Representation, Inclusion, and Care: An Interview with Christina Pascucci Ciampa of All She Wrote Books
by Jessica A. Kent
August 25, 2021
Boston has a new bookstore, with a focus we haven't seen locally in a while. All She Wrote Books, which opened quietly during the pandemic last year, is “an intersectional, inclusive feminist and queer bookstore” located in Assembly Row. But the bookstore didn't just appear — it came to fruition through the vision, hard work, hustle, and three-tiered IKEA cart of owner Christina Pascucci Ciampa.
I stopped by All She Wrote Books' colorful space in Somerville a few weeks ago to chat with Pascucci Ciampa about her journey to create a bookselling experience where readers could find stories more representative of themselves, and a space inclusive of all.
A Bookstore That Started with a Book
All She Wrote Books started with a copy of The Feminist Bookstore Movement by Kristen Hogan, gifted to Pascucci Ciampa in 2018 from her partner, with a note attached: "I hope you do good things with this." At the time, Pascucci Ciampa had been working for nearly a decade in corporate marketing, but was questioning if that was really the trajectory she wanted. So when she received the gift, she asked, "All right, so what does this mean?”
As someone who is “very vocal about intersectional feminism,” and who wanted to take what she learned from what she’s read and apply it in real life, Pascucci Ciampa would have conversations with friends and acquaintances about feminist topics, and even try to engage those conversations at her workplace, which was difficult to do. Without a background in bookselling, the book gift didn't immediately translate into the business she owns now. However, she admits that "When I read [The Feminist Bookstore Movement], it just opened up an outlet."
Pascucci Ciampa found herself learning more about feminist and queer history as she read the book, including New Words, the feminist bookstore and community space that opened in 1974 in Somerville, and then moved to Cambridge in 1976. Once one of the largest women-focused bookstores in the country, New Words shut down in 2002. "They knew that they had a passion for feminism and bringing these texts to everyone, and creating this very beautiful community space where people could just come and be, no matter what walk of life you came from," says Pascucci Ciampa of the New Words founders.
Feminist and queer bookstores and spaces were deliberately created as protected places where traditionally marginalized people could find community and solace, but those spaces have been shutting down over the past two decades — bookstores especially, as online giants took over the landscape. But these spaces, and the work the women in these spaces were doing, got Pascucci Ciampa thinking, "Why do we not have [a feminist bookstore] anymore? Why can't there be one again?"
Experiencing a Lack of Representation
While Pascucci Ciampa talks about the amazing independent bookstores we have in the Boston area, she also notes a lack in different types of bookstores, and a lack of curation in the types of books carried.
"A lot of the indie bookstores that I would frequent would usually have the same five feminist texts or the same five queer texts,” which, she said, she inevitably already owned. “I get it now from being in the business as to why that is the way it is," as bookstores don't typically take chances on stock that may not move. "I still don't think that's an excuse, though."
Pascucci Ciampa asks that instead of blending marginalized authors into bookstore sections where they'll still be overshadowed by the Stephen Kings and James Pattersons of the writing world, "why can't you have standalone sections where the focus is truly just these writers who have been historically marginalized?"
For Pascucci Ciampa, it was also personal. As a survivor of domestic abuse, she "couldn't find stories of people that survived domestic violence — not just women, but queer people, or anyone." Additionally, as someone with a cognitive disability, Pascucci Ciampa saw a lack of representation of disabled characters as well. "When I was younger, I did not see any books with someone in a wheelchair featured in it and being this bold, amazing character, or anybody talking about autism, whether it was fiction or nonfiction."
But Pascucci Ciampa knew these types of books were out there, and so asked, "Why can't we expose people to them, change their mind? Let’s get them out of their patterns of reading and buying. Let them take a shot on something different that they otherwise would not pick up. Instead of focusing on everybody, let's focus on the ones that were consistently marginalized throughout time that have worthy, beautiful stories."
In March 2019, Pascucci Ciampa woke up in the middle of the night and jotted these ideas down, which would inform the vision and business plan of All She Wrote Books. But was the next step actually opening up a physical, fully-stocked bookstore?
Testing the Waters with an IKEA Cart
Pascucci Ciampa started researching what opening a bookstore would entail, but was there even interest in a bookstore in Boston that focused on queer, female, non-binary, and other marginalized authors? Like a true marketer, she decided to test her theory first, and started as a used pop-up bookstore. On April 20, 2019, All She Wrote Books held its first pop-up at the Canopy Room at Bow Market.
Pascucci Ciampa showed up with a three-tiered IKEA cart filled with used books she took from her bookcase at home, a free version of Square on her phone to let people pay with card, and a notebook where browsers could sign up for a newsletter. That day, Pascucci Ciampa sold five of the twenty-five books she brought, and had some engaging conversations with customers as well. "Ok, we sold five. This is good. Let's try it again. Let's see if we can sell a few more. We went back two weeks later, and we sold seven," she remembers.
But selling used books from her own shelves, or gathered from her friends’ donations, wasn’t going to be sustainable — it also limited her titles — so Pascucci Ciampa began to investigate how to order new books at discount from supplier warehouses like Ingram and Baker & Taylor, which is what allows bookstores to stock new releases and keep a rotating inventory.
In addition to the Canopy Room, other Somerville locations invited Pascucci Ciampa and her IKEA cart to sell books. At the first Winter Hill Brewing pop-up, Pascucci Ciampa sold 75% of the stock she brought. "That's how I knew this is not a fad,” she remembers. “People are hungry for this, people really want to see this. There needs to be something like this and it just validated it.”
At the second pop-up at the Canopy Room, Pascucci Ciampa met the editor-in-chief of the Scout Somerville, a website that covers local events, who was the first to cover Pascucci Ciampa's bookselling initiative. "When Reena did her article in 'What's New in Somerville,' that exploded for us completely,” she says. The Boston Women's Market and other organizations reached out with invitations for pop-ups, because they saw that what Pascucci Ciampa was doing was unique and filling a space.
Throughout the summer of 2019, All She Wrote Books popped up at CultureHouse, the Boston Women's Market in Arlington, High Energy Vintage, a Boston Roller Derby night, the East Somerville Main Street's International Film Festival, Juliet, and more. Pascucci Ciampa, however, was still working a fulltime job while doing at least three to four pop-ups a week — and the juggling act couldn’t last much longer.
Photo by Zac Wolf Photography
A Sudden Bookstore Owner
"I knew eventually I would want to leave the corporate job on my own terms," says Pascucci Ciampa, so she started saving up to do so as All She Wrote Books scaled. But the decision was made for her, and in October of 2019, Pascucci Ciampa and most of the marketing team was let go.
Suddenly the question was to either get another fulltime job, or go all-in with All She Wrote Books. Pascucci Ciampa had started a Crowdfunder, but it hadn't taken off yet. "But I couldn't fathom going back,” she remembers. “My heart was in the conversations I have with the people that I've met throughout this journey. That to me is the beautiful part. I still get up every morning because it this is what fuels me." So Pascucci Ciampa decided to go all-in, and booked pop-ups for November and December 2019 — and she was booked twenty-three days straight leading up to the holidays.
But even though the awareness and interest was growing, people still needed to find All She Wrote Books wherever they were popping up that week, all over the area, and the bigger dream was to have a permanent location where people knew where to go.
That opportunity happened in January 2020, when a friend reached out to let Pascucci Ciampa know about an available permanent location at Assembly Row. Pascucci Ciampa had looked at locations around the city, but being from Somerville, and having popped up around Somerville, she wanted to stay in the neighborhood.
Pascucci Ciampa presented her plan for a bookstore and a community space open to all — reminiscent of New Words’ mission years ago. "We finished and tied everything up in February. I collected keys in the middle of March, and then three days later, Governor Baker said, ‘I'm so sorry, but non-essential retail is shut.’"
Spare Bedroom Bookstore
During the week between Christmas and New Year's, Pascucci Ciampa had set up the website's ecommerce capabilities, so when the pandemic shut down the bookstore before it could even open, she relied on online sales. Until All She Wrote Books’ physical space officially opened on July 11, 2020, Pascucci Ciampa converted her second bedroom into the bookstore during the shutdown, shipping out five to seven packages a day using media mail and call tags. She even wrote notes in each book to continue the customer engagement.
Despite the busyness, Pascucci Ciampa credits the delay before the physical opening with giving her time to think about layout, operations, and curation of the titles she wanted to have. Pascucci Ciampa began offering free, touchless curbside pickup for her customers — which they still have — and once stores were able to open again with limited capacity, Pascucci Ciampa set up free browsing appointments ("If your customers don't feel safe, what is the likelihood they'll come back?").
Sales continued through the pandemic, and today, the store is fully open for walk-in browsing. The business idea that Pascucci jotted down in a notebook in the middle of the night worked.
Deliberately Building an Inclusive Bookstore and Community
When talking to Pascucci Ciampa, you can hear her passion and awareness for creating an inclusive space. Creating that space starts with the pride flag in the window, the rainbow sections on the back wall, the diversity of authors represented in the displays, and the slowly-forming mural of feminist and queer icons, from Carmen Maria Machado to Toni Morrison to Kate Bornstein to Lindy West — but it doesn’t end there.
Pascucci Ciampa has made customer accessibility a priority, so the tables and bookcases are spread out to ADA compliance plus six inches. That awareness and commitment to do things differently came about after witnessing a customer at another bookstore unable to maneuver their wheelchair through the stacks to get the book they wanted.
In addition to physical accessibility, Pascucci Ciampa believes in socio-economic accessibility as well. "Everybody should have access to books, no matter what walk of life, no matter what their socio-economic situation is," she says. Pascucci Ciampa is aware that she has customers who may only be able to afford one book, or may not be able to afford any books, and will simply browse. This was one of the reasons behind offering no-cost browsing appointments during the pandemic, without any pressure to buy, or charging for the time. "If what gives them joy is to be around stacks of books or books that are reflective of who they are, I want that to happen," she says.
Signaling that kind of inclusivity is also why Pascucci Ciampa chose to include the words "intersectional," "feminist," and "queer" in her mission statement, likening those words to a lighthouse’s beam guiding ships safely into harbor. "I want those who want to be part of that space to know it's here,” she affirms. “If you're going to come into this space, you are not going to feel like you don't belong here or that you don't feel loved or respected, and that we can hopefully find the stories that resonate with you."
For Pascucci Ciampa, bookselling isn’t transactional, and is as much about having conversations about meaningful topics with customers as it is about getting them their next read. It’s also why she believes we need spaces like queer and feminist bookstores. "We're enticing the ability to question a little bit, and to peel back the layers. Sometimes you can get into these major conversations that in other spaces you can't have conversations about,” she explains, using examples of gender identity, politics, feminism, disability, fat phobia, and more as open topics for discussion and learning in the store. “These can be hard conversations, but they also can be very beautiful conversations. Having the space to be able to have those conversations — or even just say to yourself, ‘I see myself in this book’ — that's the power that these spaces give.”
Continuing the Journey
Despite the doors being open, the pop-ups haven't stopped: All She Wrote Books can often be found at East Somerville Main Streets Market on weekends, and can also be found each month at Lamplighter Brewing Co. helping lead a queer bookclub with the Cambridge Public Library. All She Wrote Books was also the featured bookseller at the Boston Book Festival's Lit Crawl this past June.
Neither has the press stopped, either. Oprah Daily included All She Wrote Books in their list of "56 LGBTQ-Owned Bookstores You Can Be Proud to Support," and Libro.fm has included All She Wrote Books on their list of "Disabled-Owned Bookstores to Support" and "Queer-Owned Bookstores." Pascucci Ciampa has also contributed book recommendations to Boston Magazine ("42 Books to Help You Get Through the Rest of Quarantine, Chosen by Boston Booksellers"), and she mentioned some new articles forthcoming, and some new opportunities ahead as well.
Despite the local and national recognition All She Wrote Books is receiving, for Pascucci Ciampa, being a bookseller is about the next conversation, the next book-in-the-hand that helps someone understand their world — or someone else’s world — a little bit better, and helping to create some space and joy for the people around her. "What this store is about — it's meant to be a space where you're loved and respected no matter what walk of life you come from, and where you can also see yourself reflected in the beautiful stories that we have."
All She Wrote Books is located at 451 Artisan Way in Assembly Row, and is now open for in-store browsing, or shop online at allshewrotebooks.com.
Jessica A. Kent is the founder and Editor in Chief of the Boston Book Blog.
