Femme Fire Books in Jacksonville, Fla., closed December 28 after more than three years in business. Owner Vanessa Nicolle opened the physical bookstore in the summer of 2022 as an expansion of her previously online and pop-up event sales model for books written by women and people of color.
Nicolle had shared her plans to close the bookshop earlier this fall, noting: "I have made a big decision to go back to school in 2026 and it is important to me to focus my energy towards my personal and educational goals. Opening this bookstore in 2022 gave me such a strong sense of purpose and is the proudest work I've ever done to date.... Bookselling is a challenging industry and despite everything FFB has always been so much more than just selling books. It has been a place of curiosity, connection, joy, and reclamation through diverse stories."
In a recent social media post, Nicolle wrote: "Closing the doors today feels a lot like finishing the best book I've ever read. All the emotions of the story still feel raw. I find myself missing all the characters from the book. And I'm so shook that it's ended that I don't know what to read next. That I loved this book so much that when I finish, it feels like there is no possible way another book could top it.
"But there's always more stories to be read. And if I just keep reading the same story, I might not find that there's an even more exciting one waiting for me out there on the shelf. And if it's not on the shelf, maybe it just hasn't been written yet. Thank you all for being a part of our story at Femme Fire Books."