by Sam Carter

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In cataloging books mentioned throughout numerous issues of Feminist Bookstore News (FBN), a trade publication providing exactly what its title suggests, I’ve been awed (and quite frankly, a little overwhelmed) by the sheer amount of books, publishers, and bookstores involved within each issue. Something particular that has struck me, however, is the similarly frequent open letters from bookstore owners and workers regarding break-ins! In 1991, Volume 13, Issue 6 of Feminist Bookstore News includes three depictions of robberies.

Although these may not seem like striking numbers, the inclusion of violent break-ins consistently disrupts FBN’s stream of book recommendations and reviews. These short, sometimes unsettling descriptions link the feminist, queer, and radical themes of featured titles with the physical spaces where such books are bought and sold.

Nett Hart, the owner of a small storefront studio, described a particularly disturbing robbery, writing “there were several minutes any or all of us might not have survived,”(p23) as Hart, their sister, and former lover were attacked. After reading this jarring encounter, I began to wonder how one maintains a space’s integrity once it has been violated. In answer to this, Hart wrote “resistance to violence against women diminishes the power of violence” (p23), remaining sober but confident in their insistence on both relaying and denouncing forces of violence. However, Hart’s successful resistance against the perpetrator is not a victory. Instead, fighting back is a necessity to maintain one’s identity, “because whether he killed us or not he was not going to violate our sense of self” (p23).

Another break-in at the feminist bookstore Sisterspirit in San Jose, California, offsets the robbery with a touch of humor, as bookstore proprietor Clarice laughs at the robbers with “a sack full of women’s music” (p17). Still, however, Clarice is shaken by the encounter as “when something like this happens you never feel quite safe again” (p17). Rather than a simple financial loss of stock, robberies within FBN are an affront to the self as well as a violation of community space. As Hart lamented, these spaces are fought for, and there is not one single battle defining an overarching victory.

These overt threats to feminist spaces thus imbricate readers both past and present and engage us beyond the growing list of titles we’ve added to our TBR (to be read). Instead, FBN issues encourage an affective relation between the numerous books recommended to readers and the physical bookstores they’re located in. The aggressors don’t have a face. Even when writers such as Hart directly encounter theft, they don’t spend any time configuring an image of the attacker. Robberies within FBN were not included to sniff out thieves through an international feminist network, but rather to lament and advocate for feminist bookstores and spaces. Regardless of the aggressor’s intent, the open letters serve as a call to action, reminding readers that we cannot remain passive in feminist circles. Violence inevitably occurs and must be fought against with community, humor, physical strength, or the occasional visit to your local bookstore.

Sisterspirit photo from Queer Silicon Valley

Sam Carter is a spring intern at Sinister Wisdom as well as an MA student at University College Dublin in Archives and Records Management. Her upcoming dissertation research will explore the significance of archival spaces and nostalgia within queer southern archives.

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