What are the 3 adjectives you would use to describe your bookstore?

Queer, Brown, Abolitionist

Why was your bookstore founded/what role does it play in the community?

Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore was a long-time dream of our co-founder, Ashley Marie Mireles-Guerrero, who even played bookstore as a child. For years, it seemed like a goal for the distant future. However, in 2023, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors began circulating the “Parents Matter Act,” which aimed to create a committee to review LGBTQ books for “explicit” content, with the potential for removal from libraries. While attending community meetings about this act, we heard many in the community express frustration that Queer books and works by BIPOC authors were already difficult to find in the Valley—and this act would further limit their availability. That sparked an idea: “What if we created a bookstore that exclusively carried these books?” Carlos and Ashley immediately got to work, reaching out to industry contacts and developing a plan. With support from the Binc Foundation’s BincTank and community organizations like PFLAG Fresno and REFORMA de Valle Central, our bookstore pop-up was born! Since then, we’ve continued partnering with community organizations, including bringing a Queer Bookstore Pop-up to the Second Annual Queer Housing Summit hosted by the South Tower Community Land Trust, supplying books to PFLAG Fresno’s Queer Book Club, and hosting the first-ever official bookstore at Fresno’s Annual LitHop.

What makes your bookstore unique? 

We focus on books written by historically marginalized authors and creators as well as those published in languages other than English. Both owners have a background in the book publishing industry and have seen firsthand how difficult it can be for authors from non-white backgrounds to get published, we believe their books should be highlighted, uplifted, and given space (literally in our store). We have the largest selection of Queer, non-English, and Feminist literature in the Central Valley!