A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.
Full title: "Transsexual Transformed by the Power of God".
"Brother K.K. Hofeling was illegitimately born on August 7, 1957, in Petaluma, California, to Norvell and Mary Hofeling. He was raised and loved by his father as one of his own. After graduating high school in 1975, he joined the U.S. Air Force and spent four years at Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City, South Dakota.
Though born-again in 1977, Brother K.K. did not begin serving the Lord until 1979, in which year the Lord led him to Houston, Texas, where in time he helped start and pastor ''Fellowship of the Spirit Church.'' From the age of fourteen, Brother K.K. remembers having a deep-seated desire to be the opposite sex (female).
2010,
English,
K.K. Hofeling,
Original title: "Ich war Mann und Frau. Mein Leben als Intersexuelle" (I was husband and wife. My Life as an Intersex).
'It is the first case in Germany that becomes known to a broad public. Christiane Völling was both a man and a woman, but she only learned that from her hospital files at the age of 46. Until then, her name was Thomas. What looked like a boy with a small penis to doctors and parents after birth, later turned out to be a girl with an intact uterus and ovaries during an appendectomy. Without her knowledge, her femininity was then operated away.
In addition, the doctors prescribed her testosterone – with devastating physical and mental consequences. In 2007, Christiane Völling sued the doctor who had done this to her. The trial has a signaling effect for more than 100,000 intersexuals in Germany, many of them with comparable fates.
2010,
Christiane Völling,
German,
Original title: "Transsexuelle et convertie a l'islam" (Transsexual and convert to Islam) by Alexandra Cerdan.
'"I was born a boy. And I went from blue to pink without which my life would have been of no interest. When I started talking about my discomfort, I was called crazy. Are we crazy when we are born different?"
Here is a poignant testimony on a subject still taboo, transsexuality. Alexandra Cerdan gives us, without false modesty, and sometimes crudely, her astonishing story, that of a woman locked in a boy's body. So many obstacles to revealing oneself and to others! How can this be achieved when we have to deal with discrimination, bullying, and misunderstanding on a daily basis? How to love each other when since childhood we do not know who we are? How can we move away from the sacrosanct norm of Adam and Eve?
2010,
Alexandra Cerdan,
French,
Full title: "Morphing: a trans story in poetry"
"I am an outspoken lesbian and feminist. This book is a small collection of poems that tell the story of the beginnings of my transition to female, from the start of hormones to the present day.
These poems cover everything from my struggles with life and society, internal feelings, as well as upon various other subjects. There is sure to be something for almost everyone in this collection of poetry.
"
2010,
English,
Katherine Albright,
Original title: "Blogtagebuch 2009: Das erste Lebensjahr einer transsexuellen Frau" (Blog Diary 2009: The first year of a transsexual woman).
'Diana – a transsexual woman – has been officially living as a woman since the beginning of 2009. In a blog under the name "T-Girl Diana" she describes the process of her gender reassignment like a diary. The blog became a testimony that takes the reader into a world that normally remains hidden. It shows the path of a transsexual woman who goes her own way despite all adversities and dangers and does not let anything stop her from her self-development.
Diana explains her thoughts and feelings in an unusually open way and does not leave out even the most intimate topics. The book is a document that wants to tell the reader one thing above all: Nothing is impossible for those who dare the impossible.
2010,
German,
T-Girl Diana,
Full title: "His Name is Rebecca: The Incredible Story of Ireland's First Transsexual".
"What do you do if you're born trapped in the wrong body Eamon Tallon was happy to be different, preferring cut-out dolls to footballs, the Bunty to the Beano. Then his life was shattered when, from the age of seven, he was sexually abused at a school run by a religious order.
His journey to find himself or herself, as it turned out was long and tortuous. As Eamon he got married he chose the wedding dress and the honeymoon was a clothes-shopping spree in London. As Ross, a gifted hairdresser, he lived as a gay man. Eventually, he arrived at the truth: he was a woman in a man's body.
Rebecca was the first transgender in Ireland to have a full sex change. But there were many other lives to be lived - madam in a male brothel in Amsterdam, abused wife, a heroin addict in London, night-club hostess Lady V in Dublin - before Rebecca finally found happiness, success, and a granddaughter she never knew she had. This is the inspiring story of a woman who fought for fulfillment and found it, against all odds."
2010,
English,
Ireland,
Rebecca Tallon De Havalland,
Original title: "Quello che i mariti non dicono. Confessioni di una trans" (What husbands don't say. Confessions of a Trans) by Efe Bal & Stefania Berbenni.
'"I don't say all, but almost all men, want to try the trans experience, to spin adrenaline in the veins sclerotized by routine. If I think about those who have passed through my bed - lawyers, managers, workers, boys, accountants, creatives, bartenders, entrepreneurs, ignorants, and graduates - in the end, they are all the same when I am here at my house, free to ask for what they want because they pay. They are free to be Mr. Hyde, allowing Dr. Jekyll to continue to be a good husband or life partner."
2010,
Efe Bal,
Italian,
Stefania Berbenni,
Full title: "Misery Loves Company ver. 2" by Christine Beatty.
"Misery Loves Company ver.2 is an updated, 100-page re-release of Christine Beatty's 1993 semi-autobiographical collection of poignantly vivid sometimes brutal short stories and poetry, a perky, suicidal plunge into transsexual transition in mid-1980s San Francisco.
This book takes the reader to a place most people never see, a poignant peek into the twilight world of San Francisco's meanest district, offering insight into an ordinary person's burgeoning self-awareness and shocking discoveries.
It pulls back the curtain on a world of prostitution, spiraling addiction, borderline insanity, and the beginnings of redemption. Enhanced with illustrations by transsexual surreal artist Nola Van Della and photographs from the place where it all happened."
2010,
Christine Beatty,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "Mouzakarat Randa al-Trans" (Memoirs of Randa the Trans) by Randa & Hazem Saghyieh.
"Mouzakarat Randa al-Trans", or "The Memoirs of Randa the Trans", co-written by the Lebanese journalist and the protagonist of his story, Randa – Fouad in her previous life – recounts with brutal honesty what it means to be transsexual in the Middle East. Two rapes, a marriage of convenience, starvation, and the thought of suicide.
All this painful baggage is present, as therapy and catharsis in the book. As well as the death threats suffered in her native Algeria that forced her to leave her home and her son, the result of a marriage of convenience, and take refuge in Beirut.
2010,
Algeria,
Arabic,
Hazem Saghyieh,
Lebanon,
Randa,
Full title: "Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa" by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais & Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved.
"TRANS: Transgender life stories from South Africa takes the reader on a journey into the many worlds inhabited by transgender South Africans. The life stories recounted in this collection are both inspiring and compelling and reveal the courage and strength of each of the storytellers involved.
The narratives detail the constant challenges of living in a country, that, despite its progressive Constitution, is still host to myriad prejudices and misunderstandings when it comes to trans people. With more than twenty original voices from the trans community in South Africa, the book is a journal of shared experiences for trans people and a fascinating point of departure for interested members of the general public. The contributors who 'transitioned, are transitioning or will transition', have all been actively involved in the process of making the book and have a great deal to say about their personal experiences of being transgender today."
2010,
Charl Marais,
English,
Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved,
Ruth Morgan,
South Africa,
Original title: "Obviamente mulher" (Obviously Woman) by Filipa Gonçalves & Maria Carvalho Costa.
'Filipa Gonçalves was born a boy in Lisbon in April 1979. At the age of three, she began to assert herself as a girl, rejecting being a boy. Observed by physicians of various specialties from an early age, it was confirmed, over the years, her determination to be a woman.
At the age of 16, still as a boy, she took a modeling course at The Idealis School. Invited by seamstress Luís Barbeiro to be the bride in his next parade, she started her career on the fashion catwalk. Soon several successful advertising campaigns followed. She became a successful model before her gender reassignment surgery, hiding her male ID document.
2010,
Filipa Gonçalves,
Maria Carvalho Costa,
Portugal,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Der Chon Buri Weg: Ein Ehepaar erlebt Transsexualität" (The Chon Buri way: A married couple experiences transsexuality).
'What happens when a man, after 28 years of marriage, tells his wife that he is trans and will live as a woman in the future.
This book describes the common path of Gesine and Anette from the first outing to the gender reassignment surgery in Thailand.
Based on forum posts and blog entries, the couple describes how they have experienced the time of transition and tried to cope with it.'
2010,
Anette & Gesine Cubasch,
German,
"The male that was Oprah is now changed over to a female. Her life story leading up to the sex change surgery. People are still commenting on the resemblance to this day. Jecquin wants to set the record straight that she is not trying to be Oprah or trying to be like Oprah."
"Jecquin Stitt was born May 2, 1958, as a male child. Born in Flint, Michigan had a sex change in 1993. Jecquin won the Oprah look-a-like contest in 1991 with the ladies' home journal magazine. Jecquin beat out 4000 other contestants who entered the contest.
When she won the contest Oprah took her under her wing for the public to see her. Jecquin has always been compared to looking like Oprah for years. Working for the water department of Flint Michigan. The story leading up to and after her win is very interesting. She has since been married and loves being a true woman and living a normal life."
2010,
English,
Jecquin Irwin,
USA,
Original title: "Evviva la neve. Vite di trans e transgender" (Long live the snow. Trans and transgender lives).
'This book narrates gender transitions, the mysterious and flashy struggle of transgender people, it enters the operating room and captures the moment when sex vanishes, when the penis is demolished and its tissues are to be used to build the vagina: "If it weren't for the red color of the flesh, Daniela could be an angel. Daniela is sexless."
The discomfort you felt for that tiny moment imagining such a dramatic thing is what we feel every day. It's not fun, is it? Each of us has suffered that discomfort for years, others for decades, and you, pointing at work, on the street, do nothing but increase it, so as to become ruthless executioners. These lives are offended by prejudices that shake our consciences, says Giovanni Bachelet. Voices lashed by the rigors of social frost that can suddenly loosen, even vanish, if suddenly, soft, snow falls.'
2010,
Delia Vaccarello,
Italian,
Full title: "The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story" by A. Revathi.
"Revathi was born a boy, but felt and behaved like a girl. In telling her life story, Revathi evokes marvellously the deep unease of being in the wrong body that plagued her from childhood.
To be true to herself, to escape the constant violence visited upon her by her family and community, the village-born Revathi ran away to Delhi to join a house of hijras. Her life became an incredible series of dangerous physical and emotional journeys to become a woman and to find love.
The Truth about Me is the unflinchingly courageous and moving autobiography of a hijra who fought ridicule, persecution and violence both within her home and outside to find a life of dignity."
2010,
A. Revathi,
English,
India,
Full title: "Jameela's Journey: From Jonathan to Jameela: The True Story of a Muslim Convert, Transsexual, Revolutionary Guards Design Engineer, Inventor, and Spiritualist Physical Medium!"
"All the way through this human narrative the philosophy is building: Starting from an innocent rural childhood within a very loving family, but secret gender identity issues. Trying to be a normal lad; wished to become a Vicar but messed up at school. Into rally car driving and engineering studies, then onto the design. Met Farrah, an Iranian female mechanical engineer. Became an "intellectual" Muslim.
Married and had two daughters but the gender identity problem would still not go away. Family tragedy, turned to Islam strongly in the aftermath - Powerful emotions - went to live in Iran during the war with Saddam's Iraq. Invited to work for their Revolutionary Guards; amazing experiences with very high Muslims. War ended, returned to the UK to work on solar power.
2010,
English,
Jameela Maxwell Boardman,
Original title: "Alter ego" (Alter ego)
When Kaare Scheuer Pedersen was born in 1935, his mother wanted a girl. Therefore, she dressed and raised her son as a girl. She let him know that the doctors could easily fulfill his dream of being transformed into the girl he was inside as soon as he turned 18. But that was not the reality, and for almost a lifetime Kaare Scheuer Pedersen has lived in prosperity and adversity with her female alter ego.
Alter Ego is a brave, incredible, and horizon-expanding account of the lifelong work of coming to terms with one's destiny and one's gender.
2010,
Danish,
Kaare Scheuer Pedersen,
"A Rapariga Dinamarquesa" (2010) and "A Garota Dinamarquesa" (2016) are the Portuguese language editions of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. It was published twice in the Czech language in 2011 and 2016.
Having gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s was an unusual and sensational affair, and the man who took the step to do so was the Danish painter Einar Mogens Andreas Wegener, who after the operation took the name of Lili Elbe.
The operation took place at the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, where the male organs were removed. The surgery was performed by Felix Abraham at the recommendation of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Einar Wegener was married to the beautiful, celebrated artist Gerda Wegener. They lived in a highly unusual marriage. Their life fate is told in this book, which is a fiction novel based on authentic events and diary entries from Einar Wegener.
2010,
2016,
David Ebershoff,
Lili Elbe,
Portuguese,
Full title: "The Woman I Was Born To Be" by Aleshia Brevard. This is her second biography. In 2001, she published her first biographical book - "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be" (2001).
"For nearly 50 years, Aleshia Brevard hid the fact that she was one of America's first transsexuals from her friends, stepchildren, fellow actors and actresses, film producers, students, university administrators and even from her four husbands.
The Woman I Was Born To Be is a sequel to Ms. Brevard's earlier book, The Woman I Was NOT Born To Be. This book covers the second half of her exciting life, describing the many challenges she encountered and triumphs she achieved after having fulfilled her boyhood dream of becoming her authentic self and finding acceptance as the woman whom from boyhood she'd known herself to be."
I still cannot believe that Alessia is not around anymore. She was my best friend and my second mother. In 2013, we did a very long interview about how she coped with all challenges related to being transgender, and this is what she told me: "When I transitioned the term “transgender” had yet to be invented. At that time, in fact, “transsexuality” was generally thought of as a ‘condition’, an awkward period through which one must pass, like some bothersome adolescence.
Our goal was to move forward, as seamlessly as possible, easing into mainstream society to live as our authentic selves. We wished to live among, work alongside, and compete on an equal footing with other women, including those who had been born female.
2010,
Aleshia Brevard,
Bambi,
Charlotte MacLeod,
English,
USA,
Full title: "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation" by Kate Bornstein.
"Transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again, and today’s trans and nonbinary people, genderqueers, and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being.
Edited by the original gender outlaw, Kate Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theater artist S. Bear Bergman, Gender Outlaws collects and contextualizes the work of this generation's trans and genderqueer forward thinkers - new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world's most respected publications. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives."
2010,
English,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
