Housing Works (New York City).

Clark, David Draper

HOUSING WORKS USED BOOK CAFE was established in 1996 but in the past few years has become, according to the New York Times, "one of the most important literary hubs in New York." The bookstore operates with an all-volunteer staff, and its entire stock of forty-five thousand books and hundreds of records and CDS is donated. All proceeds from the store go to Housing Works, the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS service organization. A community-based, not-for-profit corporation, Housing Works provides health care, advocacy, job training, housing, and other vital support services to many of the thirty thousand homeless people with HIV and AIDS living in New York City.

A site for readings, book-signings, publishing and private parties, charity events, and musical performances, the bookstore--with its high ceilings, worn Oriental rugs, mahogany-paneled interior, and spiral staircases--offers a comfortable atmosphere that includes a short-order cafe with homemade menu items as well as a variety of coffees, teas, wines, and desserts. In addition to good used reading copies of everything from poetry to fiction to foreign-language texts, the store boasts a selection of unusual, hard-to-find, first- and limited-edition books. On my initial visit to the store, I purchased a first edition of John Berryman's acclaimed book in verse, Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, for about one third the price of what the book lists for in most antiquarian dealers' catalogs.

Among the diverse writers to grace the store in recent months for readings, book-signings, and discussion were John Ashbery, Mary Karr, and Column McCann. In conjunction with the New York Festival of International Literature, World Literature Today was pleased to join PEN USA and Housing Works in presenting authors Achmat Dangor (South Africa), Cees Nooteboom (Holland), Jordi Punti (Catalonia/Spain), and Laura Restrepo (Colombia) at the store last April.

The cafe is located at 226 Crosby Street (SoHo/Little Italy--five blocks east of Broadway between Prince and Houston Streets) in Manhattan. For more information about the bookstore and to access their events calendar, browse their website at www.housingworksubc.com.