#trans lit

[floral-ashes]

Huge thanks to Viridian Lakes for the review! 🥰

Having said that, the book can probably be best summed up by the author themself. “For those who, like me, struggle with crafting a sense of themselves in the world, acknowledging the inescapable messiness of queer life can be liberating. Demanding order and discipline is for cops, and we don’t like cops.”

[androgynealienfemme]

"I know what butch is. Butches are not beginner FTMs, except that sometimes they are, but it's not a continuum except when it is. Butch is not a trans identity unless the butch in question says it is, in which case it is, unless the tranny in question says it isn't, in which case it's not. There is no such thing as butch flight, no matter what the femmes or elders say, unless saying that invalidates the opinions of femmes in a sexist fashion or the opinions of elders in an ageist fashion. Or if they're right. But they are not, because butch and transgender are the same thing with different names, except that butch is not a trans identity, unless it is; see above."

-"I KNOW WHAT BUTCH IS", Butch is a Noun, Essays by S. Bear Bergman (2006)

[hotsophi]

Would you want to have a taste of what I've got? Reblog and DM🥵🥵🍆🍆💦💦😋😋

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

GRIT: a poetry collection by silas denver melvin

goodreads

The polite transphobia from adult women is no longer keeping you hostage as you sob an earthquake in your ex-boyfriend's car. Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere primal.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this poetry collection, but I think I've read some of the author's poems here on tumblr.

[angrydefendorsuit]

I just wanted want you be your favorite 😍

[read-alert]

Another crosspost from my Instagram!

I won't be participating in the Trans Rights Readathon because I only heard about it the day before yesterday and as a library reader, I don't think I can get my hands on the books I would need that fast. But I figured it was a good time to post my favorite recent trans reads! Full titles and authors under the cut

Black Movie by Danez Smith

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk and Robot #2) by Becky Chambers

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada translated to English by Kit Maude

Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon

From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom and Kai Yun Ching

The Fae Keeper (The Witch King #2) by HE Edgmon

[taliabhattwrites]

'Dulhaniyaa', my desi lesbian romance, is out now!

You can order it now on Amazon!

Desi lesbians

Bollywood inspiration

Like "CRA" if it was queer

Arranged Marriage, Forbidden Romance and Runaway Bride

Cis protagonist with a trans love interest

[sowerbot]

Wow wow wow I got a lot of new followers so I better make a real introductory post.

*clears throat*, Hi, I'm Sowerbot, my pronouns are she/her, and I'm a trans woman. I'm trying to become a filmmaker, but for now I'm mostly posting my writing. My main project is "Grow A Pair (Not That Kind)" over at Scribblehub, a story about a conservative pundit undergoing HRT to prove how people are using it to infiltrate women's sports.

I have a Ko-fi page if y'all want to send some money my way. All donations will go towards my living expenses and HRT.

Thank all y'all for taking an interest in my work; I'm hoping to write many more stories for y'all to enjoy!

Update: I have a Patreon now too, for those who prefer it as a means of supporting their favorite creators.

[floral-ashes]

While I understand that shitpost-y footnotes about titty pills are bound to have more notes than telling people about my book, it’s still a bit sad when the former gets 150k notes and the latter gets like 900. 😫

[androgynealienfemme]

"Faggy butch was good. It accurately described my pink button-down shirts, my giggles, the fact that I talked with my hands. I once saw a tape of myself in which I made a gesture that looked more like it belonged in A Chorus Line than in the middle of an interview. Faggy butch was like genderqueer -- not quite this or that, a little of both, maybe. A friend once said to me, "I access my femininity through my masculinity."

I feel lucky to have grown up in a world with butch pioneers, and I feel lucky that I had an idea about what being butch might have meant. But instead of making me feel part of the community, these constructions of what butch was -- stereotypes really-- pushed me away from the word and identity. Instead I chose a newer term, genderqueer, which had yet to be defined; it was in flux, it was a new frontier. I may not have been butch "enough", but genderqueer was all mine to rewrite and redefine.

I still like the word "genderqueer," still claim it and own it and love the way it makes room for me, in all my complexities. But I'm coming back around to butch. Maybe its because the years of pink prom dresses are further and further behind me, maybe its because i'm learning from butch elders who talk in terms that make room for me, giggles and all. Maybe its because the people i know have no idea (unless I tell them) that i was never a tomboy. They only know me -- my short hair tightly bound chest, and button down shirts.

I think that every new generation feels the need to reject their elders, reject what came before them, and feel that they are knew gender rebels. We invent terms, we create new spaces, and sometimes, we come back to where our big brothers started -- home."

“PERSISTENCE: All Ways Butch and Femme, Coming Back Around to Butch” Miriam Zoila Pérez, On Butch and Femme: Compiled Readings, (edited by I.M. Epstein) (2017)

[campgender]

[…] I became more relaxed with my identities, and they became looser. The notion of femme and trans became looser for me too, as they started to flow into one another. The lines became blurred for me between the identities “trans” and “femme” and among other group identities for which I have felt an affinity, such as “drag king,” a group that I always loved for their playfulness with gender.

Overall, my borders faded. Now I find that the terms I used to use to describe myself are having to adjust too. Basically, I use trans femme for short, but if we are going to be accurate, perhaps it would be more like “stopped-pretending-to-be-male-to-queer-femme-female.” And of course we could pop in “occasional drag king” …and “genderqueer” …and a few other things too.

Oh come on, I am just your basic modern woman, trying to have everything.

from “Not so Much ‘MTF’ as ‘SPTBMTQFF’: The Identification of a Trans Femme-inist” by Josephine Wilson

published in Visible: A Femmethology, Volume 1 (2009)

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

goodreads

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate.

Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe.

After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics―all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.

Manhunt is a timely, powerful response to every gender-based apocalypse story that failed to consider the existence of transgender and non-binary people, from a powerful new voice in horror.

Mod opinion: I read this book and I really liked it. It's a dark book that deals heavily with triggering topics, but I really enjoyed reading it.

[augustsgrass]

On transness as a holy act of self creation

Something That May Shock and Discredit You, Daniel Mallory Ortberg // via Pinterest // Oration on the Dignity of Men, Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola // Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender

[read-alert]

Another crosspost from my Instagram! This time for the Trans Day of Visibility!

Full titles under the cut

Poetry

Bluff by Danez Smith

Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya

[Insert Boy] by Danez Smith

Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes ed by Gwen Benaway

Giving Birth to Yourself: Poems for Combat by Kai Cheng Thom

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Fantasy

Lead Me Astray by Sondi Warner

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Out of the Blue by Jason June

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

Historical

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by AM McLemore

Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

The Companion by EE Ottoman

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Horror

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

Romance

I Think of You Often by Sienna Eggler

Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

Drag Me Up by RM Virtues

Nonfiction

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano

Self Organizing Men: Conscious Masculinities in Time and Space by Eli Clare and Jay Sennet

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolution by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek

Indigiqueerness: A Conversation About Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou

The Appendix by Liam Konemann

Captive Gender: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Nat Smith, Eric A Stanley, and CeCe McDonald

Making Love With the Land by Joshua Whitehead

Graphic novels

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti

Lumberjanes: Up All Night by ND Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Shannon Watters

Trans authors but (to my knowledge) no trans characters

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

All the Dead Things by Bear Lee

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

Miscellaneous

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Catnip by Vyria Durav

[ashtrayfloors]

She pulled out an album styled in black and white. On the cover stood a person dressed in a rumpled white button-down shirt, black suit jacket tossed over the shoulder, and what looked like a skinny black necktie. I couldn't tell if this person was a man or a woman. Square jaw, direct gaze, dark mess of unbrushed hair. I thought, for a second, it might be Sylvia, but this was Patti Smith. I felt something inside me flicker and throb, a sudden hunger to hear everything she had to say. On the turntable, Horses crackled to life. Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. Sylvia lit a joint and handed it to me. I took a hit, looking up at dying Jesus and thinking about my sins. Did it count as a sin when I humped the floor with Jules' leg on mine? Did it count right then as I thought of kissing Sylvia, enticed by the softness of her plush lower lip? We sat on the rug and listened while Patti sang about doing it with another woman, a sweet young thing in a pretty red dress, leaning on a parking meter. Her name is G-L-O-R-I-A. I knew that girl. She'd been around. She took Van Morrison first. Went into his room around midnight to make him feel alright. Then she visited Jim Morrison. Wrapped her body around his and did it hard and fast. In both versions, the man was seduced, passively following. Not so with Patti. More man than the men, she's bored and proud, moving in her own atmosphere. She sees Gloria and puts a spell on her. "I make her mine," she screams, the words pushed through the wood-chipper of her throat, outstripping any boy who sang this song before or would dare to sing it since. "Play it again," I said, and Sylvia did. And again. The song killed me, in the best way. It wasn't the weed. It wasn't the magic brain chemicals of youth. It was that song. When I listen to it today, it still kills me. At the time, however, it was more than a killer song. It was a blast of dynamite, cracking open stone. Listening to that song and being with Sylvia, I felt like Alice tumbled through the rabbit hole into a new dimension, one in which another life was possible. This is why the leaders of small places are afraid of music and books. And queers. They offer another way. But they don't convert. They awaken. Sending a signal to dormant cells, they rouse what's already there. "It's time," they say. "Wake up."

—Griffin Hansbury, from Some Strange Music Draws Me In (W.W. Norton & Company, 2024)