Carroll Leslie, owner of Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe, was awarded the Lillian Dean Inspiration Award 2026 at Cuesta College Central Coast Writers Conference in September. Photo submitted
Each year the Cuesta College Central Coast Writers Conference presents the Lillian Dean Inspiration Award to an individual who has gone the distance to encourage writers to write and authors to produce their books. At the 42ndannual conference the 2025 honoree Teri Bayus, a past director of CCWC and the published author of “The Greatest of Ease, a Circus Story” introduced the 2026 honoree, Carroll Leslie, the owner/operator of Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe in Los Osos.
As a longtime attendee of CCWC, I’ve learned “words matter” and when I heard Teri Bayus’ perfectly crafted words to introduce this year’s honoree, I knew they needed to be documented, shared to a broader audience and celebrated. She mastered the perfect words to describe that unique transitional moment when a writer officially becomes an author.
“The Lillian Dean Inspiration Award is named for the Cuesta College instructor who founded the Central Coast Writers Conference more than four decades ago,” Teri began. “Lillian believed writers should be encouraged, educated and given every possible opportunity to succeed.
Photo submitted
“Writers are needy people. We need editors, readers, agents, publishers and somebody to tell us that chapter three is brilliant and somebody brave enough to tell us chapter four has to go. And eventually, after all the writing, rewriting, rejection, caffeine, despair and occasional irrational confidence, we need somebody willing to put our book on a shelf. That brings me to Carroll Leslie.
“This award honors someone who carries that spirit forward, someone who helps writers grow, flourish and keep tapping those keys even on the days when absolutely nothing worth reading seems to be coming out of them.”
Teri continued, “Carroll is, quite simply, a saint to people who put pen to paper and frankly, writers require saints. For more than 20 years, Carroll’s bookstore, Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe, has been the official bookstore of the CCWC. Every year, Carroll and her team perform what those of us who have worked behind the scenes know is a minor miracle. Dozens of faculty members arrive. They all have books, usually several books. Some have new books. Some have old books. Some suddenly remember another book they published twelve years ago that absolutely must be there. And somehow Volumes of Pleasure gathers them all, organizes them, displays them and sells them with a smile.
“Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe itself has an extraordinary story. The bookstore was founded in 1979, and 34 years ago Carroll and her life partner, Barbara Stauss, took a leap of faith and bought it. Barbara died in 2012, but anyone who has spent time in Volumes of Pleasure knows that her presence remains. It lives in the warmth of the place — its personality, humor, and that unmistakable feeling that you have walked into somewhere that welcomes you exactly as you are.
“Now, keeping an independent bookstore alive for more than three decades is impressive under any circumstances, but consider what Carroll has survived: big-box bookstores, online shopping, E-books, Amazon, changing reading habits, and probably thousands of people who walked in, spent 45 minutes browsing, asked for a recommendation, and then said, ‘Great! I’ll order it online.’ And yet, the doors are still open.
“That takes good business sense plus beautiful and glorious literary stubbornness. It also takes community bonding. And above all, it takes someone who truly believes that books matter. Carroll believes all writers matter. That has made Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe something far greater than a bookstore. It is a gathering place; a refuge; a treasure hunt.
“It is a place for the curious, the creative, the unconventional and the wonderfully book obsessed. You may go in looking for a novel and come out with a scarf, some essential oil, a wonderfully progressive sign, three books you didn’t know you needed and absolutely no memory of what you originally went in for.
“That’s the magic of Volumes of Pleasure. But for writers, there is another kind of magic to this book shop. More than 50 local authors currently have their books available on those shelves. Including mine! Think about that for a moment. Because many of us in this room remember the first time it happened. You spend months or years writing a book. You question it, rewrite it, obsess over it and finally publish it and one day walk into a real bookstore, and there it is — your book on the shelf with your name on the cover sitting beside the authors you’ve been reading all your life.
“For a first-time author, that moment is almost impossible to describe. It says: You did it! You’re here! You’re a writer! And a published author! And Carroll Leslie has given that moment to writer, after writer for nearly 30 years. Volumes of Pleasure is part of the cultural heartbeat of our community.
“It is one of those increasingly rare places where strangers talk about books, someone finds a new favorite author, a child discovers a story, a reader finds exactly the book they didn’t know they needed, and where a nervous new writer can walk in and discover that someone believes enough in their work to put their book on a shelf.
“And that brings us back to Carroll quietly encouraging us, supporting us, selling our books, celebrating our successes and giving local writers a place to belong. Writers spend their lives searching for the right words, but sometimes the most important people in a writer’s life are the people who simply say, ‘Keep going. I believe in you.’ Carroll Leslie has dedicated herself to making sure those voices have somewhere to be heard. Thank you for being one of the great champions of writers on the Central Coast.”
After a boisterous standing ovation, Carroll shared how reading books became her lifelong passion. “I was raised by my grandparents from age two to six. I can still hear some radio programs I used to listen to with my grandfather.” She mentioned “The Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow Radio Show.” “As an only child for years I was an anomaly in my family. All the adults liked to read me stories. When I spent a month with my cousin, I decided my uncle was a frustrated actor when he read “Peter Pan” to us and performed all the voices. That book came alive for me.”
That memory would become Carroll’s aha-moment. Forevermore, she knew “words on the page could create pictures in the mind.” And yet, she would discover her younger sister had no idea what she meant and she was stunned. Her sister had grown up with television images rather than visualizing the story while reading a great book. That realization became the catalyst to eventually needing to share books with others. Once Carroll retired from the health food industry, she invested in her passion project, Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe.
Carroll admits she now relies on her “amazing” staff – all part-time employees she wanted all to know — who love books and reading as much as their boss. “Ellen Perryess has been with me the longest then Christine Ahearn joined us. There is also Kristofer Stehli, Gina Pieruci, Rosie Morris and Susan Hoffman recently joined us.” They manage daily operations and continue the traditional activities developed by Carroll and Barbara over the years, including transporting boxes of books written by the presenters of CCWC.
Who will be CCWC’s 2027 Lillian Dean Inspiration Award recipient? Writers, are you on this path to publishing or totally understand the inspiration gleaned from other writers learning together as a community at a conference. Believe me, it can be your golden ticket to publishing. Calendar the end of September with a note to check back in the spring for registration information at cuesta.edu.
