Welcome to Gay Writes — a coven of qweers that challenges ideas of literature and art by anal-yzing it through the lens of frivolous f@ggotry.

Because you can write about piss play and pop divas while still deconstructing the effects of colonialism on qweer life !!

I began this project in a Toronto bookstore in October 2019 with a twofold goal:

(1) to curate a shared archive of accessible writing to help people qweer their bookshelves
(2) to open up a dialogue in qweer circles around books, building excitement towards writing in the same way that we get #hype for Chromatica or a screening of Carol at TIFF.

Moving to an online platform during the pandemic expanded the reach of our lil pack of gays, and there are now eleven indies across Canada who promo our picks to their own community of readers — Pulp Books & Café (Montreal, QC), Librairie Saint Henri Books (Montreal, QC), Queen Books (Toronto, ON), Another Story Bookshop (Toronto, ON), TYPE Books Junction (Toronto, ON), Take Cover Books (Peterborough, ON), Magpie Books (Edmonton, AB), Shelf Life Books (Calgary, AB), Mosaic Books (Kelowna, BC), King’s Co-Op Bookstore (Halifax, NS) and Cross & Crows Books (Vancouver, BC).

Since then, we’ve expanded to include local events in Montreal, including our regular film screening series, Reel Gay.

Continuing to come together as a group of qweers to chat about community in such a tumultuous time has been incredibly important to me, and I feel more compelled than ever to amplify the voices of qweer authors and artists.

- jame xx