Edmonton indie bookseller Glass Bookshop has closed.

The store announced its sudden closure on social media platform X on Feb. 2.

“We are heartbroken to share that we are, unexpectedly and suddenly, having to close our doors,” the store said in a tweet. “This turn of events is beyond our control and not a decision we made ourselves; we tried everything we could to keep this little bookshop going.”

In 2019, Edmonton authors Jason Purcell and Matthew Stepanic launched a crowdfunding campaign to open the bookstore, with the mission of supporting queer and racialized authors. In 2022, the bookstore small press Glass House Press to further that work.

Stepanic stepped away from the bookstore in September 2022 to focus on his writing.

On their personal X profile, Purcell thanked the bookstore’s supporters, with a special thank you to his coworkers and colleagues at the store, who they called “the Glass Bookshop girlies.”

“We were in this together and I wouldn’t have made it through if not for you and the strength, humour, wisdom, and patience you lent to me,” they wrote. “I am still so moved by how you supported the shop and one another in the midst of such ugliness and destruction. It lasted because of you!”