Book Culture LIC Staff Profile: Isabella!

At Book Culture, we have a great range of booksellers with different talents and interest! Get to know Isabella, who can't wait to help you find some new and interesting books once we open Book Culture Long Island City!


Isabella Kazanecki - Bookseller

Bio: I grew up in Brooklyn and then Staten Island.  I moved back to Brooklyn last year to be closer to the New School where I study Dance and Spanish Language.  I love Martha Graham technique as I studied at the Martha Graham School in Manhattan while I was in high school but lately I've been working with contemporary and post modern dance while still maintaining regular ballet technique.  

1) What is your role as a bookseller for Book Culture? 

As a bookseller at Book Culture, I shelve books, check out customers, and help people find what they're looking for.

2) How did you come to join the Book Culture family? 

When I commuted into the city as a young dance student I would love hiding out in bookstores before and after class.  This developmental role that bookstores played in my life as well as my admiration for Patti Smith, who got her first job in New York at a bookstore where she met Robert Mapplethorpe, had instilled in me a longing to work in a bookstore for quite some time.  I applied to book culture specifically because of the fact that it is one of the remaining independent bookstores in Manhattan, the neighborhood, and its amazing used books.

3) What are your areas of expertise?

Well, as Clarice Lispector said, "I'm an amateur and insist on staying that way."  Although, anything concerning the Anthropocene, the Environment, and Dance is in my ballpark.

4) What are you currently reading?

Right now I'm reading Freedom of Expression by Chris Becker, Borne by Jeff Vandermeer, and Borderlands La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa.

5) What are you looking forward to most at Book Culture LIC?

I'm looking forward to our proximity to the rich artist community in Long Island City and what our place in that will be.

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