Optical element retainer and image forming apparatus including the optical element retainer

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• a main-body housing;
• a cover rotatable about a shaft and rotatably attached to the main-body housing;
• a latent image bearing member disposed in the main-body housing, to bear a latent image;
• an optical writing head to write the latent image on the latent image bearing member at a position close to the latent image bearing member;
• a head retainer rotatably attached to the cover, to hold the optical writing head;
• a biasing member to bias the head retainer in a rotation direction thereof;
• and
• a guide member provided to the main-body housing, the guide member being pressed by the optical writing head biased by the biasing member while guiding the optical writing head in a first direction and a second direction in association with movement of the cover,
• wherein the first direction is a direction in which the optical writing head approaches the latent image bearing member and the second direction is a direction in which the optical writing head separates from the latent image bearing member.