Did you know Tiffany Phillips is both a lawyer and the owner of Wild Geese Bookshop? Her love for literature and books grew in her law practice and inspired a thriving, community-oriented bookshop in downtown Franklin. Let’s meet the woman behind Wild Geese Bookshop.
Q: Who are you, and how long has Wild Geese Bookshop been open?
A: I’m Tiffany Phillips; I own Wild Geese Bookshop. We opened in 2016, and we’ve been at this location for about two years.
Q: How did Wild Geese come to life?
A: We moved to Franklin because my husband took a job at Franklin College and I was practicing law for a company remote. I was managing their litigation and wanted to rent some space out in the community so I could get to know people a little bit better, maybe take a coffee break and actually interact with other people. We found this space over on Water Street that was available for rent and it was mixed-use ownership-wise, so they said it would be okay if we had a storefront in the beginning. So, we had a store in the front and my old office was in the back and it just sort of grew. Eventually that office became a children’s section, and I moved upstairs, and then after five years we moved here to this building. It was really important to me to move, mostly because we needed a ramp. There was not a great, easy way for the other space to be accessible. Franklin Heritage worked with me to help create a ramp that’s on the back of this house and helped renovate it, so we’ve been here for two and a half years now in this location.
Q: How did you decide on the name Wild Geese?
A: I named the bookshop Wild Geese after a poem by Mary Oliver because in the poem it talks about how you don’t have to walk on your knees through the desert repenting, you can love what you love. Also, we all have a lot in common and you can really listen to your heart. Opening this business was really about listening to my heart.
Q: What are your top five favorite books?
A: 1. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but I’ve been asked what my five favorite books are and I think my desert island picks would be Gift from the Sea by Anne Lindbergh. She had five children, I think, and one passed away tragically. She would go to Captiva and spend a couple of weeks every summer, and she draws parallels between the shells she would find on the beach and the metaphors that represent her life. It was written 50 years ago, but it’s just as relevant to today and what it means to be a person in the world.
2. Probably my all-time favorite novel is The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and it’s sort of about being trapped between two worlds of living in a place that your family has immigrated to and not feeling like you quite are at home in the place that you live or the place that you came from. She describes writing this book as being a passenger on a train and pausing and looking out the window and then moving forward. So you really do get to see this family at different junctors in their lives. It’s beautifully written and there’s also a really beautiful film adaptation.
3. You know, I know it makes me basic, but To Kill A Mockingbird. I love it. I read it in fourth grade and decided I was going to be a lawyer because of it. I’m still a lawyer. We all want to be Atticus. The older I get, the more I see myself in all the characters, but I love this book. There’s a reason why it’s banned and it’s because it will move you to feel connected to everyone.
4. Good Enough by Kate Bowler. She came last summer. It's a book of prayers, meditations, little encouragements, and I love this book for anybody who is going through something really difficult. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It’s not anything other than "I’m with you." I give this book all the time when someone is going through a hard thing.
5. The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson is very much about a woman’s story and her figuring out things about her past and who she is. I think I love women's stories where they get to explore who I am outside of all the roles, all the hats that I wear. It’s beautifully written.
Q: Do you have any exciting events coming up?
A: We have a lot of author events that we have scheduled this summer. You can check out our website under the events tab, but a lot of them are New York Times best selling authors with the must-read this summer titles that you keep seeing in the magazines. Several of them are coming, so we’re really excited about that. We partner with different venues in the county, so we go to the Artcraft Theatre, or The Sycamore at Mallow Run, or the Garment Factory and do a luncheon there, and we’ve teamed up with Main & Madison to do events there. We try to make sure it’s an experience that’s not just about meeting an author, but about having an experience, going somewhere maybe you haven’t been, meeting other bookish friends, and trying something new because everyone is lonely. We’re often behind our screens, so we try to get people together in real life.
Q: What is Independent Bookstore Day, and how does Wild Geese celebrate it?
A: Independent Bookstore Day is always the last Saturday of April and it’s celebrated all around the country. The idea is to celebrate the Indie in your area or go to a map and look to see if there’s one near you. We celebrate every year with lots of Indie Bookstore Day exclusives that you can only get on Independent Bookstore Day, not before.
Q: What is something you want readers to know?
A: Even if you don’t come to an event, I hope that you’ll join us. We’re open seven days a week. Come to the shop, browse, get a book, enjoy the porch, and meet a friend here. We really just believe we’re all better when we get together in real life. The great thing about an Indie bookstore is that we’re going to ask you, “What are you curious about?” or “What are you excited about?” An algorithm is going to judge your past and evaluate based on your past, but an Indie bookstore will show you what’s possible with where you are right now, and, hopefully, you will find something inspiring.
