I used to live in Midtown Atlanta, right across the street from Piedmont Park. I lived in a crumbling, narrow building filled with studio apartments. I rented mine for $525 a month. For that money, I got a parking spot and a place to live within walking distance to my work (the Democratic Party of Georgia) and to Outwrite Books.

As you have perhaps guessed, Outwrite Books was an LGBT bookstore and coffeehouse, but so what? I could buy poetry by Adrienne Rich and Mark Strand, fiction by Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust, and philosophy by Judith Butler. And having it so close by was a blessing and cemented by desire to always live in walkable, literate, and cultured communities.

As of today, Outwrite Books is closed for good.