Often, I’m asked, ? I wrote my memoir, because the few trans stories that make it through publishing are and though I haven’t seen people like me—Black, trans, and masculine—dressed up on book covers, there are many books that gave me permission to be myself, and that alone is life-saving. Career-making. Until you witness someone say the thing you thought was unspeakable, or make a turn of phrase that reminds you of the lingo of your people, or paint a city, a kith, a kinship so vivid, so crisp that it hurts to avert your eyes, you just don’t know that this life is possible.
A life spent thinking up words to honor your people—especially when those people have been told by history that they aren’t worth lifting up. Especially when those people are no longer with us. Because of this, I believe these books are worth giving flowers to.
The words and worlds in them made possible; some may be recognizable, and others may be only cherished intracommunally—at least, until now. I hope that, with this little curation of deep cuts, you allow these books to make you possible, too. * A revolutionary text of its time and ours, Leslie Feinberg’s autobiographical novel is a perfect example of intracommunity storytelling—specifically stories about and starring butches, dykes, and transmasculine people.
The biting syntax and the disavowal of the straight, cis gaze; this book made me unafraid of not explaining about the dangers of being not-a-girl when everyone is expecting .