Bookstore finalist named
Publishers Weekly profiled Unabridged Bookstore as a 2026 Bookstore of the Year finalist and highlighted the shop’s notably strong LGBTQ+ literature selection. (publishersweekly.com) The profile frames the store as an example of curated community-focused retail that award judges are recognizing this year. (publishersweekly.com)
Unabridged Bookstore in Chicago was named a finalist for Publishers Weekly’s 2026 Bookstore of the Year award on April 15. (publishersweekly.com) Publishers Weekly said the store’s identity still centers on LGBTQ+ books, even as it operates as a full general-interest neighborhood bookstore in Lakeview. Owner Ed Devereux opened Unabridged with two partners in 1980. (publishersweekly.com; chicago.lakevieweast.com) Devereux told Publishers Weekly that 2025 was Unabridged’s best year ever, with sales up 4% from the prior year. The store said business recovered after a Barnes & Noble opened less than a mile away in 2024. (publishersweekly.com) The profile describes the LGBTQ+ section as the store’s defining feature, with shelves for queer fiction, nonfiction, manga, art and photography, young adult, graphic novels, romance, and transgender-focused books. Manager and frontlist buyer Shane Khosropour called it “the best in the country” in the magazine’s account. (publishersweekly.com) That emphasis matches the pattern in Publishers Weekly’s 2026 finalist profiles. Another finalist, the Book Worm Bookstore in Powder Springs, Georgia, was highlighted for building inventory and events around representation and community visibility. (publishersweekly.com) Unabridged has stayed in the same Lakeview location at 3251 North Broadway since November 1, 1980, according to the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce. The chamber says the shop built its reputation on gay and lesbian titles alongside children’s, travel, fiction, and nonfiction sections. (chicago.lakevieweast.com) The store’s own website shows how that community model works day to day. Its April calendar includes a Queer Book Club, a Reading Is Resistance Book Club, horror and fiction groups, and an all-day Independent Bookstore Day event on April 25, 2026. (unabridgedbookstore.com) For Unabridged, the finalist nod lands as the store approaches 46 years in business with a formula Devereux laid out at the start: a general bookstore with gay and lesbian literature at the center. (publishersweekly.com; chicago.lakevieweast.com)
