Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Lemieux
Hi Katy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Talking Animals was started in the summer of 2022 when I decided to pursue this as an actual project. I created a Kickstarter campaign and raised $54,000. Then I met my business partner Valerie Walizadeh in October and the rest is history! It had been a dream of hers and a reinvention of a dream of mine (I’d imagined opening a theater company someday, while Valerie had always wanted to own a bookstore!)
Valerie and I are great partners and we work in similar ways. We have loved developing the events in our store and finding reasons to have parties and celebrations here. In early March, we were the bookseller for the North Texas Teen Book Festival, selling over 10,000 books to 15,000 attendees. We have been astonished by our rapid growth and are working hard to keep up with our own momentum!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A major struggle was the property I originally imagined in a very different location. The landlord gave us an insulting offer, and we moved on. When we found our Main St location, we knew it was serendipitous. The walking traffic is exactly what we wanted, and that initial disappointment became a benefit. Then we weren’t approved for a loan, which seemed devastating at the time but in reality would have set us up to have incredibly high payments before even opening. Every struggle we have encountered has ended up a blessing in disguise.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have been an arts reporter and nonprofit arts administrator specializing in development and have dedicated my career to the arts and literature. I specialized in theater and the performing arts as a reporter, but love all kinds of literature. My background is in traditional and classical literature, which are among the core tenets of my undergraduate education at the University of Dallas. I am also the development director at Deep Vellum Publishing in Dallas. Deep Vellum is a mission-driven literary nonprofit and largest publisher of translated literature in the world, dedicated to publishing diverse voices, engaging cultural dialogue, and creating space for writers and artists. Deep Vellum is the world’s largest publisher of translated literature, and now the largest publisher of Texas authors right here in Dallas. My work involves grant writing, donor engagement, and strategic fundraising efforts to support Deep Vellum’s publishing initiatives, educational programming, and community-focused literary events. As an arts and culture reporter, I wrote about for various publications, covering theater and nonprofit arts organizations, but I first became “known” for a story in 2017 that revealed sexual abuse allegations toward a senior member of a large arts org in Dallas. The work was hard but connected me to a lot of people and gave me a degree of trust, I think. Beyond that story, which was hard and sad, I am especially interested in the significance of artistic expression in shaping communities and preserving cultural heritage.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
The first bit of luck was the original store falling through. Then I was fortunate to get early advice from a friend that I needed a business partner. A few days later, I had lunch with Valerie, and we hit it off immediately. I am not sure I would have thought I needed a partner right away, and I am so glad those two chance meetings happened the way they did. We call ourselves yin and yang. What sends me spiraling doesn’t even faze her, and I can talk to pretty much anyone for the both of us, which she appreciates as an introvert.
I know there have been many instances where I was fortunate to be where I was at the time, but looking back, I can also see how my beliefs have led me into these incredible situations that have changed my life. I have always been easily bored with jobs, and working in the way that I have has given me less financial security but way more freedom to understand myself and how I work best. I fundamentally believe art is what matters most, and at the core of art is a story. And ultimately, our stories are about being human, how we hurt each other, and also heal. How we interact with the earth, how we want to believe in something beyond what we can imagine. Art is there to express something we can’t quite convey. The story is in the discovery: now it fills us up so much that it has to be shared with the world. Translated into something only we can convey to one another and it is true. It’s why books and art are the first things to go when fascists take over. The free expression of the creative human mind can be a harbinger of dissent. Oppressors rely on everyone falling into line and never questioning anything. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many artists also happen to collide with other communities beyond the status quo, particularly Queer people and people of color. When we let people speak their truths they are often uncomfortable and that should be ok. We should be evolving to understand our increasingly complex needs, instead, we have become complacent
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.talkinganimalsbooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkinganimalsbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkinganimalsbooksGV
- Twitter: https://x.com/_talkinganimals
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkinganimalsbooks
Image Credits
Courtney Murray
Talking Animals Books
