An interior portrait photograph by Dave Decker showing Mitzi Jo Gordon (L) and Micheal Hooker at Palimpsest book studio in Ybor City, Florida. Captured in a wide horizontal shot inside a vibrant studio room with bright orange walls and white trim, Mitzi Jo Gordon sits centrally on a grey upholstered bench, wearing a black V-neck top, a colorful floral midi skirt, clear-framed glasses, short dark hair with green-tinted bangs, and extensive right-arm sleeve tattoos. Beside her on the right, Micheal Hooker leans casually against a wooden desk with one arm extended outward, smiling and wearing a black sleeveless mock-neck top, dark wide-leg trousers, and long curly hair. The background features a vintage cream swivel chair, a low bookshelf filled with books, a desk lamp, a framed black-and-white landscape photograph on the left wall, Venetian blinds, a mustard-gold curtain on the right, and a checkered rug under warm indoor lighting.
Mitzi Jo Gordon (L) and Micheal Hooker at Palimpsest book studio in Ybor City, Florida. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

It’s no secret that bookstores are having a moment as they pop up at rates higher than they’ve been in a century, and Tampa Bay’s been in on the movement.

Just last week, South Tampa’s House of Analog’s welcomed Itimpi Books. St. Pete’s seen new shops like Pages & Perks and Reverie Room are now open. And in Ybor City, Bookends has finally cut the ribbon on its bungalow.

Also in Tampa’s most famous historic district, Palimpsest (stylize it “Pal•imp•sest”) is so much more than a store.

Opening this month, the studio offers books ($7-$25), zines, and select consignment items. Founders Micheal Hooker and Mitzi Jo Gordon are no strangers to lit-minded Tampeños (having run the Lector book and wine bar and Bluebird Books Bus, respectively) and launched Palimpsest to honor their combined passion for nontraditional spaces (the word itself references a writing surface that bears traces of its earlier form).

Their new spot, located within the Kress Contemporary in Ybor City, promotes analog culture via what’s on the shelves and on the programming calendar for readers and writers. There are open hours (Friday-Sunday, Noon-4 p.m.), special events, and more.

Hooker, poet Tyler Gillespie and others will take the mic at 7:30 p.m. on opening night, Thursday, Nov. 19. Doors open at 6 p.m., and there’s no cover.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...