Queer Brisbane bookstore hosts final drag story time before closing down: ‘What a weekend!’
Shelf Lovers in Brisbane closed its doors for the last time on the weekend. (@shelf.lovers/Instagram)
Shelf Lovers in Brisbane closed its doors for the last time on the weekend. (@shelf.lovers/Instagram)
A queer bookstore in Brisbane, Australia hosted a drag story time event before it closed its doors for the final time.
The Wooloowin store, Shelf Lovers, went out with a bang on the weekend as they hosted a final event before closing the business. Shelf Lovers enlisted Gold Coast drag queen Cady DeVille, who headed up the venue to deliver the final reading event to onlookers.
Commemorating the close of business, Shelf Lovers’ owner Kat Nurthen took to Instagram and wrote: “What a weekend! There were laughs, tears and of course lots and lots of books.
“Thank you so much to everyone that shared our last weekend with us.”
Kat announced the business closure in March, writing: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Shelf Lovers will be closing when our current lease finishes at the end of April.
“We can’t express how impossibly difficult it has been to come to this decision,” Kat added.
“When deciding whether to commit to a new lease, we had to think about our family financial situation, as well as my health and wellness,” she said.
Despite the store being permanently closed, Kat explained that she has hopes for continuing the business “in some form”.
“We are currently investigating options to continue the business in some form, though we don’t have any definite answers just yet on what that might look like. We’ll keep you posted,” Kat wrote.
The former librarian opened the bookstore in July 2023 after her youngest son came out as trans in 2020. “I tried to find books that we could read to find out how best to support him,” she told ABCQueer in 2024.
“I also tried to find books that had trans and gay characters in them for him to read so that he could see himself represented. We could find books online, but it was hard to find books in hard copy, particularly in mainstream stores here in Brisbane.
“I thought it would be great to have a place here in Brisbane where people could find hard-to-source LGBTQIA+ books, someone who could tell them which resources were legit and pro-community, as well as a safe and welcoming space for those that didn’t have other places to go, to connect with community and find their people.”
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