I've loved books since before I could read them myself. My parents would read to me, I would read to my siblings, almost all of my most cherished childhood memories feature books and stories. I have always been the kid with the plan, and I brought that drive into adulthood with one goal in mind: open a bookstore.

The Gilded Page didn't start out on its own. We began as the bookselling arm of Redux Society, a community organization and hobby-lovers dream company I was a part of that brought Kansas City together for dance nights, board games, book clubs, parties, more events than I could ever list here. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I realized the part I loved most was the books, so I split The Gilded Page off and gave it a life of its own.

We are a bookstore first and foremost, but a lot of people know us for the Boozy Book Fest, which I started as a 200-person vendor market under Redux Society and has since grown into something that pulls thousands of people into Kansas City from all over the country, every single year. The Gilded Page name comes from something simple: I just love special editions and painted-edge books. They still have a place on the shelves and a priority spot on my order lists, and they always will, but they're a fraction of what's actually here.

Step inside our doors and you're transported to another realm. I built our space to feel like a wizard's library, or a tower pulled straight out of a fantasy novel. Jewel tones and velvet everywhere you look, book shelves cover most of the walls, swords and statues line the rest and fill every nook and cranny, with art tucked in between everything.

The Gilded Page is queer owned, queer safe, and woman owned, and that drives everything we do; events we host, books we stock, authors we feature, and beyond. My ideal is that every reader finds a book they will love on our shelves, even if it's a book they never heard of. Bestsellers are wonderful, and there are plenty of them on the shelves, but what I really want is for you to walk out holding a book you didn't even know you needed until you found it.