VISION
The Queer Between the Covers (QBtC) book fair collective aims to provide access to queer written materials, prioritizing traditionally marginalized voices and a variety of queer experiences. We are based in so called Montreal, on colonized Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory.
Both our public events and our internal processes are informed by a commitment to anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-colonialism, anti-ableism, feminism and gender and body self-determination.
Gay nerds unite!
MISSION
The QBtC collective organizes a book fair, distro, and literary events throughout the year. Through this work we aim to create spaces to foster the growth of new and existing queer communities. We want to consider whose stories are being told and who is being invited to hear these stories. We try to offer access to materials that are otherwise underrepresented, unavailable or hard to get in the city. Our work complements existing queer and literary spaces while also creating new ones. We strive to make participation in our collective and our events accessible in a number of ways, as outlined in our mandate and other internal documents.
MANDATE
The QBtC collective is consensus-based and strives to enact our vision and mission through our internal processes and public presence.
The annual QBtC book fair takes place within the Pervers/cité alternative pride festival. The QBtC collective creates a venue to encourage the distribution of queer writing, with a focus on books and zines. We work toward creating an accessible environment for both vendors and attendees by providing a physically accessible space and featuring content and material from a wide array of queer experiences. Vendors include local and out of town bookstores, publishers, zine distros and individual zinesters and authors, and more! Both attending and tabling at the bookfair are on a “Pay What You Can” basis.
The QBtC collective also organizes queer literary events and maintains a book and zine distro throughout the year. Through our events and distro we aim to provide a platform for queer writers and zinesters to share their work, with a priority placed on featuring local content. We organize these events to build community based on a shared interest in queer writing and zines. We hope to build links with other groups struggling for justice, dignity, and revolution.