Used Book Buying Policy

Our buying hours are 12pm-5pm on weekdays, and 1pm-6pm on weekends. We do not accept donations, anything you bring in that we do not want will have to go back with you. Please call ahead of time if you have more than two tote bags of books you wish to sell. Do not email us photos of books. If for any reason we are not buying our usual hours, we will post on Instagram to let people know. Please check there before coming in to make sure we are buying. If there is no post, we are buying our normal hours. Thank you!

[July 2] The Queer Issue X: A Reading and Party


Join Words Without Borders at Unnameable Books Tuesday July 2nd at 6:30pm for a reading of queer writing from around the world, in celebration of the 10th edition of our annual Queer Issue. 

The event will be hosted by Jeremy Tiang with readings by Tiang, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Amanda Lee Koe, John Keene, and other writers to be announced.

From 2010-2019, the Queer Issue has given a platform to 89 queer writers from 48 countries writing in 32 different languages, from Arabic to Serbian to Spanish to Thai. Many of these writers were given their first exposure to English-language readers in this issue, and some are not free to discuss their queerness in their home countries or languages.

Help us close out Pride month with a celebration of this milestone. Refreshments will be available. After the reading, there will be an afterparty at Soda Bar across the street.

***SUGGESTED DONATION: $5***
All proceeds will be donated to All Out, an organization fighting for international queer rights.


https://www.facebook.com/events/722855644834728/
https://bit.ly/2WgHysS

[June 18] Art Workers' Inquiry


As workers in the NYC's arts industry, we deal with exploitation, coercion, and extreme alienation on a regular basis. As communists, socialists, and anti-capitalists, we want to build a struggle for worker power in the arts. The first steps in that struggle are coming together and learning about where power resides in our industry. So, you're invited...

To an art workers inquiry gathering! Red Bloom has created an Art Workers' Inquiry based on the Workers' Inquiry Marx developed in 1880. The idea then and now is to use a questionnaire about working conditions both as a means of developing a record of the working class by the working class and also to use as an organizing tool. At this gathering there will be an opportunity to use the inquiry to share your working conditions and learn about those of other art workers.

Come to Unnameable Books on Tuesday, June 18 from 7-9pm to meet up with other arts workers and discuss how we can build a cross-craft, cross-media arts workers struggle. There will be drinks!

[June 23] Robert Musil's Unions--Book Release Soirée


Robert Musil Unions Book Release Soirée

with Genese Grill (translator), Prof. Nicholas Birns (moderator), and Jason Mears (saxaphone)

Sunday June 23rd (7pm) at Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn

In 1911, following his 1906 debut, The Confusions of Young Törless, Robert Musil published the two experimental stories that make up Unions. “The Completion of Love” and “The Temptation of Quiet Veronica” were some of Musil’s earliest forays into what would become a life-long exploration of the life, adventures, and psychological processes of his fiancé, Martha Marcovaldi — the future Martha Musil.

The stories in Unions explode conventional morality; explore questions of self, union, and dissolution of self; and approximate exceptional sensations of erotic and intellectual perception in a shimmering and exceedingly dense proliferation of metaphors.

This is a new English-language translation from Contra Mundum Press of the two stories and the first one to appear — in the form of Musil’s original publication — as Unions. A scholarly introduction by the translator, Genese Grill, explains the provenance of the stories and the need for a new approach to this book so central to his oeuvre.

http://contramundum.net/2019/03/17/unions/
https://jmearsmusic.com/

[June 16] Queer and (Anti-) Capitalism Education Event

Join us Sunday, June 16th from 2-4 PM

Salih Alexander Wolter`s und Heinz-Jürgen Voß’s book “Queer and (Anti-)Capitalism” has caused major debates in Germany. It productively brings together Marxist, queerfeminist and anti-racist perspectives, and the third German edition has just been printed.

Now the American translation has been published. It is included in the book “The Queer Intersectional in Contemporary Germany: Essays on Racism, Capitalism and Sexual Politics," ed. by Christopher Sweetapple. You can get the free Open-Access version here: https://www.psychosozial-verlag.de/7444 .

Heinz-Jürgen Voß will give a short overview of some of the main ideas in “Queer and (Anti-)Capitalism," and then we will break out into small discussion groups. Typically we go for food and drinks after.

Please note that this venue is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible.

[June 12] Feral Voices: The Other Brooklyn Reading Series VIII

                 
Join us next Wednesday, June 12th at 7 PM to listen to some more local writers share their work! 

Feral Voices is a monthly reading series that focuses on celebrating a selection of writers who work and struggle outside of the typical institutions of the writing community.

A night for those who work one or more "day jobs," but have a voice to share that goes against the grain or upends capitalist, patriarchal understandings of the label "author."

If your writing is proactively weird, if you are part of a marginalized group, and/or if you struggle with the financial insecurity that stems from pursuing writing outside university funding or published manuscripts then submit your work to feralvoicesreadingseries@gmail.com. We accept short stories, poetry, essays, plays, scripts, novel excerpts, and anything genre-bending and mind-altering.

Join us in an event hosted by T. A. Stanley at Unnameable Books. Come to share, read, listen and build something new!



For more information about Feral Voices: https://tastanley.com/feralvoices or message me on FB. If you want to submit to be a reader please send any poetry, fiction, nonfiction, etc to feralvoicesreadingseries@gmail.com. Submissions are always open

[June 8] Soo Yeon Lyuh w/ Rosenberg, Snyder, Roberts, Ilgenfritz

Please join us for Saturday, June 8th at 8 PM for an evening of performances by west coast musician Soo Yeon Lyuh and friends

8pm Jonah Rosenberg/Jeff Snyder/Mariel Roberts/James Ilgenfritz
8:30 Soo Yeon Lyuh solo
9pm Soo Yeon with guests (duo/trios, etc)


Soo Yeon Lyuh
is a master of the haegeum, a two-stringed Korean bowed instrument. She possesses not only flawless technique and a full command of the haegeum’s traditional repertoire, but is also widely recognized for promoting the creation of new pieces for haegeum. For twelve years, Lyuh was a member of South Korea’s National Gugak Center, the foremost institution for the preservation of Korean traditional music. Since then, Lyuh has endeavored to weave authentic styles into new musical domains, relocating to the Bay Area and drawing inspiration from its dynamic improvised music scene. Her contributions have sparked the creation of new repertoire for haegeum—the lifeblood of any instrument. She has premiered dozens of new works and recently made her debut as a composer with the Kronos Quartet.