Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, in which Ivan recounts the pleasures and difficulties of growing up a tomboy in Canada’s Yukon, and how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don’t fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels.Ivan writes movingly about many firsts: the first time they were mistaken for a boy; the first time they purposely discarded their bikini top so they could join the boys at the local swimming pool; and the first time they were chastised for using the women’s washroom. Ivan also explores their years as a young butch, dealing with new infatuations and old baggage, and life as a gender-box-defying adult, in which they offer advice to young people while seeking guidance from others. (And for tomboys in training, there are even directions on building your very own unicorn trap.)Tomboy Survival Guide warmly recounts Ivan’s adventures and mishaps as a diffident yet free-spirited tomboy, and maps their journey through treacherous gender landscapes and a maze of labels that don’t quite stick, to a place of self-acceptance and an authentic and personal strength. These heartfelt, funny, and moving stories are about the culture of difference—a “guide” to being true to one’s self.

    Striking off on her own, she finds her true family in a group of larger-than-life trans femmes who live in a mysterious pleasure district known only as the Street of Miracles. Under the wings of this fierce and fabulous flock, Dearly blossoms into the woman she has always dreamed of being, with a little help from the unscrupulous Doctor Crocodile. When one of their number is brutally murdered, the protagonist joins her sisters in forming a vigilante gang to fight back against the transphobes, violent johns, and cops that stalk the Street of Miracles. But when things go terribly wrong, she must find the truth within herself in order to stop the violence and discover what it really means to grow up and find your family.

    This was a world of self-invented characters, glamorous superstars, and strung-out sufferers—ground zero of drag and performance art. Still, no personality was more vibrant and formidable than iO's mother's. Rhonna, a showgirl and young widow, was a mercurial, erratic Glamazon and iO's fiercest defender, her only authority in a world with few boundaries and even fewer indicators of normal life. At the center of Darling Days is the remarkable relationship between a fiery kid and her domineering Ma—a bond defined by freedom and control, excess and sacrifice; by heartbreaking deprivation, agonizing rupture, and, ultimately, forgiveness.Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, and of the cour­age and resilience of a child listening closely to her deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let six-year-old iO play ball, she instantly adopts a new persona, becoming a boy named Ricky—a choice her parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years, and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step.

    Perfect for fans of George and Gracefully Grayson.Twelve-year-old Shane Woods is just a regular boy. He loves pitching for his baseball team, working on his graphic novel, and hanging out with his best friend, Josh. But Shane is keeping something private, something that might make a difference to his teammates, to Josh, and to his new crush, Madeline. And when a classmate threatens to reveal his secret, Shane’s whole world comes crashing down. It will take a lot of courage for Shane to ignore the hate and show the world that he’s still the same boy he was before. And in the end, those who stand beside him may surprise everyone, including Shane.

    This anthology is a diverse collection of real-life stories from queer and trans people on their own health-care experiences and challenges, from gay men living with HIV who remember the systemic resistance to their health-care needs, to a lesbian couple dealing with the experience of cancer, to young trans people who struggle to find health-care providers who treat them with dignity and respect. The book also includes essays by health-care providers, activists and leaders with something to say about the challenges, politics, and opportunities surrounding LGBTQ health issues.Both exceptionally moving and an incendiary call-to-arms, The Remedy is a must-read for anyone--gay, straight, trans, and otherwise--passionately concerned about the right to proper health care for all.Contributors include Amber Dawn, Sinclair Sexsmith, Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco, Cooper Lee Bombardier, Kara Sievewright, and Kelli Dunham.Zena Sharman is a passionate advocate for queer and trans health. She has over a decade's experience in health research; currently she is Director of Strategy at the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Zena is also co-editor of Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

    Here, the body is a fixation-as if to look away from it, even briefly, is to risk having it erased. As such, this is a book of unblinking human preservation, and how we trespass ourselves seeking safer spaces. "There is nothing I love more than an honest storm," Espinoza writes. There Should Be Flowers is a storm to ravage and rearrange us from our crushing certainties. This book doesn't need a blurb. It simply needs to be read."-Ocean Vuong, author of Night Sky with Exit Wounds

    So says Lexi. She's a charismatic trans woman furious with the way she sees her trans friends treated by society and resentful of the girl who spurned her love. Now, Lexi has a plan to wreak her vengeance: a future in which no one can produce hormones and everyone must make the same choice that she made-what body best fits your gender? FOR SIGNED AND NUMBERED VERSION, CHECK WWW.TORREYPETERS.COM

    African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Through a combination of lyric, narrative, & fractured essay, SYMPATHETIC LITTLE MONSTER attempts to make a space & a shape for the little girl who haunts our cultural/ personal narratives about blackness & transmasculinity. As a trans coming-of-age text the work is intensely inward- focused, but it resists the imperative of linear autobiography. Instead, it uses the personal as a tool to explore what kind of thing a "self" is, its relation to trauma & objectification, & its capacity to be multiple.

    And if you’re going to do it in front of 500 coworkers at one of the top ad agencies in the country, you better have a pretty big set! At a time when the term “transgender” didn’t really exist, and with support from family, friends, and a great therapist, Chris Edwards endured 28 surgeries to become the man he always knew he was meant to be. He used what he learned working in advertising along with his ever-present sense of humor to rebrand himself and orchestrate what was quite possibly the most widely accepted and embraced gender transition of its kind. He’s a pioneer who changed the perception of an entire community, and his memoir, BALLS, will touch readers’ hearts and open their minds. ​Edwards is funny, brazen, and endearing, and BALLS is the hilarious and moving story about family, friends, and the courage to be your true self. It boldly and fearlessly goes where other trans memoirs haven’t. If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in your own skin, for whatever reason, you will be inspired and empowered by this book.

    There she connects with his history as well as her own, learns about her aunt’s long-term secret relationship, and reflects on the trans women she left behind. She also brushes up against some local trans mysteries and gets advice from departed loved ones with a lot to say.

    class. Together the boy and two girls design costumes in anime maid style and provide treats for a booth at the mall. The trio discover a real knack for treat-making and win over not only their school, but also the town in a sweet coming of age story.

    A post-anime gurowave trauma-romance novella about a disgraced biomech pilot and her girlfriend, an ex-magical girl.print edition: http://arcadiamissa.tictail.com/produ...ebook: https://porpentine.itch.io/nymphofficial site: http://slimedaughter.com/nymph/

    Are you wrestling with questions surrounding your gender that just don't seem to go away? Do you want answers to questions about your gender identity, but aren't sure how to get started?In this groundbreaking guide, Dara Hoffman-Fox, LPC--accomplished gender therapist and thought leader whose articles, blogs, and videos have empowered thousands worldwide--helps you navigate your journey of self-discovery in three approachable stages: preparation, reflection, and exploration.In You and Your Gender Identity, you will learn: Why understanding your gender identity is core to embracing your full beingHow to sustain the highs and lows of your journey with resources, connection, and self-careHow to uncover and move through your feelings of fear, loneliness, and doubtWhy it's important to examine your past through the lens of gender explorationHow to discover and begin living as your authentic selfWhat options you have after making your discoveries about your gender identity

    Covering extensive research and with many personal interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the author covers pressing concerns relating to physical and emotional development, social and school pressures, medical options, and family communications. Learn how parents can advocate for their children, find acceptable colleges and career paths, and raise their gender variant or transgender adolescent with love and compassion.

    Kit’s poetry explores his identity as transgender, queer, Asian American from Hawaii, while asking what queer hearts and families are made of and interrogating the forces that are constantly working to break them apart. Queer Heartache is a testament to the resilience of queer love in all its forms—between cis and trans siblings, lovers, pride parade attendees, and many more—in the face of heartbreaking barriers everywhere from the dating pool to the medical establishment. If you’ve ever had your heart broken, wondered how your pets self-identify, or wanted to tell someone your gender is none of their business, this book is for you. So wrap yourself in a rainbow and enjoy the ride.

    Traveling to Northern Ontario and across the Great Lakes, Passage is a poetic voyage through divorce, family violence, legacy of colonization, and the affirmation of a new sexuality and gender. Previously published as a man, Passage is the poet's first collection written as a transwoman. Striking and raw in sparse lines, the collection showcases a vital Two Spirited identity that transects borders of race, gender, and experience. In Passage, the poet seeks to reconcile herself to the land, the history of her ancestors, and her separation from her partner and family by invoking the beauty and power of her ancestral waterways. Building on the legacy of other ground-breaking Indigenous poets like Gregory Scofield and Queer poets like Tim Dlugos, Benaway's work is deeply personal and devastating in sharp, clear lines. Passage is a book burning with a beautiful intensity and reveals Benaway as one of the most powerful emerging poets writing in Indigenous poetics today.

    (Free online)Exceptional situations call for exceptional husbands.

    After a party on the Las Vegas Strip, a young sissy must choose between her internet fantasy of forced feminization at the hands of a mysterious handsome man, or the difficult reality of transition with the help of a sisterly transsexual woman.From Torrey Peters comes a dark new Novella about online sissy culture, forced-femme erotica, female-masking, internalized transmisogyny, and crossdressing.

    There I was. Stranded in a body not quite my own, soon to be taken away from her to be handed over to a young couple who were just as lost in this world.It was the beginning of an incredible journey, which brought me to the surging rivers of my childhood in Germany and later to the deep, glacial lakes of Switzerland. Then, one day, on the shores of Lake Zurich, an epiphany amidst bags of aromatic popcorn helped me to grasp the entire truth about my gender identity.Still searching for a place to truly call home and longing for a deeper understanding of the world and myself, my quest continued. I explored different cultures and oceans through work and travel, continuously fascinated by the inspiring individuals I encountered along the way. Several years of refreshing yet challenging Maldivian island life led me to the Philippine jungle and onward to the South China Sea, to Macau and the largest aquatic show in the world. It was there inspiration struck like never before but passion also brought me to the very limits of my endurance…Paralian: Not Just Transgender is about living life authentically, about independence, compassion, and the beauty of our often-troubled existence. Written with profound honesty and a fine sense of humor, Paralian hopes to touch your heart while leaving you slightly breathless all at the same time.

    You get a real sense of what this family went through. Their son's desperate effort to comply to societal gender norms, a suicide attempt, a family members struggle with God and transgenderism, a heart breaking death and much more. Every step of their son's transition from female to male (FTM) is discussed in detail, including hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgeries. This book shares it all in the hopes of making a difference in what seems like a harsh and cruel world for transgender people.In the beginning, transgenderism was not even on Mom’s radar. There was a so much to learn. She went from knowing nothing at all about the subject to becoming significantly more knowledgeable. The journey this family took is spelled out in the pages of this book in the hope that it offers encouragement, support and wisdom to others. Mom shares many of the resources she used along her own family’s journey and extends to you a friendship that goes far beyond the pages of this book.This is a uniquely written and thought provoking true story which transitions beautifully between the family’s personal journey and some of the larger societal issues that face the transgender community today.Even if you don't know a transgender person, this book will make you feel as if you do. If you have been curious about this topic this mother's story will certainly provide you with great insight. Perhaps you are a transgender person and looking for a book that can help you explain and introduce the topic to your family and friends. This book can help pave the way to acceptance and understanding. I Promised Not to Tell - Raising a transgender child is a honest and timely memoir.

    Asegi, which translates as “strange,” is also used by some Cherokees as a term similar to “queer.” For author Qwo-Li Driskill, asegi provides a means by which to reread Cherokee history in order to listen for those stories rendered “strange” by colonial heteropatriarchy. As the first full-length work of scholarship to develop a tribally specific Indigenous Queer or Two-Spirit critique, Asegi Stories examines gender and sexuality in Cherokee cultural memory, how they shape the present, and how they can influence the future. The theoretical and methodological underpinnings of Asegi Stories derive from activist, artistic, and intellectual genealogies, referred to as “dissent lines” by Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Driskill intertwines Cherokee and other Indigenous traditions, women of color feminisms, grassroots activisms, queer and Trans studies and politics, rhetoric, Native studies, and decolonial politics. Drawing from oral histories and archival documents in order to articulate Cherokee-centered Two-Spirit critiques, Driskill contributes to the larger intertribal movements for social justice.

    Everyone knows nobody wants a transgender boyfriend, right? So he's as shocked as anyone when seemingly-straight Jude Kalinowski asks him out, and doesn't appear to be joking.The only problem is ... well, Jude doesn't actually know.Anton can see how this will play out: Jude is a nice guy, and nice guys finish last. And Anton is transgender, and transgender people don't get happy endings. If he tells Jude, it might destroy everything.And if Jude tells anyone else ... it will.

    But now his school is one cheerleader short...

    trigger is a bold, intimate, and comfortable/uncomfortable quest, through Selenite's eyes, in being Black, being queer, being trans, being a woman, and being non-binary in the 21st century, in what continues to be systemic and oppressive, but also adventurous and ecstatic.

    He's grown up wonky in a world that only deals with the straight and narrow -- and his new boyfriend isn't helping.Rob Hawkes is six feet of muscle, tattoos, and arrest warrants. A career criminal and a former guest of Her Majesty's Prison Service, he'd rather hit Eli's parents than sit down to dinner with them. One wrong move, and Rob could destroy Eli -- and his family -- without a second thought.But this isn't what it looks like.Rob's not in control here -- and Eli's the one to blame.

    Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she's determined not to get too close to anyone. But when she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can't help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she realizes just how much she is losing by guarding her heart. She finds herself yearning to share with Grant everything about herself, including her past. But Amanda's terrified that once she tells him the truth, he won't be able to see past it. Because the secret that Amanda's been keeping? It's that at her old school, she used to be Andrew. Will the truth cost Amanda her new life, and her new love? Meredith Russo's If I Was Your Girl is a universal story about feeling different and a love story that everyone will root for.

     There is a generational divide in our understandings of gender. This comprehensive guidebook helps to bridge that divide by exploring the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising a teenager who may be transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid or otherwise gender-expansive. Combining years of experience working in the field with extensive research and personal interviews, the authors cover pressing concerns relating to physical and emotional development, social and school pressures, medical considerations, and family communications. Learn how parents can more deeply understand their children, and raise their non-binary or transgender adolescent with love and compassion.

    Building on the groundbreaking first volume, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, NIA KING is back with a second archive of interviews from her podcast We Want the Airwaves. She maintains her signature frankness as an interviewer while seeking advice on surviving capitalism from creative folks who often find their labor devalued. In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses biphobia in gay men's communities with JUBA KALAMKA, helping border-crossers find water in the desert with MICHA CARDENAS, trying to preserve Indigenous languages through painting with GRACE ROSARIO PERKINS, revolutionary monster stories with ELENA ROSE, using textiles to protest police violence with INDIRA ALLEGRA, trying to respectfully reclaim one's own culture with AMIR RABIYAH, taking on punk racism with MIMI THI NGUYEN, the imminent trans women of color world takeover with LEXI ADSIT, queer life in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps with TINA TAKEMOTO, hip-hop and Black Nationalism with AJUAN MANCE, making music in exile with MARTIN SORRONDEGUY, issue-based versus identity-based organizing with TRISH SALAH, ten years of curating and touring with the QTPOC arts organization Mangos With Chili with CHERRY GALETTE, raising awareness about gentrification through games with MATTIE BRICE, self-publishing versus working with a small press with VIVEK SHREYA, and the colonial nature of journalism school with KILEY MAY. The conversation continues. Bear witness to QTPOC brilliance.

    KOKUMO's poetry, is what happens when Aunt Jemima becomes Rambo. KOKUMO's poetry, is what happens when the piece of shit you stepped in, corporealizes then knocks you the fuck out. And no! Resilience, has never sounded sexier.

    In his muddled mind, oppressed by his stepfather and bullied at school, and depressed, he has become something of a hermit. Not only that, he does horrible things to himself, punishing himself for being this creature that no one understands. Not even he understands. Then Catherine his classmate of five years sits by him on the bus and his pain is displayed. School breaks for the summer and the future looks bleak but Catherine sees his pain and understands it probably more than Michael because he is so muddled and depressed. One thing leads to another. His family is decimated. His cruel stepfather makes it essential for Michael to escape and he does, into a new World where he can at last be the person he knows he really is, finding acceptance but suffering the worst loss of all on his journey to being Alicia.

    He feared and disliked his older brother Richard too. By eleven, something or someone had to break and it would not be Jem. A visit to his GP released him and the hidden emotions of those closest to him. That was when he learned about love, love of his family, what remained of it and love of a friend, expressing his real identity at last. Above all she learned to love herself and her new persona, even though she seemed to have a multitude of oppressors.

    At a Halloween party, she meets someone who believes her, a boy with green eyes and ghosts of his own named Thomas. Someone wants to do worse to Thea than kill her, and in order to find out who they are and what they want the two of them will have to deal with a clan of unusually helpful vampires, unexpected Shoggoths, and all the weird that Rhode Island can throw at them. And that's a lot of weird.

    Male becomes female. Female becomes male. Life becomes art. Private becomes public. A major feature of the 2014 Whitney Biennial, this series of photographs that the New York Times called extremely provocative explores ideas of transformation both physical and psychological. It s the story of two people in love, in a culture where the notion of gender has become more fluid and at a time when trans people have never been more accepted. As both subjects and creators of these images, Drucker and Ernst, both of whom transitioned gender, represent themselves in the midst of shifting subjectivities and identities. Collectively, these photographs, which have been compared to the work of Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, and Cindy Sherman, document the story of their romantic and creative collaboration over a period of six years. Simultaneously narrative and documentary, they touch on a host of dynamics, offering autobiography as ambiguity and unraveling identity as a construction."

    The gift to the reader is both the example of their exchange, and the nuanced, idiosyncratic, finely rendered examination it offers of biopolitical experiences which, in many ways, define our times. I’m so glad they have each other, and that we have this."– Maggie Nelson"You Only Live Twice is an intelligent ode to enchantment, to the possibilities that arise in their 'second lives' when all past expectations have been foreclosed."– Chris Kraus"The writing is out of the park — strong and surprising, a relay race of brilliant twirling, tossing thoughts back and forth like balletic rugby bros. Joynt and Hoolboom’s dances of disclosure are so courageous and generative, gifts to us all."– John GreysonYou Only Live Twice is a double-barreled, non-fiction novel co-authored by young trans writer and media artist Chase Joynt and HIV-positive movie artist Mike Hoolboom. Together, and with an assist from the films of Chris Marker, they map out the particularities of what they call "second lives": Chase's transition from female-to-male, and Mike's near-death from AIDS in the 1990s.YOLT is true fiction, part of the auto-genre wave that includes the diary crypts of Knausgaard, the friendship recordings of Sheila Heti, and the theory-fiction of Maggie Nelson and Chris Kraus.The unspoken promise was that in our second life we would become the question to every answer, jumping across borders until they finally dissolved. Man and woman. Queer and straight. Only we have two bodies now, the one that gathers sensations and the other one that archives the records. Is it too terrible to admit that we prefer the record, that we find it more reassuring, even more erotic?Mike Hoolboom is an author and filmmaker based in Toronto. He has written four books, received more than thirty international film prizes, and enjoyed nine international retrospectives of his work.Chase Joynt is a Toronto-based moving-image artist and writer who has exhibited his work internationally. He recently received a Mellon Fellowship in Arts Practice and Scholarship at the University of Chicago.

    Read on to keep up with our heroines adventures!

    Revathi’s memoir The Truth about Me became a sensation in India when it was published in 2011. The pathbreaking autobiography told the story of Revathi’s childhood uneasiness with her male body, her exile to a house of hijras (the South Asian term for trans people) in Delhi, and her eventual transition. Now in her second book, Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism, Revathi opens up once again, telling the story of her life as an activist. In the Thiruchengode temple, with the hills of the Ardhanareeshwara as her backdrop, Revathi begins a conversation about what it means to live on the margins of society. She shares stories about her life working for the NGO, Sangama, which helps transgender people, and her remarkable journey there from office assistant to director. She describes her research into the lives of those who make the transition from female to male identity; her efforts to provide a voice to those who do not fit the gender binary; and her travels around the world to discuss the community’s experience. Revathi also sheds light on her decision to quit Sangama and continue her struggle as an independent activist—including her collaboration with a theater group performing a play based on her autobiography. As told to Nandini Murali, Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism provides insight  into one of the least talked about subjects in our society—from the point of view of a person most qualified to talk about it. This is a rare and searingly honest account of Revathi’s life—on both sides of the gender binary.

    It is a personal history of where transgender activism has recently been, and a passionate insightful analysis of where it should head in the future. This collection compiles forty-eight of her previously unpublished and difficult to find trans-themed writings, including her early slam poems and spoken word, essays and manifestos written contemporaneously with her acclaimed books Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity and Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, plus her recent work addressing differences within transgender communities and activism. These pieces are augmented with thoughtful introductions and interludes that contextualize the issues at hand and previous periods in transgender activism. Combining elements of memoir, historical account, gender theory, and activist philosophy, this book is a must for anyone who has appreciated Serano's previous books and/or has an interest in transgender identities, experiences, perspectives, and progress.

    The locations and bodies are exaggerated to reach a more realistic and sensorial state. This is an awesome debut comic."— Dash Shaw, author of titles such as Cosplayers, Doctors, Bodyworld, and Bottomless Belly Button"Parrish has one of my favourite traits in a cartoonist: intense passion for the craft. They are rapidly evolving and experimenting wildly and it’s joyful to watch."— Simon Hanselmann, author of NY Times bestselling titles such as Megahex and Meg and Mogg in AmsterdamPerfect Hair, the debut graphic novel by Tommi Parrish, is a vivid set of vignettes that balances emotional honesty with a keen cultural awareness. Deploying their bold, innovative style to navigate topics such as fear, loneliness, identity, body politics, and more, Parrish is a promising newcomer from the burgeoning Australian altcomics scene. Tommi Parrish is a cartoonist, illustrator, and art editor based in Melbourne, Australia. Their work has appeared in various anthologies, magazines, mini comics, gallery shows in New York, Argentina, and throughout Australia, as well as the online column Advicecomics. They are also the art editor of the Australian literary journal The Lifted Brow.

    On an impulse, she decides to travel to London to celebrate her birthday, where she experiences an odd compulsion to see an exhibit on the invention of military camouflage. Within the first five minutes of her visit, her lifelong feeling of being aberrant reveals its source: she had never learned the art of camouflage. This marked the beginning of Oscar of Between: A Memoir of Identity and Ideas. Taking the name Oscar, she embarks on an intimate, nine-year quest by telling her story as “a person of between.” As Oscar, she is able to make sense of her self and the culture that shaped her. She traces this experience of in-betweenness from her childhood in the rural Midwest, through to her first queer kiss in 1978, divorce, coming out, writing life. In 1984, she and her lover wrote lesbian erotic love poetry collections in dialogue with one another, the first and only tandem collections on this subject in English Canada. After the two split, she experienced years of unacknowledged exclusion from a community in which she thought she belonged. In the process of writing Oscar’s story, Warland considers our culture’s rigid, even violent demarcations as she becomes at ease with never knowing what gender she will be addressed as: “In Oscar’s daily life, when encountering someone, it goes like this: some address her as a male; some address her as a female; some begin with one and then switch (sometimes apologetically) to the other; some identify Oscar as lesbian and their faces harden, or open into a momentary glance of arousal; some know they don’t know and openly scrutinize; some decide female but stare perplexedly at her now-sans-breast chest; some are bemused by or drawn to or relate to her androgyny; and for some none of this matters.” A contemporary Orlando, Oscar of Between extends beyond the author’s personal narrative, pushing the boundaries of form, and by doing so, invents new ways to see ourselves.

    Moving through iconic and imagined landscapes, Anybody confronts the strangeness of being alive and of being a restlessly gendered, queer, emotive body. Wherever the poet turns—the cruising spaces of Fire Island, a city lake, a Greek island, a bodega-turned-coffee-shop—he finds the charge of boundedness and signification, the implications of what it means to be a this instead of a that. Witty, tender, and original, these poems pierce the constructs that define our lives.

    It’s neither a how to book nor a how not to book; it’s more a it’s-a-good-idea-to-take-these-positions-to-heart and let them amplify one’s mind with a necessary guide."

    It is a contemplation on how such softness can be found in a world full of pain, how we can search for this spring in our bodies and in our trauma, how to love when you have been given pain, how to love your hurt like a dear friend.Reading i love you here's a gigantic worm is like coming out of a dream; that one where for one precious moment, you feel your body in the sun, you're in your body and it is okay, like you've surpassed every boundary come out of your cocoon new, and you are okay and everything is okay, and for a while after you wake up you still feel warm." - ash strange, author of "the earth hurts so much now" (glo worm press, 2016)

    A chapbook by Wren Hanks.

    "A beautiful, poignant, and oftentimes hilarious collection of trans coming-of-age poems." - Julia Serano, author of "Whipping Girl" "A Pansexual Adventure Through Time" is a collection of comics, illustrations, and poetry that doubles as an autobiographical account of gender transition, lust, nostalgia, pubescent whimsy and the American dream.An unlikely and necessary antidote to trans narratives that focus on triumphant peaks and tragic ends, Birdsong's quirky and accessible style will remind readers of all stripes of those tender, random times of life between what was, and what is to come.

    After a decade of sobriety and relentless devotion to becoming a writer, Trunky finally finds himself on the brink of success and widespread acclaim. But as fate would have it, he spirals down into depression and begins using heroin again. This relapse is different from those that came before, however, as Trunky ends up institutionalized in a recovery center in the south among a diverse group of dopers--thugs, criminals, white supremacists, professional athletes and business men--all of whom are looking for something they're terrified of finding. As Trunky navigates his path from addition to recovery and female to manhood in this cast of characters, he find himself on an unexpected journey into the depths of the human soul where he discovers its fundamental flaws and the redemption we experience from honest vulnerability when we have the courage to take the plunge.

    Often lonely, terrified and abused, he learns early to fend for himself and look within for answers, but there he discovers a paradox that threatens to undo him. Although he does not yet know the word "transsexual," at 16, Ming sets out on a secret mission to find relief. Life Beyond My Body tells the true story of his quest to find answers in a society that is closed-mouthed about men like Ming.Along the way, Ming finds solace and judgement in the Christian church, loves and loses a woman, begins his physical transition using black market testosterone, is jailed over his identity, and arranges for top surgery without blowing his cover. But ultimately, understanding the true meaning of being a man will require reckoning with God.

    Includes poems about sexual assault, growing up, and loving your queer body. Staple-bound, 30 pages.

    This street nestled in the middle of New York City's Greenwich Village is heralded as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Today, the intersection at Christopher and Hudson Streets has been renamed "Sylvia Rivera Way," after the pioneering trans-activist and the annual LGBTQ pride parade ends its procession on Christopher Street, where the revolution began at the Stonewall Inn.Renowned photographer Mark Seliger, best known for his portraits of celebrities, musicians, and artists, has called the West Village home for nearly two decades. For his latest book, On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, his curiosity inspired him to shoot a handful of portraits--documentary style--in hopes of capturing the color, flamboyant characters, and theatre of a famous, but vanishing neighborhood.What Seliger discovered was a nightly carnival of personalities that open up the visual discourse about sexuality and the constant ebb and flow of the transgender world we all inhabit today. The end result is a collection of 74 beautiful, black and white portraits, all taken with Seliger's Hasselblad camera, and never-before-published.These forthcoming portraits of trans people on Christopher Street combined with their moving and deeply personal stories remind us of our need for sanctuary, for a space to call our own. Their presence challenges us to redefine home, community, and ownership. Their presence challenges us to stop and reflect. No longer will we remain idle and pass by them in fear and prejudice. We will stand with them, recognize them, and see them. These are our streets, and these are our people. On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories stands out as some of Seliger's most powerful work.

    Written from an afrolatinx trans position, the work deals with the trap of visibility, the coloniality of gender, and the refusal of cogency in a moment where trans is trending (that is, being commodified and whitewashed).abreu manically darts from image to image in their poems, working in a digitally-influenced poetic register which, as Brian Droitcour describes, “looks like flarf but isn’t.” The result is a text that resists opportunities for the reader to connect the dots, instead pushing toward an expanded lyric awareness in which poiesis does not betray its site-specificity, and gender nonconformity is not confined to a false narrative of emergence from white modernity.divided into four sections: untitled, naming, site-specific poems, amotivational speech

    What does she have to lose, As long as you find something you can use?

    LGBTQIA Studies. SAFE SPACE takes back its title from the term's intentional misuse within the neo-liberal/conservative imaginary, but this action can offer a reader only the slightest indication of the nervy energy pulsing within this first full-length collection by Jos Charles. Throughout the poems in SAFE SPACE, Charles defiantly articulates the terms of a radicalized vulnerability unashamed to feel and never feeling ashamed, reclaiming agency over both poetry and politics, refusing to placate any authority attempting to control bodies with violence. The poet's agile lyricism rips apart and reimagines theoretical discourses as confessional texts and vice versa, with severe lines and staccato rhythms. As a hyperkinetic interrogation of contexts that give rise to its disruptions of, and interventions on, youth, sexual trauma, and transness, SAFE SPACE is critical reading in both senses of the term. The collection dazzles and devastates, confronting a world whose ruin is long overdue with equal parts glee and sadness, compassion and power.

    This book is a must-read for anyone considering top surgery. With clear and accessible language, Drake Cameron Sterling has created a blueprint to guide you through this process. You’ll learn how to interview surgeons, plan and pay for the procedure, make sound decisions, decrease your anxiety, and ready yourself before, during, and after your top surgery. You’ll be empowered to: * Survive the mental health assessment without losing your mind * Improve your chances of hiring the best surgeon for you * Understand top surgery types and techniques * Know what to expect on the day of surgery * Manage drains, binders, and scar therapies * Prepare yourself and your home for optimum physical and emotional recovery With practical tips in every chapter, you and your caregiver will be ready for your big day.

    Tessa’s travels and her self-realizations will resonate with readers. Overall, it is her lust for adventure and independence more than the mysteries of her past and future that will keep readers engaged.” — Review, School Library JournalNineteen-year-old Tessa  is suddenly tasked with spreading her great aunt’s ashes all over the US and Canada so the rest of her relatives can receive their inheritance. After her initial dismay, she finds the road trip full of mystery and surprises. Old family secrets, girlfriend problems, and beautiful sunsets accompany her as she honors her aunt’s wishes.

    The stories in this anthology confront major themes and issues in the lives of trans women of color with profound honesty and attention toward helping one another heal. A story like “The Girl and the Apple,” by Jasmine Kabale Moore, not only unflinchingly describes the sense of ever-present danger that many of us feel in public spaces (including the hyper-vigilant condition of trauma that results from repeated exposure to intense scrutiny and violence) it also provides invaluable emotional support to other trans women of color by accurately reflecting, and therefore validating, our experiences and our perceptions of reality.A number of other stories explore their own kinds of traumas and begin to show us a way to survive them, a day at a time. In contrast, there are also stories in our anthology that take up a completely different subject matter – genre fantasies, memories and the past, self-acceptance, relationships with family and friends, romance and intimacy, and language itself – but they do so in the specific context of our lives as trans women of color.