| Eso Won Books | |
| Founder: | James Fugate, Tom Hamilton |
| Location City: | Los Angeles, California |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Locations: | 1 store |
| Area Served: | Los Angeles metropolitan area |
| Industry: | Bookseller, retail |
| Products: | New books primarily about and written by African American people. |
| Owner: | James Fugate, Tom Hamilton |
Eso Won Books, an independent bookstore located at 4327 Degnan Boulevard in the Historic Leimert Park Village neighborhood of South Los Angeles, was one of the largest Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. In 2021, Publishers Weekly awarded the business Bookstore of the Year.[1]
Eso Won Books was an 1,800-sq-ft bookstore with an inventory mix of African American classic and contemporary titles, including a children’s section.[2] The bookstore regularly hosted author events and community gatherings. It closed in 2022.
Eso Won Books started in the summer of 1988 in Los Angeles.[3] Eso Won, which means “water over rocks” in the Ethiopian Amharic language, was originally named Eso Won Books on Wheels.[4]
James Fugate and Tom Hamilton, founders and co-owners, said their goal was to sell books at community events, such as the L.A. Times Book Fair, and be “seen as not just a Black bookstore for Black people, but a Los Angeles bookstore in which everyone is welcome.”
Eso Won Books has hosted author signings with Muhammad Ali and his biographer Howard Bingham, historian Yosef AA ben-Jochannan, Octavia Butler, John Henrik Clarke, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., poet Nikki Giovanni, Berry Gordy, Jr., Patti LaBelle, Wynton Marsalis, Gloria Naylor, Sonia Sanchez, Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichal), and Alice Walker.[5]
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of “Between the World and Me” remarked in one interview that Eso Won Books is "my favorite bookstore" and was also on his first book tour.[6]