An artsy Austin power couple is moving their charming stationery store and expanding it into an independent bookstore. Noah Hawley, who created the TV shows Fargo and Alien: Earth, and his writer and artist wife, Kyle Hawley, will open Letterpress Play & Books at 2209 S. 1st St., Ste. 101, early this October.
Kyle founded Letterpress Play in 2018, and the bookstore is Noah's contribution. The business was originally an homage to letterpress printing, the type that is done by stamping ink onto paper. It sells cards as well as a small selection of notebooks, writing supplies, paper toys, apparel, and, yes, a small selection of local books. It moved onto South Congress Avenue in 2021.
The current shop is located at 2002 S. Congress Ave., just half a mile from its post-move destination. The new location is bigger, a press release says, at more than 3,600 square feet. Almost a third of that will just be for books.
The business announced the move on Instagram before it announced the bookstore details. The initial announcement also teased that Later Gator Coffee Co. would also move into the space. Lator Gator is a Louisiana-inspired coffee and matcha trailer that tops its drinks with fun little treats like sprinkles and marshmallows. Now it will operate a counter inside the store.
Though Noah, a novelist who wrote Before the Fall and five other books, was the driving force behind the book portion of the store, Kyle's stylistic choices will be all over it. She channeled inspiration from bookstores and vintage shops in London and Paris, and there are plenty of custom touches that will make the new store an elegant shopping destination.
Existing fans of Letterpress Play can rest assured that much of what they already love about the shop is moving over, including its signature offerings, a room just for letterpress greeting cards, and a place to sit that feels like a living room. A new patio will mean that guests can now sit outside, too.
Community programming will also continue, and will now include book and author events alongside the existing printing and crafting events and children's story times. The first event scheduled for the new space will be a talk between Noah and Alice Hoffman, who will publish her new novel, The Witches of Cambridge, on October 13. The new space will also host a book club starting in early 2027.
“At Letterpress Play & Books, we believe that when you pluck the right combination of words and pictures off of the shelf, you can explain the unexplainable," said Noah Hawley in the release. "In our gallery of 10,000 worlds, there is a book for every mood, a journey to satiate each yearning, a story to soothe your unquiet mind. Plus, coffee! Come join our community of regulars (and irregulars). Whether you want to get lost or be found, there is a book for you at Letterpress Play & Books."
