Today we welcome Andrew Unger to the Book Country blog. Andrew is the Events Manager at BookCourt, the celebrated Brooklyn bookstore famous for its well-stocked events program featuring New York’s most distinguished authors as well as brand new talent. Andrew will be on the “Building a Writing Community Online + Off” panel co-hosted by Book Country on Wednesday night, October 28th, 2015, at 7pm at BookCourt.
Lucy Silag: Tell us about BookCourt and how it fits into the Brooklyn community of writers.
Andrew Unger: “BookCourt is a monument, a university, and a party in slow motion. It doesn’t have to take over the world because it is the world.” — Jonathan Lethem
It’s no surprise that Jonathan Lethem said it best. The store was opened by Henry Zook and Mary Gannett in 1981. It was one room, a former barber shop, with a modest selection of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s titles. They bought the building in 1983. In 1996 Albert, who owned the flower shop next door, wanted to move to Florida and so sold his building to Mary and Henry in 1996. In 2008, they removed the greenhouse behind the old flower shop and added what is perhaps the store’s most defining characteristic, a giant, book-lined reading space. Hoisted above the ceiling, at the apse of the room, is a beautiful skylight. Today the store boasts one of the largest inventories in Brooklyn.
With the addition of the “Greenhouse,” the events series at BookCourt hit a high gear. In the seven years since it was built, the store has grown to accommodate the flush of writers and the wave of gentrification overtaking the neighborhood. In a given week, BookCourt might host ten different authors, four writing workshops, a book club, and a number or stock signings. It is a haven for readers, it’s an intellectual playground to a whole generation of neighborhood children, and it’s a university to writers from across the city.
Interior at BookCourt, courtesy of Google Maps.
LS: Why should writers hang out at Bookcourt?
AU: BookCourt is like a living, breathing MFA program. We’ve hosted Junot Diaz, Richard Ford, Don DeLillo, David Sedaris, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, and I could keep going. It’s such a stupidly impressive list of authors. Those events give you goosebumps. Junot Diaz talked for over an hour about his process, his growth as a writer and listened and responded to almost every single attendee, a room of over 300 people. This is an amazing opportunity. But this isn’t entirely the reason writers congregate at BookCourt. Continue reading →
Writers, if you don’t know of Julia Fierro yet, it’s high time you did! Julia is the founder and director of Brooklyn’s Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, the author of the sharp, darkly comic novel CUTTING TEETH (also a Landmark Title on Book Country), and a truly delightful literary personality. Recently, Julia moved with her family to Los Angeles, but luckily for us in New York, she visits regularly to take part in readings, conferences, and panels (like our “Building a Writing Community Online + Off” panel at BookCourt this fall). She photo-documented a day in her life on one of her trips back to the East Coast this fall, showing us what it’s like to be in the thick of the literary scene in New York City.
The water is choppy today on the Long Island Sound. Brrr. Definitely not in LA anymore, but the fall chill (my father calls it fresca!) is lovely after the heat in CA. Just a few more hours visiting with my parents in Mekamah Beach.
My dad made me breakfast (including soup from the vegetables in his garden). He’s wearing his favorite Diet Coke hat. Continue reading 
