With an $8000 loan against a used car, Judith Drinnan changed the literary landscape of the N.W.T.
CBC
Looking back on when she started the Yellowknife Book Cellar, Judith Drinnan admits she didn't know what she was doing at first.
She faced barriers in those early days too.
"I was a woman, anything I did at that point I had to take my husband along to sign the papers," she said.
But thanks to an $8,000 loan against "a somewhat second hand [Chevrolet] Suburban" the store opened its doors.
In January, after keeping those doors open for over 40 years, Drinnan handed the bookstore over to new owners.
One of the N.W.T.'s most prolific writers says Drinnan made immeasurable contributions to northern Indigenous authors.
"She has been my partner in crime for the past 26 years as a published author," Richard Van Camp told Loren McGinnis, host of CBC North's The Trailbreaker.
"I have spent a lot of time in her office, talking, strategizing."
He said Drinnan played a massive role in helping him get his work published and sold, and she has done the same for many other northern Indigenous authors.
Drinnan reminisced about when she first met a young and "bouncy" Van Camp.
"Every time he came into the store he was so excited," she said with a laugh.
Drinnan said ensuring her customers had access to books by local authors was a priority.
"I just said 'I'd like to see more northern people writing, I'd like to see more stuff from people who live here, who know about the North,'" she said.
Van Camp said Drinnan has changed the literary landscape in the N.W.T., so that it is reflective of who lives there.