be involved with workshops, and helping to nurture works of local college students.

Yusin, who teamed up with architect Heather Brin to completely renovate the building -- which still has a vault inside -- said, as a forensic accountant, a financial institution is the perfect place for her new dream to take shape.

“My background is finance and banking,” she said. “This is karma. The planets are just lining up.”

The new bookstore will invite customers to bring their Kindles and Nooks, and to embrace both new technology and traditional books, Yusin said. “It’s really the bookstore of the future,” she said. She added that her goal is to shepherd the traditional book store into the next step and new age of publishing.

Also on site will be spaces for artists to exhibit their work and a pottery kiln. Talks are ongoing for a possible yoga retreat in the space, as well.

Yusin invites the whole community to be involved as her project takes shape. “I think it’s going to be great for Riverhead,” she said.

“She has a vision for a community center,” agreed Chris Kempner, director of Riverhead Town’s Community Development Agency. “It’s going to be a great addition to downtown.”