diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages.nix
index 015a8e27f8e1..1140eb42c9c8 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages.nix
@@ -78,6 +78,31 @@
     };
   };
 
+  # may be part of MELPA in the future, see
+  # https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN/issues/10#issuecomment-912982874
+  bqn-mode = self.trivialBuild {
+    pname = "bqn-mode";
+    version = "unstable-2021-09-04";
+
+    src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "mlochbaum";
+      repo = "BQN";
+      rev = "e623a2fcafdf5fd6c8d31570175284805c4f34d9";
+      sha256 = "1a2lpxy3bak4724r0ns4la5d0j6484ngi73kcwp82vgbbpk7lcrp";
+    };
+
+    postUnpack = ''
+      sourceRoot="$sourceRoot/editors/emacs"
+    '';
+
+    meta = {
+      description = "Emacs mode for BQN";
+      license = lib.licenses.gpl3Only;
+      maintainers = [ lib.maintainers.sternenseemann ];
+      homepage = "https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN/editors/index.html";
+    };
+  };
+
   ghc-mod = melpaBuild {
     pname = "ghc";
     version = pkgs.haskellPackages.ghc-mod.version;