Linda Kass
FOUNDER AND OWNER
Linda Kass, founder and owner of Gramercy Books, grew up on Columbus’s east side. Trained as a journalist, she began her career as a magazine reporter and correspondent for regional and national publications, such as Columbus Monthly, TIME, and The Detroit Free Press. After a decade working in corporate communications and public affairs within the cable television and broadcasting industries in Detroit and New York City, she returned to Columbus and co-authored The Real Life Nutrition Book (Penguin, 1992). Her debut novel, Tasa's Song, inspired by her mother’s early life in eastern Poland during the Second World War, garnered widespread praise following its May 2016 publication. Her second historical "novel-in-stories," A Ritchie Boy, was released in September 2020 and received the 2021 Gold Medal in Historical Fiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Coming in September of 2023 is her third historical novel, Bessie. Drawing on biographical and historical sources, Bessie reimagines the early life of Bess Myerson, the talented daughter of poor Russian Jewish immigrants, who, in the bigoted milieu of 1945, remarkably rises to become Miss America.
In the Columbus community, Linda is known as a strong advocate of education, literacy, and the arts, and has played leadership roles on the boards of the Bexley Schools, Bexley Education Foundation, Capital University, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Kidsohio.org, United Way of Central Ohio, and The Ohio State University. She was the founder of, and led, a successful Bexley author series for nine years prior to opening Gramercy Books, bringing internationally acclaimed authors to the community. That program is now under the auspices of Bexley Public Library. Along with curating all of the book-related events at Gramercy Books, she currently serves as an assistant editor for the online literary magazine, Narrative, is on the Editorial Board of Trillium, an imprint of Ohio State University Press, and is a Trustee of Kenyon Review. Besides her love of reading and writing, attending live concerts of all kinds of music, seeing films, traveling, and spending time with family and friends, Linda is an avid long distance road cyclist and rides every year in the grass roots cycling event, Pelotonia, to support cancer research. She is thrilled to bring a neighborhood indie bookstore to Bexley and to serve book lovers throughout central Ohio!