A Room of One's Own is an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...

located at 2717 Atwood Avenue in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. The store was founded in 1975 as a

feminist bookstore Feminist bookstores sell material relating to women's issues, gender, and sexuality. These stores served as some of the earliest open spaces for feminist community building and organizing. Prior to the spread of feminist bookstores, bookselling ...

and was named after Virginia Woolf's 1929 essay of the same name. A Room of One's Own carries a broad selection of books, with a focus on works by women and non-binary people and the

LGBT community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ people, LGBTQ individuals united by LGBTQ culture, a common culture and LGBTQ movements, social movements. These Community, comm ...

Description

A Room of One's Own specializes in areas such as feminism and gender studies, providing literature for, by and about women, non-binary people, and queer people. With a move to a larger space in 2011, the bookstore broadened its offerings, providing more selection in fiction, children's books, and local history. The store carries around 200,000 titles, with annual sales over one million dollars. Featuring a robust schedule of author talks and book readings, the store also offers free space for community meetings and events. A Room of One's Own partners with organizations such as the Wisconsin Book Festival.

History

A Room of One's Own was started in 1975 by a group of five women who had recently finished their degrees at the University of Wisconsin: Sandi Torkildson, Moe Doe, Susan Ketchum, Gail Straw, and Sally Stevens. They raised $5,000 to build the store and gathered support from other feminist bookstores in the U.S. The original location was an old printing office at 317 West Johnson Street. In 1997 the store moved two doors down to 307 West Johnson Street; in 2011 the store relocated to 315 West Gorham Street, moving into the 6,000 square foot space formerly housing Avol's Books (and, prior to that, Canterbury Books). Owners Sandi Torkildson and Nancy Geary put A Room of One's Own up for sale in June 2016, and in June 2018 they announced the store would be purchased by three partners: two employees, Gretchen Treu and Wes Lukes, as well as fantasy novelist

Patrick Rothfuss Patrick James Rothfuss (born June 6, 1973) is an American author. He is best known for his highly acclaimed series '' The Kingkiller Chronicle'', beginning with Rothfuss' debut novel, '' The Name of the Wind'' (2007), which won several awards, ...

. The #BookstoresAgainstBorders campaign was organized by the owners and staff of A Room of One's Own, donating part of their July 2019 sales to nonprofit organization Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, supporting legal services for immigrants. More than 90 bookstores and publishers across the United States participated in the fundraising campaign. A Room of One's Own was one of the downtown Madison businesses that released statements supporting the

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

following the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

in May 2020. A Room of One's Own was closed for fifteen months due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, but continued hosting online events and increased its online orders. In October 2021, the bookstore reopened in a new location, 2717 Atwood Avenue.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Room of One's Own, A Independent bookstores of the United States Feminist bookstores LGBTQ bookstores Bookstores established in the 20th century American companies established in 1975 Retail companies established in 1975 1975 establishments in Wisconsin

Description

History

See also

References

External links