About Us

Hi! We are Emily, Liza and Caitlyn and we run The Bookish Type, a queer indie bookshop in Leeds. We took over from the amazing Nic & Ray in June 2025 & are very excited to continue growing this beautiful community!

We sell a range of queer literature: fiction, children’s books, YA, memoirs, poetry, short stories, zines, non-fiction and graphic novels. We champion LGBTIQA+ authors and books with queer themes and characters because we know the importance of seeing yourself – and your community – represented. Also, there is so much amazing queer literature that we want to celebrate it all!

We’re a community bookshop so we aim to actively support and work with the local queer community. Here are some of the things that we do:

• a Pay It Forward scheme which is a way of making queer books available to those who can’t afford them. 
• run Queer History Tours around Leeds so that everyone can learn about the rich LGBTIQA+ history of our city.
• hold Second Hand Sundays where we sell pre-loved queer books to raise money for local grassroots LGBTIQA+ groups.
• a community noticeboard where we promote local LGBTIQA+ events and groups.
• offer discounts to members of local queer book groups.