Juno Books

Yes! We are celebrating Gay Christmas (Halloween) in the the best possible way with Q***R FOLKTALES.

The one and only fabulous q***r historian Sacha Coward will be with us talking about his fabulous book: Q***r as Folklore Unbound which explores how myths have formed contemporary q***r identities

Q***r as Folklore takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the q***r history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the 'q***rly departed' along the way. Q***r communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mache unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But these are not just accessories: they are q***r symbols with historic roots.

To truly understand who q***r people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past and Q***r as Folklore is a celebration of q***r history like you've never seen it before.

About Sacha

Sacha Coward is a researcher, historian and public speaker. He has worked in museums and heritage for fifteen years running tours focused on LGBTQ+ history for museums, cemeteries, archives and cities all around the world. Sacha has featured on a variety of television, radio and podcast shows and written articles on topics as varied as Turing's Law, the rainbow flag, Caravaggio's paintings and Viking burials. Q***r as Folklore is Sacha's first book, published by

Book Now on Outsavvy/Website/link in Bio

Did you know we have FREE copies of Booktime and Modern Q***rs newsletters in store?! Come grab your copies now!

We are thrilled to announce that, in partnership with , we will be hosting the Northern launch of author and journalist Ibtisam Azem's novel, 'The Book of Disappearance' which explores contemporary Palestine as it grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory.

She will be in conversation with Tara Tobler on Thursday 10th October, with the event starting at 6:30pm.
Tickets available via the link in bio

WHAT A NIGHT! Juno meets Juno was everything we'd hoped and dreamed it would be! Juno Dawson was talking to Jake Hall at fabulous about her new novella Queen B, as well as the chosen karaoke songs of the Coven, Margaret Thatcher 😒, the joys of s**t telly, the complexities of warlocks, the demonisation of Blake Lively and the importance of knowing when matches were invented. It was a hilarious, warm and thoughtful evening and we cannot wait for Human Rites to come out next year. Thank you and ***rbooktakes ❤️🧙🧹

We’ve got a little second hand box on the go with lots of goodies for you to have a rummage through!

£3 each, with all proceeds going to our friends at

We’ve got extras waiting to fill the box back up again so we’re all good for donations atm, but we will shout if back ups are needed! Thanks everyone 😊

Morning everyone. In light of the increased risk of violence in Sheffield city centre today, we have taken the hard decision to remain closed (Wednesday). All being well, we hope and plan to open as normal tomorrow (Thursday) at 9:30. Stay safe everyone. With love and solidarity, Team Juno x

We roundly condemn the wave of racist and Islamophobic violence that has swept the country, especially the attack on vulnerable people at the hotel in Rotherham. Juno Books welcomes migrants, refugees and anyone making a home in Sheffield and is a safe, calm space for anyone feeling frightened or persecuted in the city at the moment. For the next few weeks we will be fundraising for City of Sanctuary. You can donate in store or online via link in bio.

CINEMATIC EVENT ALERT! 27th September 6.30pm

We are so excited to announce that we have the incredible poet and author Esther Kinsky in conversation with the equally incredible Daisy Hildyard about her new book, Seeing Further (Fitzcarraldo), a 'declaration of love to the cinema and the collective experience of watching'.

While travelling through the Great Alföld, the vast plain in south-eastern Hungary, Esther Kinsky stops in a small town near the Romanian border. Like many other things, the cinema, ‘mozi’ in Hungarian, has long since closed. Entranced by the decaying mozi, she soon embarks on the colossal task of reviving it, compelled by the irresistible magic of the cinema, a site rooted in ritual that is steadily disappearing. Beautifully translated by Caroline Schmidt,

About Esther:

Esther Kinsky grew up by the river Rhine and lived in London for twelve years. She is the author of six volumes of poetry, five novels (Summer Resort, Banatsko, River, Grove, Rombo), numerous essays on language, poetry and translation and three children’s books. She has translated many notable English (John Clare, Henry David Thoreau, Iain Sinclair) and Polish (Joanna Bator, Miron Białoszewski, Magdalena Tulli) authors into German. Both River and Grove won numerous literary prizes in Germany. Seeing Further is her fourth book published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

About Daisy.

Daisy Hildyard’s first novel, Hunters in the Snow, received the Somerset Maugham Award and a ‘5 under 35’ honorarium at the USA National Book Awards. Her essay The Second Body, a brilliantly lucid account of the dissolving boundaries between all life on earth, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017. Her ‘climate pastoral’ novel Emergency was published in 2022. She lives with her family in North Yorkshire, where she was born.

Tickets available on website/outsavvy/via link in bio

Today marks the beginning of Women In Translation Month, giving us the perfect opportunity to celebrate the incredible breadth of life and experience in translated works.

Have a look at our list of some of our favourites over ...what's your favourite book in translation?

***rownedbusiness

Sound the klaxon!
We have two more incredible events lined up for you in September, to ease you into the autumn with some literary delights...

First up on 4th September at 6:30pm is Helen Charman in conversation about her incredible new non-fiction 'Mother State' exploring the political nature of motherhood - not to be missed!

One for all climbers and outdoorsy types (surely all of Sheffield?!) is Climbing Days on 25th September at 6:30pm. We will have Dan Richards and Helen Mort in conversation, exploring the pioneering work of his great aunt Dorothy Pilley.

As always, the link to our Outsavvy page with all our event listings is available in our bio. Can't wait to see you!

🥳 We have - at last! - got our lovely bookmarks back in stock. £1 each at the till! 🥳

Juno Reads Horror is back for August, with this month's choice - Bad Cree by Jessica Johns!
Join us at the shop on 28th August at 7pm, tickets available via the link in bio.

When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she panics. Only moments earlier she had been fending off masses of birds in a snow-covered forest. In bed, when she blinks, the head disappears.

In this supernatural horror a young Cree woman's dreams forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.

Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism, Blood & gore, Death of a sibling, Drowning, Animal death (birds)

Sunshine Reads! This is what me and Sarah think we are going to read over the summer holiday. Do you think we have enough???

We've just made a Bookshop.org list with some of our recommended happy, s*xy, epic summer reads. Go check it out! https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/juno-summer-sunshine-2024

And tell us: what are you planning on reading?!

Q***r Book Group Summer Edition!

Tickets now available on the website for our next q***r book group reading Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. The ultimate cosy fantasy, this will be a dreamy hopefully read for the summer months.

Q***r Book Group will take place on Sunday 25th August. Get your tickets now!

Yes! It's the hottest (Pity) Party in town! The one and only Daisy Buchanan (Insatiable, Careering, Limelight) will be in conversation with our very own Holly Williams (The Start of Something, What Time is Love) at Juno Books on Tuesday 3rd September. Beat those back to school blues with a seriously funny, smutty, and hopeful night of book chat. Tickets available on website/stories/link in bio

About Pity Party:

Katherine lives by the rules, ticks all the boxes and prepares for the worst, even while she hopes for the best. Then the worst actually happens and, as she tries to navigate life as a young widow, it turns out she was not prepared at all.

Nothing scares Katherine more than stopping, but everyone insists she needs to take some time for herself. Head to a wellness retreat, they said. Enjoy some me-time, they said...

Except this retreat isn't the pity party she was hoping for. Instead of massages, she has erotic meditation, and instead of spa treatments she has scream therapy. Katherine has never lost control in her life.

In fact, she's fairly certain that if she starts screaming she might never stop. But she's about to let go, and everyone had better stand back...

About Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster. Her books include the novels Insatiable (longlisted for the CWIP prize), Careering (as heard on BBC Sounds) and Limelight, and the non-fiction titles How to Be a Grown Up and The Sisterhood. She hosts the Daisy Is… podcast series, and the chart-topping podcast You’re Booked, where she interviews legendary writers from all over the world about how their reading habits shape their work. Her newest novel Pity Party is published in July 2024.

About Holly Williams

Holly Williams is an author, journalist and critic. A former staff writer and arts editor for The Independent, her work has appeared in The New York Times, the TLS, Time Out, The Observer, The FT, and ELLE. Her debut novel What Time is Love? was published by Orion summer 2022 and her most recent book The Start of Something was published in April 2024.

Hello pals!

It's soon the summer holidays (hurrah!), so we're modifying our opening hours for a bit of R&R after an exciting, but hectic, first half of the year!

Starting from next Tuesday 23rd, we will be closed on Tuesdays throughout the summer, and exceptionally, we will also be shut on Wednesday 31st July.

Normal service resumes on Tuesday 3rd September, when we will be back with an evening event with Daisy Buchanan and Holly Williams - not to be missed (link in bio)!

Looking forward to seeing your lovely faces over the summer ☀☀☀

⭐Book club is back for September to November 2024 ⭐

We have some brilliant choices for the next three months, and can't wait to get into them with you...
SEPTEMBER - Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
OCTOBER - The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
NOVEMBER - The Raptures by Jan Carson

Full details of each book, book club dates and booking information is on our website, so head over to the link in our bio to book your space!

We are thrilled to announce that Lottie Mills will be visiting Sheffield to talk about her incredible short story collection: Monstrum. Lottie will be in conversation with Hannah Trevarthen, Director of Nottingham City of Literature on 12th September. Tickets available on outsavvy/via linktree (in bio)

About Monstrum

From Lottie Mills, the winner of the BBC Young Writers' Award in 2020, comes this beautifully crafted collection of stories.

A father and daughter build a life for themselves on an isolated beach. But the outside world is pressing in. It's only a matter of time before their secret refuge is discovered.

A young disabled woman opts to receive a perfect, pain-free body. Soon, however, she finds herself haunted by the one she cast off.Â

A travelling circus master discovers the ideal addition to his cabinet of curiosities: 'damaged', 'grotesque', gifted. He plans to make her the star of his show; she plans to take her revenge.

Monstrum captures the experience of characters excluded by a society that cannot accept their difference. Eerie, fantastical and hugely ambitious, this collection announces the arrival of an outstanding new literary voice.Â

'Lottie's stories reminded me of what matters' Claire Oshetsky

'Magical and haunting' Jan Carson

About Lottie Mills

Lottie Mills was born in Hampshire and grew up in West Suss*x, Hertfordshire, and Ess*x. She studied English at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 2020, she won the BBC Young Writers' Award for her short story ‘The Changeling’. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. . Monstrum is her debut book.

We were so lucky to have a night of q***r joy and romance with and talking about their sapphic romcom masterpieces, Making It and Experienced. It was great to hear all about how to write chemistry, fancying your characters, the le***an gaze in romance and how hard it is to not name characters after your exes. These are perfect summer reads so come and get yours!

So many pretty in pink books at the moment!

We had SUCH a gorgeous evening last night with in conversation with , delving into her incredible new novel Scaffolding (which everyone must read immediately), and talking about Paris, desire, psychoanalysis, exploring characters and reading s*x scenes aloud in front of your parents…thank you both! Huge thanks also to the marvellous for hosting and THEMED cocktails! DELIGHTFUL 🤩

We had such a great time on Thursday evening listening to talk about their book, Neuroq***r. Exploring what it means to grow up as a neurodiverse, q***r person in rural Ireland, their book is both personal and a deep dive into the intersection between neurodiversity and q***rness, and how this impacts people’s s*xuality and s*x lives. It was so great to have CJ with us and to have such a lovely audience asking great questions 😊Signed copies of Neuroq***r are now available in the shop.

BOW DOWN WITCHESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️

⭐We are completely beside ourselves to announce that Juno Books is going to be hosting the one and only JUNO DAWSON talking about her Her Majesty's Royal Coven prequel novella, Queen B. She will be with us (at the Mowbray) on Wednesday 14th August.⭐

It's 1536 and the Queen has been beheaded.
Lady Grace Fairfax, witch, knows that something foul is at play - that someone had betrayed Anne Boleyn and her coven. Wild with the loss of their leader - and her lover, a secret that if spilled could spell Grace's own end - she will do anything in her power to track down the traitor.
But there's more at stake than revenge: it was one of their own, a witch, that betrayed them, and Grace isn't the only one looking for her. King Henry VIII has sent witchfinders after them, and they're organized like they've never been before under his new advisor, the impassioned Sir Ambrose Fulke, a cold man blinded by his faith. His cruel reign could mean the end of witchkind itself.

If Grace wants to find her revenge and live, she will have to do more than disappear.
She will have to be reborn.

In this gripping, propulsive, sultry novella, Juno Dawson takes us back to the bloody beginnings of Her Majesty's Royal Coven to show us the strength, steel and sacrifice it takes to make a sisterhood. With beautiful illustrations from Emma Vieceli throughout.

👑Tickets for this will FLY 🧙‍♀️so get them now on outsavvy:
https://www.outsavvy.com/event/20948/juno-dawson-x-juno-books (link in bio/stories/on website)👑

Juno will be talking to the one and only Jake Hall, author of the Art of Drag and Shoulder to Shoulder: A Q***r History of Solidarity, Coalition and Chaos and the event will be held at the fantastic Mowbray. Suitable for 12 up but under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Why you should come and see Dean Atta at Juno Books on 9th July

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UdejBoQ1v8

Book your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dean-atta-person-unlimited-tickets-924321068197

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta | Directed by Lisa Cazzato Vieyra Produced as part of Tate London Schools and Teachers project The Black Flamingo Open Studio.

And that's a wrap on Indie Bookshop Week 2024!

What a week it has been, with a visit from the lovely people at , running two book clubs at and having a great time discussing Panty by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, supporting brilliant event with Hugo Greenhalgh talking about The Diaries of Mr Lucas, and last but not least, our wonderful in-shop event celebrating The Seers by the incredible

As always, none of this would be possible without our fantastic customers near and far. Every time you pop in for a chat, buy a book, support us via bookshop.org or libro.fm, or come along to an event helps to keep Juno going and means so much to us - so THANK YOU.
You're all solid gold megastars ⭐️

We've got loads of events and exciting things planned for the rest of the year so keep in touch!

***rownedbusiness

Want to support us but you can't make it into town this weekend?

For the last weekend of (June 22-23) you can get free delivery on all orders through . We benefit when you shop through our link, find it in our bio!

Thank you so much and happy reading this sunny weekend ☀️☀️☀️

July's Horror book club pick is White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi, a spine tingling folk horror tale with gothic roots, White is for Witching brings you into a mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, are left to mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly, slipping away from them, and when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.

Trigger warnings: eating disorder (PICA), mental illness, racism, death of a parent, body horror, self harm, lesbophobia

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After the book club we'll be joined by Black Bright Theatre Company for a rehearsed reading of play script for 'Birdwatching' hosted at Juno Books! With female, q***r and neurodivergent perspectives centre stage, Birdwatching is a new folk horror about the female experience that doesn’t look away.

The reading will be followed by a discussion with the group about their thoughts of the representation of women, particularly q***r/neurodivergent women, in horror texts. This session will help the team as they prepare for the show debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, supported by the Keep it Fringe Fund and Sheffield Theatres Bank Cohort 2024.

All members are also invited to attend the invitation only preview of Birdwatching in The Playhouse of Sheffield Theatres on Tuesday 30th July (Time TBA), which will be attended by members of our supporting organisations and the communities they work with, as well as people represented in the play.

Trigger Warnings: Strong language, mild violence, references to homophobia, references to voyeurism, references to street harassment, references to alcohol

Juno Reads HORROR takes place at Juno Books, 24 Chapel Walk, S1 2PD

We were so incredibly lucky to have Sulaiman Addonia at Juno last night, coming all the way from Brussels to talk about his incredible new novel the Seers. Sulaiman was talking to the wonderful Issam Ghariba about s*x, trees, trauma, the UK asylum system giving birth to fully fledged characters and the need to protect and stand up for your characters, the streets as a library, anuses and q***r Persian poets. It was a beautiful, inspirational night full of warmth and openness.
Thanks to the ever brilliant for setting this up ❤️❤️❤️

Searching for an alternative to Audible?
Libro.fm has you covered! This audiobook app has an incredible range of books to choose from (which belong to YOU, should you decide to cancel your subscription), and supports indie bookshops with every purchase made.

This Bookshop Week, make the switch to to support our shop with your audiobook purchases!

When you start a new monthly membership using code SWITCH, you’ll receive two additional free audiobook credits to redeem from the start. Link in bio!

Independent Bookshop Week starts today, to celebrate places like Juno Books and the people who support us. It's tough out here for an eenie we**ie bookshop in the current economic climate, but we are so lucky to have the support of the absolute best customers, We couldn't do it without you: we love meeting you, finding out about your latest reads, chatting nonsense, hearing you slate our bookclub choices! :)

So this really is a thank you to all of you: for supporting independent bookshops and keeping Sheffield defiantly indie.