Queer-owned bookshops

This is a running list of more than a hundred queer-owned bookshops, in fifteen countries, that stock speculative fiction. Where you buy a book matters nearly as much as which book it is: a chain will sell you the same paperback, but it won't know your name, won't press the thing two shelves over into your hands, and won't still be standing when the algorithm moves on. These shops will. Where you can, buy there first.

If you do most of your reading by app, you can still back an independent — set a default shop on Bookshop.org for print or Libro.fm for audiobooks, and a share of what you spend goes to the shop instead of the obvious giant.

For now the list is brick-and-mortar only, sorted by country; an online-only section may follow if there's appetite for it. A shop earns its place by being queer-owned and actually stocking speculative fiction — no other test. Know one that belongs, or one that's closed and shouldn't be listed? Let me know.

Last updated May 2026.

Jump to a country: Australia · Austria · Belgium · Canada · France · Germany · Italy · Japan · Mexico · Netherlands · New Zealand · Spain · Taiwan · United Kingdom · United States

Australia

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
The Bookshop Darlinghurst	Sydney	New South Wales	Calls itself "The Bookshop" with the confidence of a place that knows it's the one.
Shelf Lovers	Brisbane	Queensland	For people whose love language is alphabetized spines.
Hares & Hyenas	St. Kilda	Victoria	Two creatures that laugh in the dark — fitting company for speculative fiction.

Austria

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Löwenherz	Vienna	Vienna	Lionheart. Bring courage; the to-be-read pile bites back.

Belgium

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Rokko	Ghent	East Flanders	Short, sharp, Belgian — like the best flash fiction.

Canada

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
The Book Man	Abbotsford	British Columbia	The Book Man cometh, in Abbotsford form.
The Book Man	Chilliwack	British Columbia	And again in Chilliwack. The Book Man contains multitudes.
Western Sky Books	Port Coquitlam	British Columbia	Big-sky energy for stories that won't fit indoors.
Little Sister's	Vancouver	British Columbia	The little sister who has clearly been through some things and kept the doors open anyway.
Book Warehouse	Vancouver	British Columbia	Industrial-scale yearning, retail square footage.
Cross and Crows Books	Vancouver	British Columbia	Crossroads and crows. Bring an offering, leave with a paperback.
Yellowknife Books	Yellowknife	Northwest Territories	This far north, a bookshop is basically a survival cache.
Cordial Clove Books	Elora	Ontario	Warm, spiced, faintly witchy. Mull accordingly.
The Spaniels Tale	Ottawa	Ontario	A tale with a wagging tail. Good dog. Good shop.
Glad Day Bookshop	Toronto	Ontario	The grand old glad one. Answers to no algorithm.
L'Euguélionne	Montreal	Quebec	A name that sounds like an incantation. Pronounce it bravely.

France

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Les Mots à la Bouche	Paris	Île-de-France	"The words in your mouth" — Parisian to the last syllable.

Germany

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Prinz Eisenherz	Berlin	Berlin	Prince Valiant himself. Berlin's armored heart for queer print.
She said	Berlin	Berlin	Whatever she said, it was probably the better recommendation.

Italy

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Libreria Antigone	Milan	Lombardy	Named for the woman who defied the king and lost gloriously. Read accordingly.

Japan

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Loneliness Books	Tokyo	Tokyo	A name that promises the bittersweet and delivers the speculative.

Mexico

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Somos Voces	Mexico City	Mexico	"We are voices." A chorus you can browse.

Netherlands

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
De Queer Boekenkast	Alkmaar	Noord Holland	"The Queer Bookcase" — does exactly what it says on the spine.

New Zealand

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Agnes & Edie	Pop-up	North Island	A pop-up, so it appears like a portal and vanishes like one too. Catch it while it's corporeal.

Spain

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Libreria Berkana	Centro	Madrid	Berkana — the rune for growth. Plant yourself in the fiction aisle.

Taiwan

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
GinGin Books	Taipei	Taipei	Doubly gin, singularly queer, thoroughly Taipei.

United Kingdom

Bookshop	City	Country	Notes
The Old Queeriosity	Devon	England	A queeriosity shop, obviously. You go in for directions, you leave with a grimoire.
The Queery	Brighton	England	Every good story starts with a queery.
The Queerish Bookshop	Darlington	England	Queerish: the most honest adjective in retail.
Bookwyrm	Durham	England	The only wyrm that hoards paperbacks instead of gold. Hoard responsibly.
The Bookish Type	Leeds	England	Knows its type, and its type is "unread, but optimistic."
Gay's The Word	London	England	London's elder statesperson of queer shelves. Mind your manners.
The Common Press	London	England	Uncommonly good for a press that insists it's common.
Queer Lit	Manchester	England	Does exactly what the tin, and the heart, demand.
The Pride Shop	Nottingham	England	Robin Hood country. Steals your afternoon, hands you back a reading list.
Juno Books	Sheffield	England	Named for a goddess, stocked for mortals.
The Portal Bookshop	York	England	Step through; emerge three trilogies deep with no memory of the door.
Gay Pride Shop	Manchester	England	Manchester's second entry, because one is never enough.
paperxclips	Belfast	Northern Ireland	Lowercase, no spaces, big feelings. Belfast knows.
Lighthouse: Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop	Edinburgh	Scotland	A lighthouse: built to warn ships, repurposed to lure readers onto the rocks.
Category Is Books	Glasgow	Scotland	The category is: live, werk, read speculative fiction.
The Queer Emporium	Cardiff	Wales	An emporium implies you'll leave with more than you came for. You will.

United States

Bookshop	City	State / Province	Notes
Burdock Book Collective	Birmingham	Alabama	Burdock: the burr that clings to you. So will the staff picks.
1977 Books	Montgomery	Alabama	A year, a vibe, and a refusal to update its aesthetic.
Antigone Books	Tucson	Arizona	The second Antigone on this list, still defying kings, now in the desert.
Dog Ear Books	Russellville	Arkansas	Pro-dog-ear. A radical stance, boldly held.
Rakestraw Books	Danville	California	Sounds like a frontier outlaw, sells like a beloved indie.
A Seat at the Table Books	Elk Grove	California	Pulls up a chair. No one reads alone here.
Huck and Puck Books	Los Angeles	California	One literary runaway, one mischievous sprite. Solid co-founders.
Reparations Club	Los Angeles	California	Membership perk: being seen. Dues: read more.
The Ripped Bodice	Los Angeles	California	Romance, unbuttoned — the speculative kind included.
Lavender Library	Sacramento	California	Lavender: the color of the archive that refused to be erased.
Libelula Books & Co	San Diego	California	Libélula — dragonfly. Brief, iridescent, gone before you finish the chapter.
Dog Eared Books	San Francisco	California	More dog-ears. California is a pro-crease state, apparently.
Fabulosa Books	San Francisco	California	Fabulosa. The bar is set by the name; the books clear it.
Petals & Pages	Denver	Colorado	Two things that press beautifully and wilt if neglected.
hello again books	Cocoa Village	Florida	Lowercase and inevitable. You will, in fact, be back.
Tombolo Books	St. Petersburg	Florida	A tombolo is a sandbar that connects an island to the mainland. So is a good book.
Common Ground Books	Tallahassee	Florida	Finds the common ground; defends it.
Bookish	Atlanta	Georgia	Bookish — the personality and the business model.
Charis Books & More	Decatur	Georgia	Charis means grace. The "more" is where it gets interesting.
The Lavender Bookshop	Marietta	Georgia	Lavender again — the South's quietly defiant color.
Kona Bay Books	Kailua	Hawaii	Beach reads, but make them speculative and slightly haunted.
Unabridged Bookstore	Chicago	Illinois	Refuses to be cut for time. Bless it.
Women & Children First	Chicago	Illinois	Lifeboat rules, bookshop edition.
Rubber Rose Books & Print	Kankakee	Illinois	A rose that survives anything. Plant it in Kankakee.
The Atlas Collective	Moline	Illinois	Holds up the sky so you can read in peace.
Lit on Fire Books	Peoria	Illinois	Lit, on fire, in Peoria. The franchise practically writes itself.
Loudmouth Books	Indianapolis	Indiana	Loud, on purpose, in a state that prefers quiet. Good.
The Green Dragon Bookshop	Fort Dodge	Iowa	Every fantasy needs a tavern. This one lends books instead of ale.
Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop	New Orleans	Louisiana	A name a New Orleans porch cat would answer to. Speculative through and through.
The Lucky Fox	Portland	Maine	Foxes are lucky until they're omens. This one shelves both kinds of story.
Red Emma's	Baltimore	Maryland	Named for an anarchist. Pay for your books anyway.
Loyalty Bookstore	Silver Spring	Maryland	Loyalty: rare in people, guaranteed in a good backlist.
Bookends	Florence	Massachusetts	An ending that holds the whole shelf together.
East End Books	Provincetown	Massachusetts	Provincetown's edge of the map. Here be (queer) dragons.
Womencrafts	Provincetown	Massachusetts	Crafted by women, in a town that's seen every plot twist.
All She Wrote Books	Somerville	Massachusetts	And that, your honor, was all she wrote.
Bookends	Winchester	Massachusetts	A second Bookends, because some stories need bracketing twice.
The Irreverent Bookworm	Minneapolis	Minnesota	Irreverent and proud. We'd get along.
Black Garnet Books	St. Paul	Minnesota	A garnet is the gem of protection. Carry one home in paperback form.
Violet Valley Bookstore	Water Valley	Mississippi	A violet in the valley, blooming where it was told not to.
Left Bank Books	St. Louis	Missouri	Left of the river, left of center, exactly where you'd hope.
Montana Book Company	Helena	Montana	Big sky, bigger to-be-read pile.
Wolfe & Kron Books	Asbury Park	New Jersey	Wolves and time itself. Ominous, intriguing, open till six.
Howling Basset Books	Oldwick	New Jersey	A basset hound mid-howl is the most New Jersey thing imaginable.
Here's the Story	Union	New Jersey	Here's the story. The rest is up to you and the staff picks.
Hive Mind Books	Brooklyn	New York	Resistance is futile; the recommendations are excellent.
The Nonbinarian Bookstore & Book Bike	Brooklyn	New York	Part shop, part bicycle, fully iconic. The pun alone earns a visit.
The Ripped Bodice	Brooklyn	New York	The Bodice goes bicoastal. Romance respects no borders.
Bureau of General Services - Queer Division	Manhattan	New York	Bureaucracy, reclaimed and made fabulous. Form QD-1: please browse.
W.Whitman Books	Middleburgh	New York	Contains multitudes. Obviously.
Astoria Bookshop	Queens	New York	Queens' own. Royalty-adjacent by postcode.
Archivist Books	Rochester	New York	Keeps the record so the record can't be quietly disappeared.
The Golden Notebook	Woodstock	New York	Woodstock's golden one. Bring good vibrations and an empty tote.
Firestorm Books	Asheville	North Carolina	A firestorm you'll want to get caught in. Asheville approves.
Rofhiwa Books	Durham	North Carolina	A name worth learning to say. The shelves reward the effort.
Blackbird Books & Coffee	Raleigh	North Carolina	A blackbird and a coffee: two excellent reasons to stay till close.
Elizabeth's Bookshop & Writing Center	Akron	Ohio	Where reading and writing finally stop fighting and share a room.
Little Gay Bookstore	Columbus	Ohio	Small, gay, mighty. The Ohio trifecta.
Spoke & Words Books	Milwaukie	Oregon	Bicycle pun, fully committed. Pedal over.
Always Here Bookstore	Portland	Oregon	A promise and a defiance, in equal measure.
Bishop & Wilde	Portland	Oregon	Sounds like a detective duo. Solves the case of your next read.
Broadway Books	Portland	Oregon	All the drama of Broadway, none of the ticket prices.
Pocket Books	Lancaster	Pennsylvania	Small enough to pocket, large enough to disappear into.
Big Blue Marble Bookstore	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	The whole planet, shelved. Start anywhere.
Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	Giovanni's Room, by way of a thrift store for a cause. The name alone is a literary wink.
Heartleaf Books	Providence	Rhode Island	A heart-shaped leaf, a Providence-shaped destiny.
Queer Haven Books	Columbia	South Carolina	Haven — the word doing the heaviest lifting on the shelf.
Novelette Booksellers	Nashville	Tennessee	A little novel, a little music city. Short and sweet.
BookWoman	Austin	Texas	Part bookseller, part folk hero. Keep Austin reading.
Reverie Books	Austin	Texas	Come for the reverie, stay because you've forgotten what year it is.
The Book Burrow	Pflugerville	Texas	Burrow in. Emerge blinking, clutching a trilogy.
Happy Magpie Book & Quill	Ogden	Utah	Magpies steal shiny things. This one steals your weekend.
Legendarium	Salt Lake City	Utah	The collected myths of a place. Tolkien would approve of the branding.
Under the Umbrella Bookstore	Salt Lake City	Utah	Shelter from the storm, and from the discourse. Step under.
Eleanor's	Norfolk	Virginia	Eleanor knows. Eleanor always knew.
Village Books	Bellingham	Washington	Takes a village; this one's made of paper.
Main Street Books	Monroe	Washington	Main Street, but make it speculative.
King's Books	Tacoma	Washington	Long live the monarch of the mispriced bargain bin.
Charlie's Queer Books	Seattle	Washington	Charlie's, and by extension, everyone's.
Kramer's	Washington, D.C.	Washington, D.C.	A capital fixture, unbothered by whoever's in office.
Little District Books	Washington, D.C.	Washington, D.C.	Small district, smaller shop, enormous opinions.
Loyalty Bookstore	Washington, D.C.	Washington, D.C.	Loyalty's D.C. outpost. Faithful to the bit, and to you.
A Room of One's Own	Madison	Wisconsin	Virginia Woolf's terms, met at last. Bring your own income.
Kismet Books	Verona	Wisconsin	Kismet: fate. You were always going to buy that book.