Melissa Saavedra founded Steamy Lit – a romance-centric indie bookstore that’s also a beloved community hub – in Deerfield Beach in early 2024 (there’s one in Tampa, too). A native Miamian, she lives with her partner and three rottweilers, Grizzly, Zilla, and Saga.
What compelled you to partner with Miami Book Fair – how does our work support your community-building and cultural connection goals?
For me it was a no-brainer. Part of starting Steamy Lit came from a sense of wanting to create change, and the work that Miami Book Fair does for the South Florida community is great. It aligns with the goals I have for Steamy Lit in supporting literacy and the community aspect is huge, too, because the romance-reading community is big and has never really had a fully developed home here. Being able to partner with the Fair to bring that to South Florida was important to me.
Steamy Lit isn’t simply a bookstore. Tell me about some of the things it offers to the community.
Our No. 1 mission is diversity in romance, and I wanted to create a platform that would amplify the work of authors who are part of marginalized identities and communities. When you walk into a big chain bookstore, you’re not seeing the kind of curation that you see at an indie bookstore. Being a space where we celebrate diversity and where people of all identities and backgrounds are welcome is key to everything we do. With that comes being involved with the local community as much as we can; I wanted Steamy Lit to be a third space where people can come and hang and co-work if they want to or read a book if they want to without necessarily having to consume. We lack a lot of those types of places.
I believe you’ve already made the decision to come back as a sponsor for Miami Book Fair 2025.
Yes.
Tell me about some other organizations you support and work with in Miami.
We haven’t partnered with anyone else yet, but we have worked with CampOut, which is a queer summer camp in the Ocala area. We want to figure out where we’re needed, where we can provide some assistance – whether that’s doing a drive for back-to-school supplies or sponsoring a queer prom, for example. We’re looking at different avenues for getting involved.
How does MBF’s work align with your personal thoughts on access to literary culture?
It’s so important to be able to put yourself in the shoes of people with different identities, especially right now. Book Fair’s main purpose is literacy and reading, and you see the importance of telling stories for our community, of reading through the lens of someone else’s experience. For a long time, as a reader I just picked up whatever was on the first table I came to when I walked into a bookstore or what was most popular – there wasn’t any intentionality behind it. It wasn’t until I read a book by Peruvian author Melissa Rivero, and fully saw my Peruvian identity and culture front and center, that I grasped how important it is for us to see ourselves reflected in media; I hadn’t realized how much we assimilate throughout the years to other people’s experiences because ours are not showcased.
Tell me about your experience at Miami Book Fair 2024 – you sponsored five author programs and did a takeover one night at Lost Chapter.
It was fabulous! The Lost Chapter event – we did a trivia game that was really fun – was a way to connect with Miami readers. Since we’re in Broward we don’t get to interact with the Miami community as much as we’d like; we have people who come up for author events but they’re not the faces we see on a daily basis. As people who curate books, there’s nothing more fulfilling than being in community with people who share similar ideas and interests, and in this case it’s romance books. The attendees at our sponsored programs and who visited our booth – where it was nonstop – were really great.
I also ran into one of my middle school teachers, and that was really cool. Back when I was in school they didn’t bring us to the Fair and I wish they had! It would have been an experience to look forward to every year. Seeing my teacher was so surreal but also really nice; he was my English teacher so obviously seeing my booth and what I’m doing with Steamy Lit was a full circle moment for him, too.
If you could have a one-on-one lunch with any author, living or dead, who would they be and what would you ask them?
Beverly Jenkins. She’s an iconic historical romance author and a Black woman; I’ve met her a couple of times, but every time I do I’m even more in awe of her. What I would ask her in these times of book banning and policy coming out about what we should read – I don’t think it’s anything she hasn’t seen and experienced – is how do we keep going? How do we fuel our fire to keep the fight going?
Interview by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho; responses have been edited for space and clarity.
