The former owners of the Bookish Type say the shop is in safe hands with it’s new ownership.
Emily Flowers, Liza Bulhakova and Caitlyn Oakes became the proud new owners in June, just over 5 years on from the shop’s opening in September 2020.
One of the new owners, Emily Flowers said that they will uphold all of the values of the previous owners, and owe everything to them.
She said: “Ray and Nic did something wonderful here and I really want to continue their sort of legacy of making a space that is very welcoming for our community. I want to be able to support the local community but our main priority is always towards local Queers.”
Flowers’ recent favourite book from the shop is Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Chinese-Canadian author Kai Cheng Thom, and she thinks that it perfectly represents what The Bookish Type stands for.
“It’s about holding on to the belief humanity is inherently good, and even the worst people out there have community and goodness,” she said. “I think that book in particular just kind of highlights how important the base empathy even for people you hate is.”
Source: Liza Bulhakova | All Rights ReservedPreviously, the shop was owned by Ray Larman and Nicola Hargrave.
The couple wanted to create a safe and welcoming space for Queer people in Leeds, after becoming inspired by Category is Books, an LGBTQ+ bookshop in Glasgow.
In September 2020, they opened the Bookish Type in the Merrion Centre, a place to sell books written by, for and about Queer people.
Three years on, the shop moved to a new location, now standing in Great George Street, where it is known by locals for it’s iconic pink paint-job.
LeedsNow spoke with Larman last year about why they wanted to open the shop and the success it has had since its opening.
She said: “It is important there are Queer spaces that are open in the day time and don’t revolve around drink and are multi generational, I think it is brilliant that Leeds now has such a great and alternative queer scene, but there is always a need for other daytime spaces.”
The shop is also known for it’s schemes to support young queer people, such as the Pay it Forward scheme.
“Pay it Forward is quite a radical scheme really it’s about people who can donate will donate money and we make a little tag and put it on the board and then the idea is that those tags can be used by people who cant afford a book so the idea is that we are redistributing wealth in the community,” she said.
The scheme was inspired by Hargraves’ experience as a Queer person growing up and having to save small amounts of pocket money to travel from where she lived in Grimsby to the closest radical book shop, called One Page in Hull.
It was important for both of the owners that the shop gave opportunities for everyone to access Queer literature, and to support young Queer people.
Meg Palmer is a Queer creative in Leeds, specialising in production design and cinematography.
They have supported The Bookish Type since it’s opening and say it has had a significant impact on their life in the past few years.
“Something really special about the shop to me is how much it influenced my degree,” they said. “I sourced most of my reading material for my dissertation from the shop after picking up a book that I had not heard of and finding two of my friends names in it.
“It really is a special place for Queer people to find connection in Leeds.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.