Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlyn Mahoney.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m Kaitlyn, the owner of Under the Umbrella, a queer little bookstore on Ute, Goshute, Paiute, and Shoshone land. I identify primarily as queer, but specifically as pansexual and agender/genderqueer. Those are words I didn’t know existed 10 years ago. Growing up religiously in Provo, Utah, I didn’t have the language for or access to identities beyond heteronormativity. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized that gender and sexuality weren’t the binary structures that I had been taught they were. What followed was more years of learning and critical thinking about my own identities, and reading every story I could find about queer people and queer identities.
Finding stories that featured people like me and people unlike me but also queer was transformative. It made me feel powerful and seen. But despite my access, privilege, and dedication to finding those stories they were difficult to find. Less than 5% of the publishing industry identifies as non-cisgender, and the industry is 81% straight, according to a Diversity in Publishing survey by Lee & Low Books. The most diverse segment of the industry is the interns—who make the least money and have the least decision-making power.
It’s not surprising then, that representation in the books that are published is overwhelmingly white and straight. According to author Malinda Lo, 81% of LGBTQ YA fiction in 2016 featured a cisgender boy or girl as the main character. And according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 18 YA books written by LGBTQ authors of color were published in 2017 and 2018. According to the 2019 GLSEN School Climate Study, only 16% of LGBTQ+ students in Utah were taught positive representations of LGBTQ people, history, or events.
Representation in publishing is slowly improving, but general bookstores don’t necessarily have the capacity or desire to prioritize these stories. We deserve to have our stories told, shared, celebrated, validated, and loved. Under the Umbrella highlights the stories by and about people who have traditionally been excluded from publishing and mainstream media. We launched an Indiegogo in April of 2021, raised $55,000 by June, and opened our doors in November.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Bookstores are expensive and margins are small. If I try to compete with sellers like Barnes and Noble or Amazon on price, the bookstore simply won’t make any money and will have to close. Many bookstores have had to close over the last two years because they were not equipped to handle online ordering when COVID forced stores to pause in-store shopping. We cannot compete with Amazon on shipping price or speed, either, but we are building this business with a focus on online capabilities to ensure we can survive if in-store shopping has to pause again.
Queer mutual aid is central to our business model as well. Our mission includes offering a means of livelihood to queer folks, who experience higher rates of unemployment and lower wages. These issues are systemic and are compounded for POC, disabled folks, and trans folks especially trans women of color. Programs that do not generate revenue for the store but are central to our dedication to radical queer mutual aid also require funding and support from the community which means those funds don’t go to programs and services that do bring the store sustaining revenue. I invested $70,000 of my personal savings into the bookstore. I also continue to work an additional full-time job as I am not able to pay myself through the bookstore.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Under the Umbrella Bookstore is your local queer bookstore. Everything in the store is queer in some way: the books are written by queer authors, have queer characters, and/or discuss issues through a queer lens. Every non-book item we sell is made by a queer person. No other bookstore in the area specifically caters to the queer community, providing a safe space for queer folks of all ages to congregate and celebrate their stories.
We flip the script on the traditional prioritization of the publishing industry by further prioritizing the works and stories of Black queers—especially Black transgender women—Indigenous queers, other queers of color, disabled queers, fat queers, two-spirit people, intersex people, asexual and aromantic people, incarcerated queer people, queer sex workers, and other identities within the queer community that experience further marginalization, even within the queer community. As Sylvia Rivera said, there’s no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.
A bookstore is obviously about the books—but it’s also about so much more than that. Under the Umbrella is about having a space where you can go and know that you are accepted and validated and loved. It’s about knowing your pronouns will be respected and your identity will be celebrated. The bookstore is specifically designed to be a safe space for those who are questioning or exploring their own identities, as well as those who are established in their identities (queer or otherwise) but want to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community. This is a space to experience and create queer community through the books and other goods sold, as well as community events and projects.
Under the Umbrella serves as a community hub for connection between LGBTQIA+ folks. We regularly host Drag King Story Hours, queer book clubs and writing groups, letter-writing campaigns, poetry readings, and more. We also house a free gender-affirming closet, a little free library, a give-and-take wall, and an outreach cart for our houseless neighbors.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Come visit us at 511 W. 200 S., Suite 120 in Salt Lake City! Shopping in-store is a great way to support us, but you can also shop online at undertheumbrellabookstore.com and become a monthly sustaining member at withfriends.com/under_the_umbrella_bookstore. Preordering books you’re excited about is a great way to support the store and authors who often depend on preorders to get additional marketing support from their publishers and larger book chains.
Queer authors and artists are also encouraged to fill out our consignment form to have their work sold in the store! You can find the form on our website under the Community tab. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram (@UnderTheUmbrellaBookstore) and Twitter (@UTUBookstore) to stay up to date on our book clubs, author readings, and other events. Individuals can also donate to our mutual aid cart and gender-affirming closet.
Contact Info:
- Website: undertheumbrellabookstore.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/undertheumbrellabookstore
- Facebook: facebook.com/UTUBookstore
- Twitter: twitter.com/UTUBookstore
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd-dBKY2rhlRO9q-IhRDR9g
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/under-the-umbrella-salt-lake-city
