Barbara Marie Minney - If There's No Heaven

2020, Barbara Marie Minney, English, Interview,

Full title: "If There's No Heaven" by Barbara Marie Minney.

"After almost thirty six years, I began writing poetry again as a means of documenting and processing my thoughts, feelings, struggles, and triumphs during my transition to living authentically as the woman that God always intended me to be. I began my transition at the age of sixty three after repressing my true gender identity for over sixty years, and the poetry in this book charts the first two years of that journey. My poetry is also a challenge to stereotypical beliefs and to accept other people for who and what they are. I am a Christian and conservative leaning, which has caused me to be shunned by my community. My poetry is also a challenge to unapologetically and proudly accept and love yourself for who you are."

"Barbara Marie Minney is a transgender woman, award winning poet, writer, speaker, teaching artist, and quiet activist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Politico, The Buckeye Flame, The Gasconade Review, Gargoyle Magazine, The Pine Cone Review, Women Speak: Women of Appalachia Project, Woman Scream: The International Poetry Anthology of Female Voices, The New Wasteland, new words (issue one): a trans and gender-expansive journal, and I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing, Ohio’s Appalachian Voices. Barbara’s poetry has also been translated into Spanish. She is the author of If There’s No Heaven, the winner of the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and an Akron Beacon Journal Best Northeast Ohio Book in 2020; the Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge; and Dance Naked With God. Barbara is a retired attorney and a seventh-generation Appalachian and lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, with her wife of over 42 years and a menagerie of stuffed animals."

I interviewed Barbara in 2023 and asked about her transition: "My transition was very public. I agreed to be interviewed in the local newspaper about my experiences with gender counseling. It was a big multi-page article that included two pictures of me. I received two kinds of comments about the article – how brave I was and how much leg I was showing in the pictures. I definitely lost friends, acquaintances, and social standing when I transitioned. We were no longer able to participate in some of the groups to which we had belonged. I had already retired from my position as an attorney when I transitioned. However, I was still doing some consulting work, and I was removed from the firm’s website. Both of my parents were already deceased. I have one brother who I have not seen for almost five years."

Available via barbaramarieminneypoetry

and Heroines of My Life

Photo via Heroines of My Life