Transgender Biographies

Tess Juliana - Just Tess

Full title: "Just Tess: A Trans Female's Journey to Womanhood" by Tess Juliana.

In Just Tess: A Trans Female's Journey to Womanhood, author Tess Juliana opens a window into the tender, complex, and deeply human evolution of identity, soul, and purpose. This memoir is not just a record of transition from male to female, but a spiritual and emotional chronicle of duality, of two spirits, Jules and Tess, walking side by side until they could become one. Tess Juliana’s life is anything but ordinary.

Born with what many Indigenous cultures would call the gift of "Two Spirits," she navigated much of her early life as Jules, a man who served honorably in the United States Air Force as an air traffic controller. Jules' military career included a transformative year in remote Greenland, an experience that sparked a lifelong passion for geology and the Arctic's harsh and magnificent landscapes. That same passion carried him into a decades-long career in science education, during which he earned degrees in geology, science education, and biology. But science and adventure were only half the story. In Just Tess, the reader travels not only through physical terrain, across glaciers, mountains, and oceans, but also through the interior landscapes of longing, silence, love, fear, and truth.

Ximena Salazar - Mujeres trans en el Perú

Original title: "Mujeres trans en el Perú: Historias de vida e identidad" (Trans Women in Peru: Life Stories and Identity) by Ximena Salazar.

In a country marked by social stratification, deep-rooted conservatism, and intersecting forms of marginalization, Mujeres trans en el Perú: Historias de vida e identidad (Trans Women in Peru: Life Stories and Identity) by Ximena Salazar stands as a groundbreaking and deeply humanizing contribution to Peruvian gender studies.

More than just a book, it is a testimony, an archive of resistance, and an essential lens into what it means to be a transgender woman in contemporary Peru. By focusing on the lived experiences of seven trans women from Lima, Ayacucho, and Iquitos, Salazar crafts a careful and poignant anthropological inquiry that privileges the voices of her subjects over academic abstraction. One of the book’s most commendable strengths lies in its refusal to center solely on the author’s analytical voice. While Salazar, an anthropologist and academic, does provide a thorough theoretical framework, the heart of the book beats with the voices of the seven women whose stories she documents. These are women whose trans identities are not lived in isolation from the realities of poverty, racism, exclusion, and migration. Most of them come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and several are internal migrants navigating life far from their native lands. As such, their experiences reveal the multifaceted oppression that trans women face in Peru, an oppression that is not only gender-based, but also shaped by class, ethnicity, and geography.

Rachel Dover - And She Was: A Memoir of Transition

Full title: "And She Was: A Memoir of Transition" by Rachel Dover.

In her courageous and deeply affecting memoir, Growing A Pair: My Life, My Way, My Words, Rachel Dover invites readers into the messy, beautiful, and unflinchingly honest terrain of self-discovery. Following the same heartfelt tone that characterized her earlier writing in And She Was, Rachel expands her story with remarkable vulnerability, painting a vivid portrait of what it means to reclaim your truth after a lifetime of denial, self-sabotage, and quiet despair.

Through raw reflections, wry humour, and moments of profound insight, Rachel charts the winding path of her gender transition with compassion, grace, and a voice all her own. Rachel came out as transgender in mid-2018, after enduring years of self-destructive behaviour and internal struggle. Her turning point? A quiet, powerful revelation in therapy, that she could give herself permission to be who she truly was. That act of self-permission, so deceptively simple yet life-altering, became the cornerstone of the life she would go on to build. Growing A Pair explores this transition not only in terms of gender, but also in terms of reclaiming joy, purpose, and personal agency. It is not a how-to manual, but it is a beacon of hope for others navigating similar storms.

Claudia Rodríguez - Cuerpos para odiar

Original title: "Cuerpos para odiar" (Bodies to hate) by Claudia Rodríguez.

Claudia Rodríguez’s Cuerpos para odiar (Bodies to Hate) is an unflinching, visceral, and poignant literary statement. More than just a book, it is a political act, a chronicle of exclusion, pain, sisterhood, and survival within the brutal margins of Latin American society. Rodríguez, a Chilean trans activist, poet, and writer, has carved a space for the voices historically erased, ignored, or caricatured.

Her prose is tender yet lacerating, humorous and haunting, deeply lyrical and defiantly political. The book opens with a chilling confession: “Because it’s believed that what is different is grotesque and monstrous, I have been so hated that I have reasons to write. I was never a hope for anyone. I put letters together and write, poorly, about this emptiness.” These words immediately set the tone for the rest of the work, this is not a book written to please. It is not here to console. It is here to expose. To scream. To remember. To disturb. And perhaps, most of all, to demand that we see the lives so often consigned to the shadows. Rodríguez writes because she was not alone in her suffering. She writes for her sisters, those who died young, of AIDS, of violence, of neglect, without ever knowing love. “I write for all the travestis who never even realized they were alive, who died of shame and guilt before they could be happy.”

Ashley J. Webb - I Am Ashley

Full title: "I Am Ashley: A True Story of Growing Up Trans in a World That Said I Couldn’t Be Her" by Ashley J. Webb.

I Am Ashley: A True Story of Growing Up Trans in a World That Said I Couldn’t Be Her by Ashley J. Webb stands as a defiant beacon of courage and visibility in a world that too often demands conformity and silences those who dare to live authentically. This is not merely a story of gender transition or personal triumph, it is a raw, unapologetic journey of survival against the tides of erasure, misunderstanding, and systemic oppression.

Ashley was born intersex and assigned male at birth in New England, raised within a framework that could neither understand nor accommodate her true self. For decades, she navigated life burdened by medical mysteries, misdiagnoses, and the agonizing invisibility imposed by a society that refused to name or see her reality. Her memoir reads like a flame, burning through confusion, repression, and shame, illuminating the path toward self-realization and empowerment. “I didn’t transition for attention,” Ashley writes, “I transitioned to survive.” This powerful declaration sets the tone for a memoir that is as much about survival as it is about identity. The journey Ashley recounts is not one of a quiet, smooth self-discovery, but rather a fierce fight, against silence, against shame, and against systems built to keep people like her invisible.

Karla Sofía Gascón Ruiz - Lo que queda de mí

Original title: "Lo que queda de mí: Lo más difícil no es cambiar, es atreverse a ser" (What's left of me: The hardest thing is not to change, it's to dare to be) by Karla Sofía Gascón Ruiz.

In Lo que queda de mí: Lo más difícil no es cambiar, es atreverse a ser (What’s Left of Me: The Hardest Thing Is Not to Change, It's to Dare to Be), Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón doesn’t just continue her story, she tears the veil off it. This searing, unsparing memoir is both a follow-up and a counterpoint to her 2018 autobiographical novel Karsia. Una historia extraordinaria (Karsia. An Extraordinary Story), written under her former name, Carlos Gascón.

But where Karsia traced the outlines of her transition, Lo que queda de mí dives into the abyss, unflinching, raw, and deeply human. From the first lines, “A body suspended in the void. A final breath. A moment where time fragments and the mind retraces the paths that led it there”, Gascón’s prose sets the tone: visceral, immediate, and unapologetically personal. This is not a celebrity tell-all, nor a curated victory lap. This is a descent into the wounded core of being. It is, in her own words, “not just a story; it’s a strangled cry, a confession without filters.” Karla Sofía Gascón has lived many lives, actor, public figure, immigrant, trans woman, controversy magnet, Cannes winner. And yet, she begins Lo que queda de mí not with triumph, but with fragility. That suspended body isn’t just metaphor. It’s the image of a person fractured by years of self-denial, survival, and social performance. “How much of our existence is just an act?” she asks. “And what happens when the curtain finally falls?”

Julia Shelton - Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir

Full title: "Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir - A Trans Woman’s Guide to Radical Self-Love" by Julia Shelton.

What if becoming yourself wasn’t about changing who you are, but coming home to the truth you’ve always known? This is the question at the heart of Julia Shelton’s bold and unflinching debut, Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir – A Trans Woman’s Guide to Radical Self-Love. Part lyrical memoir, part defiant manifesto, Shelton’s book is a raw, radiant chronicle of survival, self-discovery, and sacred transformation.

With the grace of a poet and the grit of a woman who has walked through fire, Julia invites readers not only to witness her journey but to begin (or deepen) their own. Becoming Me opens with a tender, painful recollection of childhood, a time when gender was both a secret truth and a source of silent shame. Shelton paints early life with aching honesty: the confusion of being assigned male, the ache of invisibility, the early traumas that left her unmoored long before she had the language to name her reality. Her story is neither linear nor sanitized, and that’s what makes it so powerful. It is nonlinear healing. It is poetry breaking into prose. It is a woman wrestling with, and eventually embracing, the parts of herself the world told her to bury.

Céline Gandner - Je suis Sofia

Original title: "Je suis Sofia" (I am Sofia) by Céline Gandner.

Je suis Sofia, I am Sofia, resonates like a powerful affirmation, a declaration of identity that refuses to be silenced. In her heartfelt and deeply personal narrative, Céline Gandner invites readers to witness the gender transition of Sofia, the eldest child in a traditionally Catholic family living in Rome. Told with intimacy and emotional honesty, the story unfolds from within the family’s inner circle, capturing the raw complexity and profound courage involved in Sofia’s journey.

The narrative’s strength lies in its closeness to its characters. Céline Gandner, the author and screenwriter, draws readers inside the intimate family dynamics, allowing us to experience the transition not as distant observers, but as empathetic participants. The story begins in 1996, when Céline, then a young au pair, cared for two little Italian boys: Edoardo, aged five, and Amedeo, just eighteen months old. At that time, Céline was unaware of the monumental journey ahead. Fast forward twenty-one years. Céline returns to Rome to reconnect with the family she once cared for. The children, the bambini, have grown, yet Céline is unaware of the secret that has reshaped their lives.

Vanina Bruc - Pronto seré de oro y carmín

Original title: "Pronto seré de oro y carmín" (Soon I will be gold and carmine) by Vanina Bruc.

In Pronto seré de oro y carmín (Soon I Will Be Gold and Carmine), Vanina Bruc has crafted a radiant literary mosaic of queer, trans, drag, and otherwise dissident lives, characters whose very existence resists normalization. With tender prose and hallucinatory precision, Bruc immerses readers in an expansive and unruly cosmos populated by the alienated and the extraordinary: housewives disenchanted with domesticity, theatre lovers in provincial towns, cosmic pharaohs, spectral drag queens, and witches rising into their own power.

This is a book that doesn’t whisper its resistance, it sings it in gold and carmine, with a voice as brave as it is lyrical. Published by the audacious Spanish publisher Dos Bigotes, Pronto seré de oro y carmín defies easy categorization. It reads like a collection of short stories, but the pieces are stitched together by a shared spirit of defiance and illumination. Each narrative is a portal into an interior world colored by fear, desire, confusion, and yearning. This is not simply a book about gender or sexuality, it is a book about refusal, about disobedience, and about the beauty that grows in the cracks of conformity. The magic of Pronto seré de oro y carmín lies in its unapologetic embrace of fluidity, of identity, of genre, of narrative logic.

Riki Wilchins - Bad Ink

Full title: "Bad Ink: How The New York Times Sold Out Transgender Teens" by Riki Anne Wilchins.

In Bad Ink: How The New York Times Sold Out Transgender Teens, award-winning activist and author Riki Anne Wilchins delivers a deeply researched, incisive, and unflinching exposé on how one of the world’s most respected newspapers abandoned its progressive stance on transgender rights in favor of what can only be described as a calculated campaign against transgender youth.

This book is not merely a critique of journalistic missteps, it is a bold indictment of systemic bias, media complicity, and the devastating impact such narratives have on the lives of vulnerable young people. Through clear-eyed analysis and chilling documentation, Wilchins shows how the New York Times became not just a passive observer of the backlash against trans rights, but an active participant. Wilchins traces the roots of this ideological shift to 2015, just as A. G. Sulzberger was rising to power as the new Publisher. Up to that point, the Times had been a relatively consistent supporter of transgender rights. But under Sulzberger’s tenure, something changed. The coverage took a sharp and disturbing turn.

Toshimi Tanio - A Letter From a Father

Original title: "パパだけど、ママになりました　女性として生きることを決めた「パパ」が、「ママ」として贈る最愛のわが子への手紙" (A letter from a father who decided to live as a woman to his beloved child as a mother) by Toshimi Tanio 谷生俊美

This heartfelt statement from Toshimi Tanio, a transgender woman and film producer, captures a powerful and emotional story about identity, love, family, and the journey of parenthood beyond traditional boundaries. Toshimi’s book, A Letter From a Father, delves deeply into her lived experience as a transgender woman who, despite complex challenges, embraces motherhood alongside her partner.

Born and raised as a man, Toshimi Tanio lived most of her early life feeling a disconnect with the gender assigned at birth. Since childhood, he harbored a quiet but persistent wish to live as a woman. Despite this internal truth, Toshimi lived as a man into adulthood and built a successful career as a reporter and correspondent, even serving as the Cairo bureau chief for Nippon Television from 2005. It was during her time covering conflict zones in the Middle East that Toshimi’s yearning to live authentically intensified. Faced with life’s fragility and the urgency to live without regrets, she began gradually embracing her true self, first by wearing neutral clothing and light makeup, and then by openly expressing his desire to live as a woman. Upon returning to Japan in 2010, and with the support of her employer and a mental health diagnosis of gender identity disorder, Toshimi began hormone therapy and embarked on her gender transition at age 39.

Maya Ova - Sea Changes

Full title: "Sea Changes: Journal of A Transgender Woman" by Maya Ova.

Maya Ova’s Sea Changes: Journal of a Transgender Woman is not just a book, it’s a deeply textured meditation on identity, transformation, and creativity. Woven through a mosaic of journal entries, poetry, photography, and travel anecdotes, the book offers readers a window into Maya’s life as a transgender woman growing up in Southeast Asia and later navigating a global career in education and culture. It is equal parts memoir, scrapbook, and soundscape, a tribute to the many selves Maya has inhabited, and the melodies she continues to create from them.

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Maya grew up in the ever-expanding urban sprawl of a city constantly reinventing itself, a mirror to her own fluid evolution. As a child, Maya knew she was different. She wished she had been born a girl and carried that silent truth through a world not built for easy honesty. “I grew up in a modest urban landscape, albeit with little resources available,” she writes. “I would look at my friends who play the piano, arguing whose music centre is better while I itched to learn how pressing each key would sound like.”

Raven Victoria Perich Minguillón - Flor de invierno

Original title: "Flor de invierno: Confesiones de una mujer trans" (Winter Flower: Confessions of a Trans Woman) by Raven Victoria Perich Minguillón.

In Flor de invierno: Confesiones de una mujer trans (2023), Raven Victoria Perich Minguillón offers readers more than just a memoir, she offers a lighthouse. Her words guide those navigating the stormy seas of gender identity, societal expectations, and personal truth. This book is a vivid, raw, and deeply personal journey of a woman who, against all odds, found the courage to bloom in winter, when everything around her seemed cold and hostile.

Raven opens with a jarring yet truthful observation: “Some people believe that transgenderism is a choice. As if one morning you woke up and decided you weren't who everyone thought you were, but someone else.” In these words lies the first crack in the societal illusion that gender identity is something whimsical or voluntary. She reminds us that it's not about becoming someone else, but finally realizing who you have always been. That realization, often delayed by fear and silence, can shatter your world before rebuilding it anew.

Michael Devitt and Angie Devitt - Finding Eve

Full title: "Finding Eve: Raising a transgender teen in Idaho" by Michael Devitt and Angie Devitt.

In the heart of one of America’s most conservative states, a powerful, deeply personal, and transformative story has emerged. Finding Eve: Raising a Transgender Teen in Idaho (2024) by Michael and Angie Devitt is more than a memoir, it's a clarion call for compassion, understanding, and bravery. It tells the story of their daughter, Eve Devitt, an extraordinary young woman whose courage and authenticity have inspired not only her family and community but countless others across the nation.

Set in Boise, Idaho, Finding Eve begins with a quiet but growing storm, the dawning awareness that their child, assigned male at birth, was experiencing something deeper and more profound than confusion or rebellion. What unfolds is a story of gender dysphoria recognized not as a problem to be solved, but as a truth to be honored. As Eve begins to articulate her experience and identity, her parents are confronted with questions many families of transgender youth face: What does it mean to be supportive? How do you protect your child from a world that isn’t ready? Michael and Angie do not sugarcoat their journey. The book walks readers through the complexity of coming out within a family that, like many, was unprepared for what lay ahead. Their daughter’s transition challenged their assumptions, tested their relationships, and required a level of self-reflection and vulnerability that few parenting books prepare you for. But through honest conversations and unwavering love, the Devitts transformed what could have been a breaking point into a source of incredible strength.

Full title: "A Woman in Progress" by Barbara Marie Minney.

Barbara Marie Minney’s A Woman in Progress is not simply a poetry collection, it is a radiant, defiant, and deeply human memoir-in-verse that speaks to transformation, faith, pain, and joy with fearless authenticity. Winner of the 2024 American Fiction Award for Poetry Chapbook and an Eric Hoffer Award nominee, this chapbook reveals the tender interior of a poet who has walked through fire and emerged, not unscarred, but empowered.

Minney’s fourth collection may be slim in size, but it contains worlds, worlds shaped by courage, longing, fierce love, and a hard-earned sense of self. Minney is a seventh-generation Appalachian, a retired attorney, and a proud transgender woman who began her transition at the age of sixty-three after decades of repression. As she shared in her candid interview with Heroines of My Life, poetry became her means of survival and resistance, “a way to document and process my thoughts, feelings, struggles, and triumphs.” A Woman in Progress charts the earliest years of that journey, unfolding like a spiritual testimony, an act of prayer, and a series of intimate conversations with the self and the reader.

Shiro Deng - Julie Lemieux: Canada's First Transgender Mayor

Full title: "Julie Lemieux: Canada's First Transgender Mayor - Unauthorized" by Shiro Deng.

In Julie Lemieux: Canada’s First Transgender Mayor – Unauthorized, author Shiro Deng chronicles one of the most quietly groundbreaking political careers in Canadian history. With sensitivity, depth, and journalistic curiosity, Deng paints a vivid portrait of Julie Lemieux, a soft-spoken, community-oriented cabinetmaker turned trailblazing public servant, who reshaped a rural Quebec village and, along the way, Canadian politics. Julie Lemieux's story is not one of grand speeches or sweeping national headlines, but of grassroots transformation.

A former Drummondville cabinetmaker, she moved to the village of Très-Saint-Rédempteur in 2009 seeking a slower, more connected life. It wasn’t politics that brought her there, but wood, peace, and community. But the heart of this story, and the heart of Deng’s book, lies in the way Lemieux responded when her community needed her most. The turning point came in the form of a church. When the beloved, but disused, Roman Catholic church at the village center was slated for demolition, Lemieux led the fight to preserve and transform it into a community and cultural hub. That victory sparked her political awakening, and in 2013, she was elected to the municipal council. Four years later, she would make history by becoming Canada’s first openly transgender mayor, and the first woman elected mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur.

Samantha Flores - Entre azul y buenas noches

Original title: "Entre azul y buenas noches" (Between Blue and Good Night) by Samantha Flores and Antoine Rodríguez.

In Entre azul y buenas noches, Samantha Flores opens the doors to a life filled with dreams, struggles, and triumphs that span over nine decades. Co-written with Antoine Rodríguez, this autobiography is much more than the story of a single woman, it is a testament to the power of authenticity, survival, and love against a backdrop of societal rejection and systemic invisibility.

Born Vicente Aurelio in 1932 in Orizaba, Veracruz, Samantha Flores has lived through eras of profound cultural transformation in Mexico, and through her words, readers are transported into a world where survival often required ingenuity, courage, and unwavering self-belief. From the very beginning, Samantha's life was a delicate negotiation between who she was expected to be and who she truly was. Baptized Vicente Aurelio, she grew up as an effeminate, sensitive child in a world that had little patience or compassion for difference.

Valentina Ruiz - Mi Nombre Es Valentina

Original title: "Mi Nombre Es Valentina: Una guía íntima para transitar la identidad con valentía" (My Name Is Valentina: An Intimate Guide to Navigating Identity with Courage) by Valentina Ruiz.

In a world where trans voices are still too often silenced or misunderstood, Mi Nombre Es Valentina: Una guía íntima para transitar la identidad con valentía (My Name Is Valentina: An Intimate Guide to Navigating Identity with Courage) emerges as a powerful and necessary work. Written by Valentina Ruiz, this book isn’t just a memoir, it’s a lighthouse for trans people and their allies, illuminating the complexities, beauty, and bravery involved in living as one’s authentic self. Ruiz describes Ser Yo (“Being Myself”) as an intense, honest, and deeply human guide to what it means to be a trans woman today. With unflinching vulnerability, she traces her path from childhood silence to adult resilience, offering her readers a hand to hold along the way. Each chapter weaves together personal experience with practical wisdom, creating a space that feels both intimate and empowering.

Daniela Špinar - Zápisky z tranzice

Original title: "Zápisky z tranzice" (Notes from Transition) by Daniela Špinar.

In Zápisky z tranzice, acclaimed Czech theatre director Daniela Špinar opens her private journal to the public, and with it, her soul. This deeply personal book chronicles a three-year journey of gender transition, capturing the physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation of one of the Czech Republic’s most celebrated theatre artists. What emerges is a raw, courageous, and moving reflection on identity, love, and resilience. Daniela Špinar’s career has long been defined by boldness.

A graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, she quickly rose through the theatrical ranks, staging acclaimed productions in regional and Prague theatres. Her rendition of Vojcek at the Theatre in Vinohrady became a landmark moment, and she later collaborated with the avant-garde company Letí. Her artistic achievements culminated in her appointment as Artistic Director of the National Theatre Drama in 2015, the fourth person to hold the post after the Velvet Revolution. There, she not only directed classic works but also authored her own dramatizations and innovative text collages. Yet Zápisky z tranzice reveals a different kind of bravery, more intimate and vulnerable than anything onstage. In October 2021, at the age of 42, Daniela experienced a profound realization: she was a woman. What followed was a turbulent period of self-discovery, public coming-out, and transition.

Tshiamo Modisane - I Am Tshiamo

Full title: "I Am Tshiamo: My Transition to Self-acceptance and Womanhood" by Tshiamo Modisane.

In her heartfelt and powerful memoir I Am Tshiamo, Tshiamo Modisane invites readers on a deeply personal journey of self-discovery, identity, and resilience. Growing up as Kgositsile, a name meaning “king,” Tshiamo always knew she was a girl, despite the gender assigned to her at birth. Born into a conservative Christian family in the townships of KwaThema and Daveyton near Johannesburg, Modisane faced immense pressure to conform to societal and cultural expectations for a boy.

As the child of a pastor, she was expected to embody a narrow and traditional image of masculinity. Instead, she was met with scorn, misunderstanding, and even abuse, from relatives, friends, peers, and strangers alike. But even from a young age, Tshiamo showed remarkable courage, beginning to make bold choices at just five years old. Her story is one of both doubt and fierce self-belief, culminating in her gender-affirming surgery in her thirties. With unshakable sass, faith, and a sparkle of confidence drawn from her family’s ties to the entertainment world, she transitioned from male to female while establishing a successful career as an actress, celebrity stylist, and Lux’s first gender-non-conforming brand ambassador. More than a tale of transition, I Am Tshiamo is a meditation on faith, defiance, pain, and hope. Modisane writes with both vulnerability and strength, dissecting the scars of her past and honoring the truth of her present.

Sarah Marie Schäfer - Rollenangst: Meine Biografie

Original title: "Rollenangst - Meine Biografie: Alles ist möglich, solange es fast unmöglich ist!" (Role anxiety - My biography: Everything is possible as long as it is almost impossible!) by Sarah Marie Schäfer.

In the book, Sarah Marie Schäfer shares her powerful journey of self-discovery as a transgender and intersex woman. Over 21 years, she struggled with her identity, mental health challenges, and physical health issues, including a muscle nerve disease, epilepsy, and autism. Despite these obstacles, Sarah’s determination and resilience helped her reclaim her true self, culminating in gender-affirming surgery and newfound happiness. The book reflects her journey of overcoming adversity, including conflicts with her family, police encounters, and a panic disorder.

Caroline Litman - Her Name Is Alice

Full title: "Her Name Is Alice: A new 2025 memoir exploring grief, love and the transgender experience, from the mother of Alice Litman" by Caroline Litman.

Her Name Is Alice is a poignant memoir by Caroline Litman, sharing the heartrending journey of her daughter Alice’s life, transition, and untimely death. This deeply personal account sheds light on the challenges faced by transgender individuals and their families. Alice Litman died by suicide in May 2022 at the age of 20, after waiting nearly three years for her first appointment at a gender identity clinic. Her prolonged wait for gender-affirming healthcare significantly impacted her mental health.

In Her Name Is Alice, Caroline Litman candidly reflects on her initial struggles to accept Alice's transition, the societal stigmas they encountered, and her profound regrets. She emphasizes the urgent need for improved support systems and acceptance for transgender individuals. The memoir has garnered early praise for its unflinching honesty and emotional depth. Comedian Sofie Hagen described it as "thoughtful, beautiful, incredibly necessary," urging everyone to read it, especially those resistant to its themes. Author Richard Beard called it "uncompromising, anguished," highlighting the real victims of culture wars. Caroline Litman hopes that by sharing Alice's story, she can raise awareness about the challenges faced by transgender individuals and advocate for timely, compassionate healthcare. She states, "We can never bring Alice back, but we will keep campaigning to ensure all trans people are able to live in dignity and receive the healthcare they need and deserve." Her Name Is Alice is a testament to a mother's enduring love and a call to action for a more inclusive and supportive society.

Available via Amazon

Full title: "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy Seal's Journey to Coming Out Transgender" by Kristin Beck and Anne Speckhard.

Kristin Beck’s Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming Out Transgender, co-authored with Anne Speckhard, is a raw and deeply personal memoir that provides a rare glimpse into the life of a highly decorated Navy SEAL navigating the complexities of gender identity. The book is both an account of Beck’s distinguished military career and an exploration of the emotional and psychological turmoil she faced before embracing her true self.

Beck’s military experiences, spanning 20 years and 13 deployments, including service with the elite SEAL Team Six, make for gripping reading. She recounts intense combat situations and the unwavering camaraderie among soldiers, but beneath the valor and discipline, she harbored a profound sense of dissonance. The memoir does not shy away from detailing the pressures of hypermasculinity within the military, an environment that often left Beck feeling alienated. Her transition was not just a personal journey but a public statement that challenged deeply ingrained perceptions of gender in one of the most traditionally masculine institutions.

Juopa

Original title: "Juopa" (Gap) by Kim Kansas.

Kim Kansas, also known as Ansa Kansas, is a pivotal figure in the history of transgender visibility, and her 1971 memoir "Juopa" offers an insightful look into her life. Known for her courageous personal journey and her involvement in both film and literature, Kansas became an icon in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly for her gender transition and her public efforts to share her story.

In 1967, Kansas's life was the subject of "I Was a Man", a documentary directed by Barry Mahon. The film, while sensational in some aspects, remains one of the earliest to document the story of a transgender woman undergoing gender-affirming surgery. Kansas's transformative journey is at the heart of the film, capturing her struggles with identity, love, and acceptance. The documentary explores Kansas's childhood in Finland, where she felt an intense desire to live as a girl. As an adult in New York City, she led a double life—working as a cook on a freighter while secretly expressing her true gender identity through makeup and women’s clothing. It was during this period of internal conflict that Kansas decided to seek medical help, ultimately traveling to Finland for a sex-change operation. The documentary is notable not only for the emotional and physical transformation it follows but also for its groundbreaking portrayal of transgender issues. Kansas plays herself in the film, offering an intimate and honest depiction of her own journey. At the time, transgender topics were rarely discussed publicly, and the film provided a rare glimpse into the emotional, psychological, and societal challenges faced by trans individuals.

"Lånat Kön" (Borrowed Gender) is the Swedish language version of "Mauvais genre" (Wrong Gender) by Chloé Cruchaudet.

In the early 20th century, amidst the chaos of World War I, Paul and Louise shared a deep love for one another. Their bond was unshakable until the horrors of war forced them apart. As the war escalated, Paul found himself trapped in the nightmarish reality of the trenches. Unable to bear the relentless violence, he made a desperate decision to flee — becoming a deserter, a man hunted by his country.

With the help of his wife Louise, Paul managed to escape the frontlines, seeking refuge in Paris. However, his safety came at a steep price: he was condemned to a life of hiding, forever confined to the four walls of a hotel room, living in constant fear of being caught and executed as a deserter. But Paul, driven by the desire to escape his claustrophobic existence, concocted an audacious plan: he would reinvent himself entirely. To put an end to his constant fear and isolation, Paul decided to change his identity. He would no longer be Paul, the fugitive soldier, but rather Suzanne, Louise’s best friend. In a twist of fate, Paul embraced the feminine persona, dressing in women’s clothing and stepping into a new life. What began as a means of survival quickly evolved into something far more profound. As Suzanne, Paul discovered a new sense of freedom and began to flourish in a way he never thought possible.

Eva Faga - Eva: Retrato colectivo de una transición

Original title: "Eva: Retrato colectivo de una transición" (Eva: Collective portrait of a transition) by Eva Faga.

In "Eva. Collective story of a transition" the author constructs herself, in a Transvestite Trans identity, within a real and constantly changing scenario, such as Argentina. With it, the world around us transitions, because it forces us to rethink ourselves and assume the responsibility we have in the construction of others.

Eva does not seek to move or excite, do not expect an emotional story that appeals to the poetics of words, rather one that highlights the importance of collective struggles in obtaining rights. An example of this is the Gender Identity Law. The author emphasizes the importance of language as an essential form in the construction, not only of culture but also of identity. It is possible to know, through her testimony, the different areas that Eva navigates, from everyday and family life, to activism and the constant fight for the defense of Human Rights.

Munroe Bergdorf - Transitional: My Story

Full title: "Transitional: My Story" by Munroe Bergdorf.

"Transitioning is an alignment of the invisible and the physical. It is truth rising to the surface. It is one of the most fundamental aspects of the human condition - a part of our experience as a conscious being, no matter who we are. As time goes on, we all develop as people. We all transition. It's what unites us, not what separates us.

In this life-affirming, heartfelt and intimate book, activist and model Munroe Bergdorf shares reflections from her own life to illustrate how transitioning is an essential part of all our lives. Through the story of one woman's extraordinary mission to live with authenticity, Transitional shows us how to heal, how to build a stronger community and how to evolve as a society out of shame and into pride."

Wiebke ter Lichten - Wiebkes Tagebuch XI

Original title: "Wiebkes Tagebuch XI: Teil XI des Tagebuchs einer trans Frau (Nov. 2023 - Jan. 2024)" (Wiebke's Life XI: Part XI of the diary of a trans woman (Nov. 2023 - Jan. 2024)) by Wiebke ter Lichten.

In the summer of 2018 my girlfriend asked me out of the blue if I’d ever considered being transformed into a woman for an afternoon. She suggested that it might be interesting. I went back and forth quite a bit, and to be honest, the thought may have crossed my mind for a split second, but I dismissed it because I was absolutely certain the result wouldn't be good. Then Christmas 2018 came and her gift was just that: a makeover. She’d spoken to the manager of a service and made all the preparations. No chance for me to back out!

My Blog List

Books by Year

Search for a book