Firestorm Books

@firestorm

Queer feminist collective in Asheville, NC, operating a bookstore co-op & social movement space since 2008 on Tsalagi land. Ⓐ Ⓔ Ⓥ

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Firestorm Books@firestorm· 8d

Heads up! We've got TWO events in Asheville with @mercurystardust.bsky.social this October: an afternoon comedy and DIY show (registration required) and a post-show meet & greet at our bookshop! 👩‍🎤🪚🏡

The cover of Mercury's forthcoming book "Lost and Found: A Compassionate Guide to Homeownership" over a purple tinted tool wall. The book cover features a pastel illustration of the author, with blue hair and suspenders, contemplating a house in a green field surrounded by lolly pop trees.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· 9d

Tomorrow we're hosting a virtual conversation with Madeline Quasebarth, author of the new book "Don't Breed on Me," with health policy researcher Lee Hasselbacher. Together they'll be discussing the millennia-long story of abortion and the fight for reproductive justice today. @pmpress.bsky.social

A photo of "Don't Breed on Me" sitting on the metal frame of our store sign. Firestorm's green building is visible in the background and the book features a monochrome photo of a sliced papaya.

A promotional graphic for our virtual author event with Madeline Quasebarth and Lee Hasselbacher on August 2nd at 1pm ET. The image features the book cover alongside headshots for the panelists over a photo of a wide green papaya leaf. Smaller text designates this event as part of PM Press' All We Have is Each Other speaker series.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· 12d

On Monday evening we'll be in virtual conversation with @samanthapaigerosen.bsky.social and contributors to "Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection," a new anthology on communal living!

A photo of the book taken in front of a large ZZ plant inside Firestorm. The book has a multicolor cover that is reminiscent of a patchwork quilt with many of the square depicting windows, doors, and roofs.

A promotional graphic for Reimagining Community, a virtual event taking place on August 3rd at 7pm ET. The image includes the cover of "Living, Together" alongside panelist headshots.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jul 8

Sick benefit shirt for our bud Des by the incredible Sugar Bombing sugarbombing-store.myshopify.com/products/001...

A black and white design featuring the text "this machine kills fascists" in bold lettering alongside an image of a photocopy machine. The copier has a circle-a for anarchism drawn on it and stickers that read "Free Des" and "Zines are not a crime."

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jul 3

"Why is there nowhere affordable to live in this town?" I ask as I stare at a map of Asheville on which one "single-family home" occupies a third of all available land.

A map of Asheville which shows the massive scale of the Biltmore Estate south of Interstate 40.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jul 3

On Sunday afternoon, join us for a conversation with legal historian @gauthamrao.bsky.social whose new book, "White Power," examines the history of policing and slave patrols in the United States and the ways systems of surveillance and racial control shaped American governance and law. 1/2

A flat lay photo of Gautham's book "White Power: Policing American Slavery" on a wooden deck. The book and deck are in dappled sunlight.

A promotional graphic for Policing American Slavery, an in-person event at Firestorm on July 5th at 3pm. The image features the cover of Gautham's book over a background of distressed barn wood. The book cover is black and white and includes a photo of a horse, evoking the use of horses by cops, rangers, and klansmen.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jul 3

Join us on July 4th—the year anniversary of a noise demo from which prosecutors concocted an "antifa terror cell"—for an afternoon of solidarity zine making and contempt for the government. We've raised $5k for the Pairieland defendants by selling zine packets, but we need help assembling them! 2/4

A photo of packets being assembled shows various materials including a stamped envelope, a handout titled "How to write to people in prisons!", and a booklet about the defendants. In the upper right, a fully assembled packet with 15 zines is visible.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 21

How many nazis does it take to put up a sticker? Nine Patriot Front members spotted in Asheville, North Carolina 📸 www.reddit.com/r/asheville/...

A triptych of photos each showing a member of Patriot Front walking on Haywood Road.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 16

This Sunday we're hosting "Scapegoat" author Clare Follmann and activist Patty Krawec for a virtual conversation about the the outdated narrative of "invasive species"! Sign up at app.hi.events/event/7245/i... 🌿 @akpress.org @clarefollmann.bsky.social @daanis.ca

A photo of the book held over a bed of poison ivy. The book cover is a light shade of green with illustrations of plants and animals, some of which have been crossed out.

A promotional graphic for Invasive Species and Capitalism, an event hosted by Firestorm on June 21st at 3pm ET. The image features the cover of the book alongside headshots for Clare Follmann and Patty Krawec.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 14

"The Government Doesn't Want You To Read These Zines" – new benefit zine packets from South Bend Commons! All proceeds go to Prairieland Defendants. firestorm.coop/products/253... @dfwsupportcommitt.bsky.social

A screenshot from firestorm.coop showing the product page for "The Government Doesn't Want You To Read These Zines". The product image is styled like a redacted document and the page shows that 18 packets are available.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 10

Want to buy a book on June 11th, but not sure what to read next? We asked a few of our esteemed author collaborators to help us recommend titles that express the revolutionary commitment and vision needed to sustain us in difficult times. 3/

A slide showing books recommended by author and former political prisoner Eric King, including "Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions" and "I Cannot Submit to Injustices: Collected Works of Martin Sostre."

A slide showing books recommended by author and "book aunty" Gayatri Sethi, including "Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and "From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures" by Lara Sheehi.

A slide showing books recommended by author and podcaster Margaret Killjoy, including "Against the State: Anarchists and Rebels at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava" by James Stout and the forthcoming "Avalon, Rise: A Novel" by Madeline ffitch.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 10

June 11th is a day for remembering long-term anarchist prisoners through words, actions, and ongoing material support. As in years past, our co-op is partnering with @blueridgeabc.bsky.social to donate net proceeds from all sales to support imprisoned comrades! 1/

A promotional graphic for International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners, which features text in black and red shapes over a photo of bookcases at Firestorm. A breaking chain is depicted in silhouette.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 7

How about a 100% public stake in AI?

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Jun 5

We're excited to host a virtual event with @elbienmaspreciado.bsky.social (author of "The Reticular Society") in conversation with Andrew Culp. They'll be exploring the networked reorganization of society and forms of revolt that remain possible against the suffocating flows of our online world.

A promotional graphic for The Networked Colonization of Everyday Life, an online event taking place June 13th at 3pm ET. The image features the cover of Ian's book, featuring an illustration of centralized, decentralized and distributed models over a black and white photo of a militarized police force in the street of an anonymous city. Ian and Andrew's headshots are displayed over a photo of a red circuit board.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 24

Happy birthday, Julius! Happy birthday, Firestorm! Today we're all turning 18 ✨🦴🌺🌭

A photo of Julius Caesar Salad, an aged dachshund wearing a voluminous orange boa. Julius is sitting in the sun among flowers outside of Firestorm Books.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 13

Members of our collective, and more than 20 others who turned out against surveillance, weren't allowed to speak at tonight's city council meeting. Here are the unheard remarks one of us had prepared.

Hi my name is Libertie and I’m a co-owner of Firestorm Books, an 18 year old co-operative bookstore in West Asheville. Now I realize you may be thinking “of course the anarchist bookstore is against giving money to the police, they want to abolish the police, turn all the hotels into free housing, and replace this city council with a network of directly democratic neighborhood assemblies.” And you’re right, we do. But I think as a group with direct experience being a target of APD surveillance, we also have a perspective valuable to the conversation.

A real time intelligence center is a trojan horse designed to entangle Asheville in surveillance-driven attacks on vulnerable communities. This administration and aligned state governments rely heavily on surveillance infrastructure to carry out the ethnic cleansing of immigrants, the genocidal erasure of queer and trans people, and the criminalization of reproductive care. The city may have asked for these funds, but Chuck Edwards isn't offering them out of the goodness of his heart.

And the misuse of surveillance data collected by Asheville police isn’t theoretical, it’s already happening. On April 15th of 2025, APD conducted drone surveillance at our bookstore on Haywood Road at the request of Georgia law enforcement. During a public presentation by civil rights activists opposed to the construction of a new police training facility in Atlanta, police conspicuously filmed attendees and other customers engaging in First Amendment activities at our shop.

This interstate cooperation demonstrates the lack of guardrails, and taken alongside other instances of surveillance, reveals a disturbing pattern of politically-motivated monitoring—notably in direct violation of the city’s 2013 civil liberties resolution. The uselessness of that 2013 resolution, rarely if ever even mentioned in this building, tells us something about the future of today's civil liberties resolution. Calling for a ceasefire while you continue to drop bombs isn't peace, it's just politics.

I urge you to say no to this million dollar check in the shape of a pony.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 11

City Council: Sure your against fascism, but what if we only use mass surveillance technologies that respect your pronouns and don't see race?

A screenshot from the May 12 city council agenda. It reads: "B. Declaration of Policy for Public Safety Tools, Asheville Police Department Grant Award, Budget Amendment, and Axon Contract - ITEM B AND ITS SUBPARTS WILL HAVE ONE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD.
B.1 (i) Resolution of the Asheville City Council to declare and reaffirm the protection of civil liberties of all residents and visitors in the collection and use of data obtained through the utilization of public facing cameras, license plate readers, and the operation of a real-time intelligence center.
B.1 (ii) Resolution authorizing the City Manager to apply for, accept, and sign all of the appropriate application and acceptance documents for the Community Project Funding Award allocated to the City of Asheville as secured through Congressman Chuck Edward's Office and managed through the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Byrne Justice Grants.
B.1 (iii) Budget amendment in the City's Special Revenue Fund in the amount of $1,141,255.56.
B.2 Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute on behalf of the City of Asheville a contract with Axon Enterprises, Inc to bundle all existing agreements for Asheville Police Department's current inventory of Body-Worn Cameras, Tasers, Drones, Lightpost and Interview Room equipment, warranties, licensing, and cloud storage for all, and add FUSUS software, utilizing the pricing offered through Sourcewell cooperative contract."

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 6

John Boyle, the local journo singly most responsible for pushing a yearslong anti-homeless crime panic in Asheville, appears to be having regrets now that Fox News is bludgeoning the local tourism industry with the same talking points.

The "We're all trying to find the guy who did this" meme from the Netflix sketch comedy series "I Think You Should Leave" with Tim Robinson.

A screenshot from the Watchdog of a 2023 Boyle column titled "Do you feel safe downtown? Despite city efforts form more policing, cleanups, serious problems linger"

A screenshot from the Watchdog of a 2023 column coauthored by Boyle titled "Down Town, Part 1: Merchants and workers say district is deteriorating"

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 4

What we're looking for: • Comics, perzines, essays, poetry, or mixed format! • At least 12 pages long (sorry, no mini zines please!) • 60+ copies • $5 or less per zine

A messy pile of zines photographed from above. While many of the pamphlets are black and white, some are printed in color or printed on colored paper. Visible titles include "What Should We Do if Signal Messenger Gets Blocked," "Hookers in Healthcare," and "May Day: A Graphic History of Protest."

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 4

Hey, do you publish zines?? 👀 We mail zines to our sustainers each month—and we're always looking for exciting new material! If you've got a recently published zine that you think would appeal to our community, send us an email about it: bookstore@firestorm.coop 💌 1/3

Firestorm Books@firestorm· May 3

YouTube has started restricting most of our recent videos. You can still watch them if you turn off "Restricted Mode," but this may result in the material being inaccessible within libraries, universities, and other public institutions 🫤 1/

A screenshot of our YouTube channel showing red Xs over the videos that have been restricted. Eight out of twelve videos are marked.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 30

Our first strawberry of the year! We're basically a farm now.

A photo of a strawberry from our container garden, held between two fingers. The sun is shining on the strawberry foliage and marigolds in the background. Further back, the front of our bookstore is visible, with a rainbow flag flapping in the wind. Not pictured: us eating the strawberry, which tasted incredible.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 27

This Saturday at 6pm ET, join contributors to a groundbreaking new anthology from @pmpress.bsky.social about on navigating trans pregnancy and family planning. Sign up for free at app.hi.events/event/7167/g... 👶

A photo of the book held by a nonbinary hand in front of bookshelves at Firestorm. The cover is blue with a grid of illustrated images depicting pink body parts, some of which belong to adults and others to children. Many are engaged in playful activities such as drawing with a crayon, playing in the water, or painting a toenail.

A promotional graphic for Gender-Expansive Pregnancy, a virtual event hosted by Firestorm Books and PM Press on May 2nd at 6pm ET. The image features the book cover alongside panelist headshots over an image taken underwater.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 25

LOL Fox did a hit piece on Asheville but used this adorable photo of oogles with banjos and a puppy that must have been taken 15 years ago.

A screenshot from Fox News of an article titled "Charming mountain city becomes 'nasty, crazy, and scary' as locals stay away". The accompanying photo depicts traveling kids with instruments and a puppy.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 22

We're teaming up with Pansy Collective for May Day / International Workers' Day / Beltane film screening and community potluck! firestorm.coop/events/3591-...

A promotional graphic for a May Day film screening and community potluck, which features text over a photo of wildflowers. Logos for Pansy and Firestorm appear in the upper corners of the image and text reads: "6pm - Elements of Mutual Aid (Episode 1), 7pm - Food and gathering. @ 1022 Haywood Road, West Avl."

A photo of a sunrise over the ocean. Handwritten text over the sun reads "The Elements of Mutual Aid" in a style evoking marker graffiti. Smaller text reads "experiments toward liberation" in all caps.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 21

How do we reverse the suicidal course of capitalist society? Join a virtual conversation with Jarrod Shanahan, author of the recently published essay collection "Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help," and writer @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social this Sunday! Register at app.hi.events/event/7035/e....

A promotional graphic for a virtual event at Firestorm Books on April 26th at 2pm ET. The image features the cover of Jarrod's book over a photo of sparks flying. The book has an orange cover with an apocalyptic illustration of Minneapolis' 4th precinct in flames, riot cops, Trump standing Christ-like in front of a cross, a tiki torch bearing fascist, Pinhead from the Hellraiser franchise, and a handcuffed arm reaching to escape the chaos.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 18

Last chance 📢 to register for virtual events with our co-op this weekend! Disability in YA Panel (Sat @ 8pm ET) and Militant Anarchist Experiences in the Antiglobalization Era (Sun @ 3pm ET) app.hi.events/events/2739/...

A screenshot from our event registration page that includes listings for the two named events. Event descriptions read "Five incredible authors discuss writing disability representation in books for young adults." and "Tomas Rothaus, author of the recently publish memoir Another War Is Possible, takes us on a wild, bumpy, and beautiful ride through a lifetime of resistance."

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 18

It's the final day of our Spring Sale and we've still got tons of great books marked down to $5 or $10! Find a title on your list or discover something new... but don't wait until tomorrow! firestorm.coop/sale.html

A screenshot from our website showing a product grid with discounted inventory. The first title is " Driven by the Movement: Reports from the Black Power Era" by JoNina Abron-Ervin. Each book includes the cover, title, and price from the catalog.

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 16

The owner of Vortex Doughnuts in Asheville concealed the imminent closure of the store and now refuses to give employees their final paychecks. Staff had been seeking to purchase the business 💔

A screenshot of the employee controlled Instagram account shows a post from staff with over 6,300 likes and hundred of reshares. The post reads "Hey Y'all, long time (10 years 💔) employee of Vortex Doughnuts here."

A photo of a text exchange between an employee and owner Mollie Skalski. The employee says "Hey I really need to know because I have auto pays due the next couple days are we getting our paychecks this week?" Mollie replies "Unfortunately that is one of the reasons why we closed abruptly. We don't have enough money for payroll or any of the other things that need paid. There is more money going out than coming in. We tried to get a loan to help with that but no luck. I would suggest you apply for emergency unemployment. That's always why we were offering the equipment to offset that. I know that's not what you want to hear and again we are truly sorry."

Firestorm Books@firestorm· Apr 15

Also, some discounted stickers and enamel pins... because why not! firestorm.coop/catalog/merc...