Queer All Year Book Fair brings authors and affirming community to Goblin Market
Sat. August 22, 2026 6:44 PM by GoPride.com News Staff
photo credit // michael oboza
Lakeview shop highlights local trans, Two-Spirit, and queer writers while looking ahead to fall community clubs.
CHICAGO, ILL. -
By Michael Oboza, Special to GoPride.com
Founded in 2023, the woman-, queer-, and Arab-owned independent bookstore Goblin Market Manga Comics & Curiosities hosted its three-day Queer All Year Book Fair, welcoming the neighborhood into a celebratory, inclusive gathering space.
"Every time we run an event like this, we get customers telling us about how they wish a place like this existed when they were a kid. Hearing that sort of thing really helps me keep going when the work gets tough," co-owner Daniel Dziubinski said. "Like most newer small businesses, we don’t have a lot of resources to spare except for our personal time and labor. Doing the balloon arch was one of the most visually impressive ideas we had, and the main cost on it was just a couple hours of my lung strength."
Dziubinski operates the shop alongside co-owners Don Alsafi and Ryvre Hardrick.
Featured authors at the fair included Bridget Gordon (she/her, fae/faer), a queer trans woman, healthcare worker, songwriter, and performer who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Gordon showcased her self-published poetry chapbook, "the rest is up to you, love."
"I've been out as trans for a little over 10 years, so the coming out all happened long before I started writing my self-published chapbook," Gordon explained. "What this poetry collection did help with is making peace with who and what I was before I came out and transitioned. I lived an entire life before I started figuring out my gender."
"I have three and a half decades worth of memory, with the same mix of joy and hurt everyone carries," Gordon added. "Writing this book was a way of trying to answer, at least for myself, what we owe to our past and future selves. Through these poems, I've been able to remember my pre-transition life in a kinder and more compassionate light, even as I've become a very different person in the intervening years. I really hope that, if nothing else, people who read my book will find a way to talk with their younger selves more gently."
Also spotlighted was Dayshia "Dee Dee" Watters, an artist, healer, death doula, entrepreneur, and transgender advocate. Watters presented her children's picture book, "A Playdate with the Angels," which offers a message for youth and adults alike: "The angels and the ancestors are always with you. Right here in your heart."
Two-Spirit Black trans woman and author The Honorable Angelina Nordstrom shared lived experiences of Two-Spirit, Indigenous, transgender, and Black women through her poetry collection, "Double Spirit: The Inner Union of the Sacred Feminine & the Divine Masculine Identities."
Nordstrom offered advice for future generations of Two-Spirit individuals, trans feminine creators, trans women, and nonbinary artists:
"Never let a world that may struggle to understand you convince you that your voice is too different, complicated, or too much. Create anyway," Nordstrom said. "Your art may become the evidence someone after you needs to know that they, too, can exist, dream, and thrive."
"Authenticity may cost you certain rooms, relationships, and opportunities, but never sacrifice yourself for acceptance. Build your own tables, create your own platforms, protect your spirit, and give yourself permission to evolve," Nordstrom continued. "Your existence is already a creation, but your art becomes an inheritance. Create something honest enough that generations you may never meet can find themselves within it."
Following the book fair, Goblin Market will continue its community programming in September with a queer nerd meetup and its first queer horror book club.
Founded in 2023, the woman-, queer-, and Arab-owned independent bookstore Goblin Market Manga Comics & Curiosities hosted its three-day Queer All Year Book Fair, welcoming the neighborhood into a celebratory, inclusive gathering space.
"Every time we run an event like this, we get customers telling us about how they wish a place like this existed when they were a kid. Hearing that sort of thing really helps me keep going when the work gets tough," co-owner Daniel Dziubinski said. "Like most newer small businesses, we don’t have a lot of resources to spare except for our personal time and labor. Doing the balloon arch was one of the most visually impressive ideas we had, and the main cost on it was just a couple hours of my lung strength."
Dziubinski operates the shop alongside co-owners Don Alsafi and Ryvre Hardrick.
Featured authors at the fair included Bridget Gordon (she/her, fae/faer), a queer trans woman, healthcare worker, songwriter, and performer who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Gordon showcased her self-published poetry chapbook, "the rest is up to you, love."
"I've been out as trans for a little over 10 years, so the coming out all happened long before I started writing my self-published chapbook," Gordon explained. "What this poetry collection did help with is making peace with who and what I was before I came out and transitioned. I lived an entire life before I started figuring out my gender."
"I have three and a half decades worth of memory, with the same mix of joy and hurt everyone carries," Gordon added. "Writing this book was a way of trying to answer, at least for myself, what we owe to our past and future selves. Through these poems, I've been able to remember my pre-transition life in a kinder and more compassionate light, even as I've become a very different person in the intervening years. I really hope that, if nothing else, people who read my book will find a way to talk with their younger selves more gently."
Also spotlighted was Dayshia "Dee Dee" Watters, an artist, healer, death doula, entrepreneur, and transgender advocate. Watters presented her children's picture book, "A Playdate with the Angels," which offers a message for youth and adults alike: "The angels and the ancestors are always with you. Right here in your heart."
Two-Spirit Black trans woman and author The Honorable Angelina Nordstrom shared lived experiences of Two-Spirit, Indigenous, transgender, and Black women through her poetry collection, "Double Spirit: The Inner Union of the Sacred Feminine & the Divine Masculine Identities."
Nordstrom offered advice for future generations of Two-Spirit individuals, trans feminine creators, trans women, and nonbinary artists:
"Never let a world that may struggle to understand you convince you that your voice is too different, complicated, or too much. Create anyway," Nordstrom said. "Your art may become the evidence someone after you needs to know that they, too, can exist, dream, and thrive."
"Authenticity may cost you certain rooms, relationships, and opportunities, but never sacrifice yourself for acceptance. Build your own tables, create your own platforms, protect your spirit, and give yourself permission to evolve," Nordstrom continued. "Your existence is already a creation, but your art becomes an inheritance. Create something honest enough that generations you may never meet can find themselves within it."
Following the book fair, Goblin Market will continue its community programming in September with a queer nerd meetup and its first queer horror book club.