08-07-2025
Writing studio and bookstore coming to Candler Park
Atlanta literary nonprofit Lostintheletters is opening its first brick-and-mortar space in Candler Park to celebrate the craft of creative writing.
Why it matters: While Atlanta boasts vibrant arts, music and networking scenes, dedicated spaces for creative writing — reading it, hearing it, creating it — are hard to find.
The details: Located on McLendon Avenue in the former Flying Biscuit Cafe location near Candler Park Market and Gigi's, the new space will be a writers studio and curated bookstore.
The studio, an expansion of the nonprofit's weekend writing programs, will offer monthly members set hours in a distraction-free environment four or five days a week where people can focus and create.
Outside of those hours, the space will become a public bookstore featuring titles by local and national authors with Lostintheletters ties and a venue for readings and workshops.
Catch up quick: Founded in 2012 by Atlanta writer Scott Daughtridge DeMer, Lostintheletters has drawn talents like Roxane Gay, Jericho Brown and Sabrina Orah Mark into Atlanta's literary orbit.
Its Letters Festival, workshops and readings at venues like the Goat Farm Arts Center, Whitespace Gallery and the Atlanta Contemporary have nurtured a creative writing community.
DeMer, Lostintheletters' executive director, says he and his wife, creative director Stephanie Dowda DeMer, were inspired by similar "homes for writers" in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Poets) and Nashville (The Porch).
What they're saying:"There just isn't a community place to come together for creative writing [in Atlanta]," says Stephanie, who co-founded the Letters Festival. She will program the space and events and curate a rotating visual arts exhibition.
"It felt almost necessary to really think about that and try to create this space — for writers and readers in Atlanta."
Zoom out: The team is also launching "Reading Required," a multi-week program incentivizing people to meet reading goals — part of the nonprofit's mission to support readers as well as writers.
