iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by @gaystheword.bsky.social

Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Was gorgeous to be in community with so many lgbtq+ writers and readers @britishlibrary.bsky.social tonight. Thanks @laylamccay.bsky.social & AJ West for being such great guests & @gaystheword.bsky.social for convening.

Damian Barr on a red-lit stage at the british library with authors Layla McCay and AJ West.

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The Open University Library @oulibrary.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

In celebration of the #NationalYearOfReading, we’re creating a new Reading for Pleasure collection in print & digital formats 📖📱 We’re partnering with brilliant independent bookshops including the book-ends, @gaystheword.bsky.social, New Beacon Books & MAKES SENSE TO ME 💛 #ChooseBookShops

Illustration of a bookshop front. Surrounding text reads: 'We’re building a new Reading for Pleasure collection! In partnership with specialist independent bookshops. Featuring LGBTQI+, African & Caribbean, Neurodiversity and community-led collections'.

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Gay’s the Word pop-up is NOW OPEN and just in time for Pride London. So come pay a visit at our temporary and rather spacious new premises at 58-60 Marchmont Street (10 seconds from our usual location) and say hi. Please note over the Summer of 2025 we will be closed on Mondays! Happy Pride!

Image of Gay’s the Word pop-up bookshop
Interior featuring our new layout and lots of books.

Image of spray painted neon pink triangle sign indicating the location of Gay’s the Word pop-up location at 58-60
Marchmont Street

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Meet Alison Bechdel - creator of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home Spent: A Comic Novel - Book Signing Gay's the Word Pop-Up Shop 58 - 60 Marchmont Street Sat 21st June at Noon £5 Booking Essential: link.outsavvy.com/alisonbechdel SO EXCITED!!!! @alisonbechdel.bsky.social

A bight yellow graphic detailing Alison Bechdel’s book signing with Gay’s the Word on Saturday 21st June. Image shows the cover of Alison’s latest comic novel, Spent

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

TEMPORARY RELOCATION & REDUCED JUNE / JULY OPENING HOURS Due to fire safety building works at the bookshop (66, Marchmont St) we have to temporarily move a few doors down the street to 58-60 Marchmont St. In June we will have reduced opening hours: bit.ly/4jHS7Lz - please check before visiting

Image of the inside of the bookshop overlaid with purple text specifying upcoming days we are closed to the public. Click link for full list of days and more info!

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

The new version of our main shopfront sign is now up!!! It honours our mid-1980s, fonts and logos! We love it and hope you do too!

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Do you like our new retro A-board? (We are calling it the gay board). The design is based on our original A-board from the early to mid-eighties. Designed by Gay’s the Word and artwork by the brilliant sign-writer John Pope from Hastings. We think it is rather marvellous!

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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

!! it's here this was a total joy to work on -- a riso catalogue for Seized Books!, printed and stitched by PageMasters, phenomenally illustrated by Esther MacManus and with an Afterword by Michael Bronski Looking forward to getting my hands on a physical copy soon

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT Nova Scotia House - Charlie Porter in-conversation with Amelia Abraham TUES 25TH MARCH, 7PM @ Gay’s the Word! Join us! Tickets £3 link.outsavvy.com/nova-scotia-... "This is going to blow reader’s minds. Intense, physical, true" - Paul Flynn @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

The event poster for the Gay’s the Word bookshop event for Nova Scotia House on Tuesday 25th March at 7pm. Tickets can be booked via Outsavvy and cost £3

“Both a love story and a lament; bearing witness to the enduring pain of the AIDS pandemic and honouring the joys and creativity of queer life.”

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

What a total joy to meet June Thomas, author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces that Shaped Queer Women's Culture Blending memoir, archival research and interviews June Thomas invites readers into 6 iconic lesbian spaces over the last 60 years! Superb! @junethomas.bsky.social Link: bit.ly/43etnFV

Author June Thomas holding a copy of A Place of Our Own in Gay’s the Word bookshop

Immensely readable . .. A celebration of what was - and can be - built, with all the hurdles and ecstasies.' - ROSIE GARLAND

Close-up of the front cover A Place of Our Own

'Lesbians are a people without a home. Perhaps that's why the ones we make for ourselves are so important. A highly readable cultural history of queer women's lives in the second half of the twentieth century, told through six iconic spaces'Jam-packed with fascinating nuggets of cultural history, movement lore and gossip; riveting; indispensable; and suffused with a humane warmth.' - ALISON BECHDEL

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

So lovely to welcome double Polari Prize-winning novelist Jon Ransom back to the bookshop! A truly lovely and incredibly talented guy! We have signed copies of both of his fantastic books on the shelves and the website The Gallopers: bit.ly/4i6J46h The Whale Tattoo: bit.ly/4kb3Ovv #booksky

Author Jon Ransom holding his novels in Gay’s the Word bookshop

‘Ransom has written a hypnotic and even more mysterious second novel…This is a lust-drenched, ache-filled gay love triangle of sorts that gnarls into a sly emotional thriller. The Gallopers is a whispered howl of a novel’ - Guardian.

Author Jon Ransom book-signing in Gay’s the Word bookshop

'With assured narrative, a vivid sense of place and atmosphere, and flint-sharp dialogue, Jon Ransom has written a novel that is bleak and brutal, but never sentimental.. utterly authentic and cruelly
beautiful.' - Matt Bates

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

We hosted a special surprise proposal at the bookshop this morning before we opened. It was a few months in the planning… They said yes!

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Some glimpses of part of the bookshop most people don’t get to see…our ramshackle charming basement.The feeling down here is very special. Tons of old, out of print queer books, our archives and office, old signage: ephemera of our history. We plan to restore and bring up to shop floor level in time

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gaystheword.bsky.social @gaystheword.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Poet Richard Scott sharing a special reading of Still Life with Grape from his stunning new collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals A luminous, uneasily beautiful set of poems - Rebecca Tamas, Guardian #poetry from the bookshop basement Signed copies: bit.ly/4gKwybJ @faberbooks.bsky.social

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