A bookstore is terrific, and Wichita has an excellent bookstore, the locally owned Watermark Books. They have a cafe, a great community, and, of course, all kinds of books for every age and interest.
One of the things that makes Watermark Books so special is its ability to bring authors and the community together. They regularly host author talks, which are usually free; simply purchase the featured book to participate, unless otherwise noted. Plus, they offer free story times every Saturday, making it a fantastic spot for book lovers of all ages. This independent bookstore is truly a local gem in Wichita!
You’ll find Watermark at the corner of Douglas and Oliver, just east of College Hill on Douglas Ave. You can’t miss it, and there’s plenty of parking for the store and its neighboring local businesses.
About Watermark Book Store: Watermark Books & Café has been a cornerstone of the Wichita community since 1977, when Bruce Jacobs and Carolyn Sakowski opened it downtown to bring readers together. In 1996, Sarah Bagby became the majority owner, relocating the store to Lincoln Heights Village and adding a made-from-scratch café, which helped revitalize the area.
Over the years, Watermark has welcomed thousands of authors, from Stephen King to Liane Moriarty, and continues to host engaging author events. The store has also expanded into publishing and distribution, with Watermark Press producing acclaimed books and shipping thousands of copies worldwide.
Dedicated to fostering literacy, Watermark launched the Authors in Schools Fund, providing author experiences and books to Title 1 schools in Wichita, ensuring children—many receiving their first book—can connect with authors.
Whether you’re looking for the perfect book, attending an author event, or enjoying the café, Watermark remains a beloved local treasure. Watermark Website
Watermark Books StoryTime:
Watermark Books & Café Presents “Storytime Saturdays” – A Free Weekly Event for Young Readers
Join us every Saturday for Storytime Saturdays at Watermark Books & Café! Designed for children ages 2-6, this engaging weekly event features the reading of two carefully selected books, followed by a fun, hands-on activity. Watermark’s Children’s Coordinator, Kassandra, curates seasonal and holiday-themed stories to create an enriching experience for young readers and their families.
Saturday Storytime at Watermark Books is a must-visit and a family favorite! We love this unique bookstore, and whenever we’re available, you can bet we’ll be there.
April Events at Watermark Books
Page Getz, Tuesday, April 22nd at 6pm in person at Watermark Books & Cafe. Signed copies of A Town With Half the Lights On can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark Books is happy to welcome Page Getz to discuss her new novel, A Town With Half the Lights On.
A TOWN WITH HALF THE LIGHTS ON is a quirky, refreshing epistolary novel following a family of culture-shocked Brooklynites transplanted to Goodnight, Kansas as they fight for their unexpected lifeline: the legendary May Day Diner. Perfect for fans of Kitchens of the Great Midwest with an added dash of FX’s The Bear, it’s told through diary entries, emails, school notes, and a town paper of the Lady Whistledown variety.
PAGE GETZ is an author, teacher, and journalist who spent half her life in Kansas and the other half in California, working as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Pacifica Radio. Her work appears in many publications, reconciling themes of diaspora, mysticism, addiction, classism, labor justice, queerness, and small towns. She lives with her family and dogs in Vancouver, where she holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She is still recovering from the wayward youth and pathological idealism that inspires her work.
Watermark Books & Cafe is excited to announce an upcoming workshop designed to empower consumers with alternatives to Amazon for their reading and listening needs.
Read Independently: A Workshop on Divesting from Amazon will take place on April 24th at 6pm, offering practical guidance on supporting independent bookstores and ethical platforms.
Participants will explore options such as:
- Replacing Audible with Libro.fm for audiobooks
- Switching from Kindle to Bookshop.org for eBooks and print books
- Discovering The StoryGraph as an alternative to Goodreads for tracking and discovering books
This hands-on workshop will provide attendees with step-by-step instructions and valuable resources to make the transition seamless. By choosing these independent platforms, readers can support local bookstores and contribute to a more sustainable literary ecosystem.
Watermark Books and Café is happy to announce our participation in the 12th Anniversary of Independent Bookstore Day on April 26th!
Watermark Books and Café will have exclusive merch for sale, including a new Watermark Books T-Shirt, and there will be exclusive specials in the café. Activities will include a scavenger hunt, Spin to Win, author visits, giveaways, a local bookstore crawl, and more! Visit www.watermark.com to learn more.
Independent Bookstore Day (Indie Bookstore Day) was established in 2013 to promote, celebrate, and highlight the value of the Independent bookstore community. The day has been observed on the last Saturday of April every year since 2013. This year there are over 1,200 stores participating across the country.
Independent Bookstore Day is organized by the American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, that works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.
May Watermark Books Events in Wichita
Traci Brimhall, Current Kansas Poet Laureate, in conversation with Janice Northerns, Thursday, May 1st at 6:00 PM (CT) in person at Watermark Books & Cafe. Signed copies of Love Prodigal can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark is excited to welcome Traci Brimhall, as she will be reading from her new collection, Love Prodigal. Join us in-store for this event on Thursday, May 1st at 6:00 pm.
Traci Brimhall is a professor of creative writing and narrative medicine at Kansas State University. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including Love Prodigal (Copper Canyon, 2024). Her poems have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Nation, Orion, The New Republic, Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, and Best American Poetry. She’s received fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, the National Parks Service, the Academy of American Poets, and Purdue Library’s Special Collections to study the lost poem drafts of Amelia Earhart. She’s the current poet laureate for the State of Kansas.
Sarah Penner, Sunday, May 4th at 3pm (CT) in person at Watermark books. Signed copies of The Amalfi Curse can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark is excited to welcome Sarah Penner as she will be discussing her newest book, The Amalfi Curse. Join us in-store for this event on Sunday, May 4th a 3:00 pm. This is a ticketed event, and each ticket purchase includes a complimentary copy of the book.
Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea.
Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary and The London Séance Society. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and her debut, The Lost Apothecary, has sold over one million copies worldwide. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah spent thirteen years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. In her free time, Sarah enjoys hiking, yoga, and cooking. She also sits on the Board of Directors at her local animal shelter, Friends of Strays. Sarah and her husband, Marc, live in Florida.
To learn more, visit SarahPenner.com.
Bill Sampson, Thursday, May 15th at 6pm in person at Watermark Books & Cafe. Signed copies of Farieh can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark Books & Café is excited to welcome Bill Sampson to discuss his new novel Farieh. Join us in-store for this event on Thursday, May 15th at 6pm.
Farieh . . . a brilliant student begins her sophomore year in college. The academic success so dazzling her first year proves uneven in the second, while violence and betrayal stalk her most intimate relationships. Extraordinary circumstances rarely move in a straight line; a comfortable path may lead to a place not comfortable at all. Does she stay with Steven? How does she fight for her community? Can she hold onto her truth when thousands of classmates clamor that she lay it down? Farieh must summon all of her gifts to sort through hard choices familiar to young people everywhere.
Bill Sampson received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas before serving four years active duty as a Navy Judge Advocate.
?Returning to the Midwest, he enjoyed a successful career in the courtroom, achieving partnership at two prestigious law firms. He shared his skills in the classroom as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law and a Seminar Instructor in the KU Honors Program.
Bill retired from the legal profession in December of 2021. He lives in Lawrence with his wife, Dru. Their three children and seven grandchildren live in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Moscow, Idaho. Farieh, his second novel, follows Wheat Fields, published in 2023.
Kristen Strong in conversation with Pattie Reitz, Sunday, May 18th at 2pm in person at Watermark Books & Cafe. Signed copies of Desperate Woman Seeks Friends can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark Books is happy to welcome Kristen Strong to discuss her new book, Desperate Woman Seeks Friends. Join us in-store for this event on Sunday, May 18th at 2pm.
It’s not just you. Making friends is hard! But it’s not impossible. Through tell-it-like-it-is talk and vulnerable stories, Kristen wants to help you be a good friend to others and to yourself through principles and practices that give life to your friendships. And she wants to show you that while friends may fail you, your Friend Jesus never will. You’re meant to have lasting friendships that feed your heart and soul—you are not the exception.
Kristen Strong, is the author of Girl Meets Change and When Change Finds You, and the compiler of the 90-day devotional, Praying Through Loneliness. She writes as a friend walking alongside you in your lonely season to a more helpful, hopeful destination. She loves sharing laughs, long talks, and meaningful stories with family and friends while holding a cup of strong black tea. She and her US Air Force veteran husband, David, have three beloved adult children. Together this military family zigzagged across the country (and one ocean) several times before settling in Colorado Springs, Colorado. You can find her at kristenstrong.com, DaySpring’s (in)courage, and on Instagram @kristenstrong.
Garry Warner, Tuesday, May 27th at 6pm in person at Watermark Books & Cafe. Signed copies of Musings of a Wal-Mart Greeter can be purchased from Watermark Books & Cafe.
Watermark Books is happy to welcome Garry Warner to discuss his new book, Musings of a Wal-Mart Greeter. Join us in-store for this event on Tuesday, May 27th at 6pm.
For your enjoyment, and entertainment, he has compiled the collection of his very best stories that he has come across in the personable, folksy style that makes him excel at his position. All we can say is, “Attention Walmart shoppers, you are going to want one of these in your basket!”
Garry Warner was born in Syracuse, Kansas in 1943 and grew up on his parent’s family farm in southwest Kearny County, Kansas. After graduating from Syracuse High School, he attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas and Kansas State Teacher’s College (now Emporia State University) in Emporia, Kansas, where he majored in Music Education.
Most of his adult life was spent in the automobile business in Wichita, Kansas, Omaha, Nebraska, St. Louis, Missouri, and finally in Sikeston, Missouri. He was a minority partner in Warner Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC in St. Louis. He served on Pontiac and GMC zone dealer councils, and the GMC National Dealers Council. He has worked for Walmart Store Number 9 in Sikeston as a greeter/customer host since 2016.
Watermark Address: 4701 E Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS, United States, 67218
