The Utopian Acts Library is a transient, communal library of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and graphic novels on the topics of utopianism and activism. This collection of books is designed to inspire, educate, and energise people interested in exploring the intersections between utopia, art, and activism. Its books are freely available to anyone who would find them useful, with two stipulations:
- Please writes notes and marginalia in the book for the benefit of future readers;
- When you’re finished with the book, please return it to us or pass it on to someone else who will find it useful and will be able to return it.
The catalogue
| Title | Author | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transnational Battle Field | Heriberto Yepez | 2017 | Available |
| The Difference Engine | William Gibson and Bruce Sterling | 2011 | Available |
| The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution | Shulamith Firestone | 2015 | Available |
| Common: On Revolution in the 21st Century | Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval | 2019 | Available |
| Concrete Utopias: An Education of Desire | Edited by Amy Butt and Nathaniel Coleman | 2017 | Available |
| Utopian Studies (Vol 30, No. 2) | Society for Utopian Studies | 2019 | Available |
| Utopian Studies (Vol. 29, No. 3) | Society for Utopian Studies | 2018 | Available |
| The ABCs of Socialism | Edited by Bhaskar Sunkara | 2016 | Available |
| Special Subcommittee | Samuel Solomon | 2017 | Available |
| Bluff | Carlos Soto-Roman | 2018 | Available |
| Enemies/Enemigos | Laura Martin | 2018 | Available |
| Sideways Between Stories | Frank B. Wilderson III | 2016 | Available |
| Too Like the Lightning: Terra Ignota, Book 1 | Ada Palmer | 2017 | Available |
| Blackout | Nanni Balestrini | 2017 | Available |
| Commune (Issue 4) | 2019 | Available | |
| Beautiful Rising: Creative Resistance from the Global South | Edited by Juman Abujbara, Andrew Boyd, Dave Mitchell and Marcel Raminato | 2017 | Available |
| The Future we Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century | Edited by Sarah Leonard and Bhaskar Sunkara | 2016 | Available |
| The Spectacle of Disintegration: Situationist Passages out of the 20th Century | McKenzie Wark | 2013 | Available |
| The Verso Book of Dissent (New edition) | Edited by Andrew Hsiao and Audrea Lim | 2016 | Available |
| Supercommunity: Diabolical Togetherness Beyond Contemporary Art | E-Flux Journal | 2017 | Available |
| Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution | Edited by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell | 2012 | Available |
| They Call Us The Screamers: The History of a Radical Primal Commune | Jenny James | 1983 | Available |
| Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction | Jonathan Culler | 2000 | Available |
| Brown Girl in the Ring | Nalo Hopkinson | 1998 | Available |
| High Rise | J. G. Ballard | 1985 | Available |
| Oryx And Crake | Margaret Atwood | 2004 | Available |
| Utopian Studies (Vol. 30, No. 1) | Society for Utopian Studies | 2019 | Available |
| Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy | Lynne Segal | 2017 | Available |
| Science Fiction for Survival: An Archive for Mars (Terra Two) | Edited by Liesl King and Robert Edgar | 2019 | Available |
| Island | Aldous Huxley | 1994 | Available |
| Ernst Bloch and His Contemporaries: Locating Utopian Messianism | Ivan Boldyrev | 2014 | Available |
| Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family | Sophie Lewis | 2019 | Available |
| Brazillian Is Not a Race | Wendy Trevino | 2016 | Available |
| Parable of the Sower | Octavia E. Butler | 2019 | Available |
| Riddley Walker | Russell Hoban | 1980 | Available |
| House of M | Brian Michael Bendis | 2006 | Available |
| New York 2140 | Kim Stanley Robinson | 2017 | Available |
| Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good | adrienne maree brown | 2019 | Available |
| Exit West | Mohsin Hamid | 2017 | Available |
| Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism | bell hooks | 2014 | Available |
| Consider Her Ways | John Wyndham | 2015 | Available |
| Self Heal | Samantha Walton | 2018 | Available |
| Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems | Audre Lorde | 2017 | Available |
| Woman on the Edge of Time | Marge Piercy | 2001 | Available |
| Utopias: Documents of Contemporary Art | Edited by Richard Noble | 2009 | Available |
Obtaining books
To borrow one of our books, please fill out this request form and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Donating books
We are very interested in growing our library. If you have any books to donate which you think would be a good fit, please get in contact with us by email at organisers@utopia.ac and we will arrange to pick them up. We are particularly interested in books written by or concerning people of colour; people from Indigenous backgrounds; women and those whose gender identities do not conform to hegemonic gendered norms; people from poor and working class backgrounds; and disabled people.
Returning books
Once you’re finished with one of the Library’s books, please return it to us in one of the following ways:
- Drop it off at the Birkbeck School of Arts front desk (43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD) with a note for the front desk staff that the book is for Katie Stone and Raphael Kabo
- Mail the book to:
Utopian Acts Library
C/O School of Arts
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD - If you live in or near London, contact us by email at organisers@utopia.ac and we can arrange to pick it up in person.
If you are unable to return the book directly to us, we encourage you to lend it to someone else who will find it useful and will themselves be able to return it or lend it on further.