The Bookshop Podcast
The Bookshop Podcast
Ark Books: The Heartening Tale of a Volunteer-Run Bookstore in Copenhagen
Ark Books in Copenhagen is a non-profit, volunteer-run, International Bookstore. It’s the place to find books published in English, and although they specialize in fiction, those interested in poetry and theory, especially critical theory, will not leave disappointed.
Ever wondered how a volunteer-run, non-profit bookstore operates and thrives in the bustling city of Copenhagen? Join us in conversation with Frida Hammershøy from Ark Books, a unique bookstore specializing in books published in English. Frida unravels the history of Ark Books, crafted by four women a decade ago, and its evolution into a vibrant community hub uniting a diverse team of 15-20 passionate volunteers.
We also get a peek into Frida's personal reading preferences and discuss the nuances of translating literary discussions from Danish to English. Prepare yourself for a heartening tale of literature, community, and dedication - a testament to the power of shared passion.
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson Beverly and I'm a Bibliophile. Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast. Each week, I present interviews with independent bookshop owners from around the globe, authors and specialists in subjects dear to my heart the environment and social justice. To help the show reach more people, please share it with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. You're listening to Episode 228. Ark Books in Copenhagen is a non-profit, volunteer run international bookstore. It's the place to find books published in English and, although they specialize in fiction, those interested in poetry and theory, especially critical theory, will not leave disappointed. Hi, frida, and welcome to the show. It's lovely to have you here all the way from Denmark. Hi, thank you for having me, my pleasure. I love the picture on your website of the four women who started ARK Books and I wonder if you could share how and why they founded the bookshop so.
Speaker 2:I wasn't actually a part of the four women who founded ARK. They started working on the shop about 10 years ago. They were all volunteers in another literature space on the same street as ARK Books and, if I have understood correctly, the landlord of that space he also owns ARK Books. He asked them if they would be interested in starting their own bookshop. He wants the street to be like a very literary street, so there are two bookshops and literature space all owned by him, so he gave them the opportunity of starting their own space. This was many years ago, so it was also before there were really many like international English literature shops around Copenhagen and they focused a lot on different translations.
Speaker 1:While ARK Books focuses on English translations correct.
Speaker 2:We have only books in English. Some of them are of course written in English, and some of them are translated into English.
Speaker 1:Is there a large population of English-speaking expats living in Copenhagen?
Speaker 2:We do have quite a large expat customer base. But it's also sometimes we have some more niche books that are not translated into Danish that also then Danes come by for.
Speaker 1:And what about you, Frida? Do you prefer to read in English or Danish?
Speaker 2:I prefer to read in English, but that's also because the language that we use, that we work with in the bookshop, is English. So I feel like when I read something in Danish, it's more difficult talking about it in English, because you know then there are some words or expressions that you have to translate. But if it's all in English already, then it's easier to communicate.
Speaker 1:You mentioned earlier that ARK Books is a non-profit, volunteer run bookshop. How many volunteers do you have working at the store?
Speaker 2:We are about 15 volunteers 20 on a good day who all have the responsibility of keeping the shop open. So we have an amount of shifts that you have to take within a month and then you sit and you read or study or work. It's a very chill and small space. And then we also have some committees that you can sign up for or helping with the book ordering or hosting of events or doing the admin of the shop. So we also try to keep the structure pretty flat. Of course, someone has to have their name registered on some of the things and access to the bank account, but overall we try to talk about all the big decisions and we also have a volunteer meeting each month where we talk about how to run things.
Speaker 1:Just for clarity, the original ARC books is no longer run by the four women who originally started off the bookshop. It is now a complete, non-profit, volunteer run bookshop. And is it still in the same location or have you moved into a different shop front?
Speaker 2:It's the same shop, it's the same idea. They were also volunteers back then. The group of people taking care of the space has just expanded and the founding mothers they just you know it's many years ago. They wanted to do different things. I mean, they still come around and hang out and see what's going on in the space, but they are not an active part of it anymore.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm impressed about the whole idea of running a bookshop as a non-profit. I think that's wonderful for the community and you carry both non-fiction and fiction right.
Speaker 2:Yes, we carry both fiction and non-fiction. It's divided like one wall has non-fiction and one wall has fiction. Then we also carry poetry plays, some graphic novels and some independently published scenes and magazines. And our fiction section is divided geographically, so where the author is from. So you would have North America or Southern Europe or Russia.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting way of curating the bookshop. Can you talk a little about how the Danish literary culture has evolved?
Speaker 2:I think within recent years it has evolved a lot. I think when I grew up, my understanding of Danish literature a lot of the time was a lot of this Scandinavian crime scene with this. That also then developed into this very popular TV series. But it's also a very popular literary genre. Recently we've had a lot of it's developed into very experimental poetry and also books about criticism about the class system and society. It's just taking a really interesting turn. These days, I think we mostly carry international fiction or international literature, and also it's not all of the very interesting Danish literature that's being translated into English. So I don't have maybe the greatest understanding of exactly what's happening, because I'm mostly working with the international and we also. We had a former volunteer who has translated a lot of contemporary Danish literature into English, which is really really good, but I think it takes a while also before the books come out in English. But they are being translated, of course, but maybe not as fast at pace as one would like.
Speaker 1:And what about some of your local authors? I'd love to hear about them.
Speaker 2:Yes, then we have the former volunteer who has been translating a lot of the contemporary, like Jonas. Eika is a big one, and what Marie Hø? I think she's called Olga Ravn, Marie Hils they are also being translated into English, which I think is very nice, by also publishing house based in London.
Speaker 1:That's great, because I feel like more and more translations are becoming widely read around the globe. You're involved in a literary festival. What is the impetus behind this festival, and has attendance in this event grown over the years? From what I've read about the festival, music is also featured. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, so the festival is called Lüsen-Nitter, which would translate into bright nights, and I've been one of the organizers for five years now.
Speaker 2:The whole idea about it was also to give small local poets and authors like upcoming, who necessarily hasn't made a big name of themselves yet, to give them a space and a scene, a stage where they can go and read and perform without Maybe they have just published their first book or it's coming out. So it's really, when we book people for this festival, we really try to find authors who could use this space, and the same with music. It's also, of course, we are limited by budget, but we try to, yes, also find Small local artists who then can get an outlet. And I think within the last years this year we had the biggest attendance that I have ever seen and I started doing it in 19 and I think this year on the Facebook event it said 2,000 people were coming, and it's one day, it's from 2 to 10 in the evening, so it's one Saturday and then the following Saturday, I think each day's we had around a thousand people.
Speaker 1:That's a great number, and where do you hold the event?
Speaker 2:on the street where our books is located. So we close off the street, block it for traffic, and then we have, we have a stage and we have a little tent where we sell drinks and Some tables out where you can sit, and then, yeah, readings and we also have some talks.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a wonderful community event. Does arc books also hold events for authors within the bookshop and for authors visiting Copenhagen? Yes, we love hosting events.
Speaker 2:It's something that we Of course. Now there's been a big break after the pandemic and it's something that also then we also have a lot of new volunteers and it takes a little while to get into. But and sometimes we have authors who are traveling who wants to host an event with us. Because we are non-profit, we don't have that much money to pay for For traveling, so like we would apply for some funds so that they could come by. We also have, like book releases and Readings and it's something that we we try to do as much as possible as when we have the capacity, because we are still Volunteer run.
Speaker 1:Well, I know from experience how much work it is to put on events. It's just so much work and I appreciate what you're doing. So let's talk about what inspired the arc audio book club and the arc review.
Speaker 2:I think the arc audio book club it was. They had this idea of having a podcast and it would. It seemed fun and it's taking a break at the moment, but it ran for very steadily for four years. So I think it was just some of the former volunteers, some friends of mine, who wanted not just to have the bookshop but to also Create something that you could be a part of even if you weren't in Copenhagen, or Be with your with your arc friends, even though you weren't in the shop.
Speaker 1:It's always lovely being around like-minded bookish people. Yeah, and what is the arc review?
Speaker 2:the arc review is Just like a Some reviews that we have made. There was something for a while called best than the worst reads of a certain year, so that could be 2020, or then you would write like I love this book, or or the opposite, like I didn't enjoy this. But it was also just to give the volunteers more of a creative outlet, to not just talk about them, but also, yeah, populous something, so that we could also be on, like you know, many, many platforms that once not just the physical Bookshop, but also the online thing and the Audio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're lucky to have multiple platforms where we can reach out to people globally and for so many people being able to tune into zoom meetings, where indie bookshop owners were interviewing authors. I think it helped a lot of people who struggled with loneliness and Feeling disconnected during the pandemic. Okay, let's talk about the beautiful city where you live, copenhagen. If I had a few days there, what sites and hikes do you suggest I experience? Of course, art books.
Speaker 2:Of course art books would be my first stop, but I think also art is in my favorite neighborhood of Copenhagen. It's very there are both like many nice streets and restaurants and Parks around, but I think if the weather is nice it's definitely worth going to what is called Rebshaileön. It's a bit of a bike or bus ride. It's still in Copenhagen, but it's like at the end by the wall, like a new industrial island. It's recently been made kind of nice. There's a very nice museum out there. You can swim. There's a very cute bakery nearby. Also there's not. Nature is not is a bit further away. Copenhagen is quite small and concentrated. If you like biking, I think biking around is an amazing way to see the city because you can also get everywhere quite fast.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a lot of fun. Now let's talk about books. What are you currently reading?
Speaker 2:I am currently reading the summer book by Tove Jansson. You might know her from the movements super, super cute. It's very now here in Copenhagen. It's super dark, very cold and rainy and windy. This is just a. It's a little girl spending the summer on an island with her grandmother and it's just. They're just chilling, walking around, swimming.
Speaker 1:It's very nice. I love that you're reading this book right now because I recently interviewed Natania Jansson, publisher and owner of sort of books, with her partner, mark Ellingham, and a few years ago they bought the rights to Tove Jansson's work to be translated into English and she was telling me about the movie that is coming out, based on the summer book, and Glenn Close is playing the grandmother. Are you excited? Yes, it is exciting.
Speaker 2:Any other books you're reading, I just read suddenly at his residence, which is like Golden age detective fiction book with these like impossible mysteries, crimes. It's quite fun. Yeah, my partner is really into them, so I'm, I'm, I'm also, then we can talk about it. They're fun, I like them, yeah, and then it's also, you know you, uni, uni things, I'm also reading and what are you studying at university? I'm studying information, studies, so like Like library and archive science and how many years before you complete your course.
Speaker 1:Quite a few but, but it's okay, I'm enjoying it. Well, it's good to hear you're enjoying the course and you work with books too, so I'm sure that's helpful. Yes, so nice, frida. Is it snowing in Copenhagen yet?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, just just cold and it blew me. Yeah, another good six months to go.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness. Well, I hope you feel better soon, get over that cold.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:And thank you for being a guest on the show. Thank you so much. It was so nice. You've been listening to my conversation with Frida Hammershoeg from Ark Books in Copenhagen. To find out more about the Bookshop podcast, go to thebookshoppodcastcom and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to the show. You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on X, instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the Bookshop podcast. If you have a favorite indie bookshop that you'd like to suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via the contact form at thebookshoppodcastcom. The Bookshop podcast is written and produced by me, mandy Jackson Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly, executive assistant to Mandy, adrian Otterhan, and graphic design by Francis Barala. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.