About us
QueerLit Southwest, founded by 3 LGBTQ+ authors and a queer small business owner, is a not-for-profit book signing event created to be a safe place for LGBTQ+ authors and artists to share their work in a dedicated space.
Based in Southwest England, our goal is to celebrate queer literature in all forms and make it accessible to authors, artists, and readers in the Southwest where there are fewer signings to attend.
With the current political climate and the rise in AI usage, our team feels its more important now than ever before to provide a space like QueerLit Southwest to keep human creativity alive through queer literature and art.
Meet the Team!
Tyler Whittaker (he/him)
Author of MM own voice romance
King (he/they)
Owner of Pumpkin Patch Workshop
Lily James (she/her)
Author of queer romance
Jemma Croft (she/her)
Author of queer whimsical rom coms
Donations
As a not-for-profit company, we use all earnings from ticket sales, trader table payments, and grants to either put into our events in some way, or to donate to worthy causes.
At our first event on Saturday 4th July 2026, we held a fundraising raffle with prizes donated from our attending authors and vendors. With the raffle tickets purchased by readers, we were able to donate £150 to Bristol Pride, to give back to the local queer community.
We also held a free book swap table, allowing authors, vendors, and readers to give their books a new home, and maybe swap it for another donated book. The team felt this is just one of the ways we could make queer books slightly more accessible. After the event, all remaining books from the table were donated to The Lavender Library, a new queer owned online bookstore.
We also donated remaining bottled water that was provided for our authors and vendors to a local food bank in Bristol to reduce wastage as much as we can, while helping the local community.
