AJ West and Layla McCay

It is such a joy to be hosting these two incredible authors this pride month to tell us more about our favourite queer books!

We are in the middle of a vibrant renaissance of queer writing. But LGBTQ+ writers, characters and readers have been here since the beginning - quietly, defiantly, and persistently telling their stories - if you know where to look.

The Queer Bookshelf is your guide to this essential queer history, and to its contemporary flourishing. Drawing on the author's own journey as a queer reader and book club host, and packed with recommendations from authors, booksellers, and book lovers around the world, The Queer Bookshelf is a celebration of the books that have helped generations of LGBTQ+ people find themselves on the page.

From literary fiction to memoir, to crime, fantasy, and young adult, and even cowboy romance, The Queer Bookshelf is a warm, entertaining companion for anyone beginning or deepening their own queer reading adventure.

Author Biography: Layla McCay is a passionate reader, host of queer book clubs from the UK to the US and Japan, and acclaimed performance storyteller with The Moth. She can frequently be found on the BBC and features in The Mortified Guide Netflix miniseries about growing up gay. Layla has won numerous awards for her positive impact on LGBTQ+ culture and inclusion, from Attitude 101 to the Rainbow Honours and Outstanding Executive Role Models. Her book Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling: how LGBTQ+ people can thrive and succeed at work won an Axiom Gold Book Award. Layla lives with her wife in London.

Travelling from Shakespeare and Company in Paris to Gay's the Word in London to the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in New York, A.J. West has written the first history of these remarkable spaces. Tracing their evolution from under-the-counter operations to beloved out-and-proud institutions, West reveals how they stood at the vanguard of LGBTQ+ rights, offering support through the AIDS crisis and bringing the fight to Section 28.

How Queer Bookshops Changed the World celebrates cherished shops past and present, the ground-breaking books they championed when others wouldn't, and the booksellers who demonstrated courage and community through it all.

A.J. West is an award-winning former BBC journalist and broadcaster from Buckinghamshire. He is the author of The Sunday Times bestseller The Betrayal of Thomas True and The Spirit Engineer, which won HWA Debut Crown Award. How Queer Bookshops Changed the World is his first work of non-fiction.