Jot is an independent pop-up bookshop & journal, Manchester.

We stock new and secondhand books according to our tastes and hunches, as well as on the recommendation of our growing community of readers.

Following loose thematic threads whilst aiming to promote the work of our favourite writers and independent publishers, we assemble a range of literature, poetry, essay and critical non-fiction that changes on a seasonal basis.

Our children’s section, The Department of Clouds and Yogurts, assembles carefully produced books and well written stories from lesser known authors, illustrators and publishers, alongside a selection of our second hand favourites.

In addition to books, jot sells stationary and writing paraphernalia. 

Beyond a shop, jot facilitates and fosters the coming together of a community of readers and writers. As part of this work we produce Jot Journal, a platform for writing sharing the ways books interact with the everyday life and work of the people that read them. Through Jot Journal we run a small programme of events, from workshops and reading groups, to book launches and conversations on reading and writing.

Cunning & High Spirits

I write because
I have read.

Jot Journal

  1. Jot Newsletter #1 October 24

    Earlier this year, I picked up a book in The Whitworth Shop, with the instantly soothing title of ‘A Simpler Life’. Glancing over its table of cont...
  2. Reading by Series: Wind, Water, Women

    Laura Mansfield   wind I like to read in series. I often get stuck more or less unwittingly on a particular theme or type of writing before notic...
  3. Profundity Interrupted: giving poetry one more chance with Ben Lerner's The Lights, Granta Poetry, 2023

    Swen Steinhäuser   I am reading Ben Lerner’s The Lights (Granta Poetry, 2023). Poetry isn’t usually my thing. Or at least it wasn’t until recently....
  4. Funny and at the same time sad: reading Natalia Ginzburg

    Swen Steinhäuser I have been reading three books by the Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991). Ginzburg was already on my radar when I came a...