A random collection of over 1994 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.
"Degenerado" (Degenerate) is the Spanish language version of "Mauvais genre" (Wrong Gender) by Chloé Cruchaudet.
Degenerado, the Spanish edition of Mauvais genre by Chloé Cruchaudet, stands as one of the most audacious and haunting graphic novels of the last decade. Based on true events, the book reconstructs the tragic and extraordinary story of Paul Grappe and Louise Landy, a working-class couple from Paris whose love, passion, and despair unfolded in the turbulent years surrounding the First World War. The novel begins as a love story: Paul and Louise meet, fall in love, and marry with youthful optimism. Yet when war breaks out, the brutal reality of the trenches shatters their lives. Paul, desperate to escape the nightmare of violence and filth, deserts the army and returns to Paris to reunite with Louise. Their reunion is tender but shadowed by danger. As a deserter, Paul must hide, and the couple’s life becomes one of claustrophobic secrecy, confined to a small hotel room where fear and monotony threaten to destroy their bond.
From this claustrophobic setting emerges the novel’s central transformation. One evening, Paul, longing for freedom and a taste of normal life, puts on one of Louise’s dresses to go out for wine. What begins as a disguise soon becomes a revelation. In his new identity as Suzanne, Paul discovers not only safety but also a strange liberation. Louise, initially amused and supportive, helps him refine his appearance and mannerisms. What starts as play becomes a way of life. Suzanne soon ventures into the world, finding work alongside Louise in a textile factory, where she becomes a source of curiosity and fascination. Cruchaudet portrays these scenes with delicate irony, capturing the humor and tenderness of a couple learning to navigate a reality that defies every social expectation. Through Suzanne’s eyes, Paul experiences the world anew, noticing how women move, talk, and endure constant scrutiny. The reader senses both his fascination and discomfort, as his performance of femininity blurs into genuine identification.
2014,
Chloé Cruchaudet,
Spanish,
"Poco Raccomandabile" (Not very recommendable) is the Italian language version of "Mauvais genre" (Wrong Gender) by Chloé Cruchaudet.
The Italian edition of Chloé Cruchaudet’s acclaimed graphic novel Mauvais genre, published under the title Poco raccomandabile, tells a story as haunting as it is fascinating. Set against the backdrop of the First World War and its chaotic aftermath, it follows the extraordinary journey of Paul Grappe, a young French soldier who deserts the front and survives by living as a woman named Suzanne. What begins as an act of survival gradually transforms into a deeply personal exploration of identity, desire, and the fragile boundaries between love and betrayal. Inspired by true events, Poco raccomandabile is not simply a historical narrative but an emotional study of human transformation, where war, gender, and love collide in unpredictable ways.
At the heart of the story lies the marriage of Paul and Louise, a working-class couple in Paris whose lives are torn apart by the Great War. When Paul deserts after the unimaginable trauma of the trenches, he faces the death penalty if discovered. Louise, fiercely loyal and inventive, helps him disguise himself as a woman so he can move freely in public without attracting suspicion. Together they invent a new identity: Suzanne Landgard. What begins as a practical ruse slowly evolves into a new life, a new self, and a dangerous freedom. In Suzanne’s skin, Paul discovers sensations he never knew he possessed. He finds work at a factory, where he is surrounded by women, and experiences a different rhythm of life, one that at first feels liberating and even playful. The irony is sharp: by escaping the rigid codes of masculinity enforced by the army and the war, Paul finds himself immersed in the constraints and performative nature of femininity. Yet, paradoxically, that masquerade opens him to an uncharted inner world.
2014,
Chloé Cruchaudet,
Italian,
Full title: "It's Just Me: My Real Life Test" by Cecilia Wilson.
"The book is a true story about Cecilia Wilson's real life test. As a young boy growing up in the early 1960's, he knew he was different but didn't know how to explain it. Someone predicted he would be a preacher when he grew up. But what was he supposed to do about his gender identity?
He could not reconcile his love for God and desire to be a preacher with his belief he was or should be a woman. For 24 years, he wrestled within himself trying to make sense out of the chaos of his life. It was like a battle raging in his mind, heart and body all at the same time.
2014,
Cecilia Wilson,
English,
Full title: "I'm Scared to Be a Woman: Human Rights Abuses Against Transgender People in Malaysia" by Human Rights Watch.
"This 73-page report documents government abuses against transgender people in Malaysia. In research in four Malaysian states and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, Human Rights Watch found that state Religious Department officials and police regularly arrest transgender women and subject them to various abuses, including assault, extortion, and violations of their privacy rights. Religious Department officials have physically and sexually assaulted transgender women during arrest or in custody, and humiliated them by parading them before the media."
2014,
English,
Human Rights Watch,
Malaysia,
Original title: "En el camino de la feminización: Estudio de las prácticas de intervención corporal de travestis del área de influencia del Hospital Santa Clara E.S.E. de Bogotá, Colombia" (On the road to feminization: A study of the body intervention practices of transvestites in the area of influence of the Santa Clara E.S.E. Hospital in Bogotá, Colombia) by María Mercedes Lafaurie Villamil.
Study on the practices of corporal intervention with a view to the feminization of a group of transvestites located in the tolerance zone of downtown Bogotá, between the towns of Los Mártires and Santa Fe. The reader will find a rigorous description of the artisanal techniques used by these people to acquire a feminine appearance; the health risks involved in such practices; of the imaginaries and conceptions that drive them, and of the socio-cultural contexts to which the subjects addressed belong.
2014,
Colombia,
María Mercedes Lafaurie Villamil,
Spanish,
Original title: "Sesuai kata hati: kisah perjuangan 7 waria" (As the heart says, the story of the struggle of 7 transgender women) by Hartoyo, Titiana Adinda, Prodita Sabarini,Tanti Noor Said, and Gusti Bayu.
This book is a collection of stories from people who have been considered "other" by the social system. They have to fight through life to stay afloat. Various stigmas and violence are often part of their identity. Maybe we think they are male, female, transvestite or transgender but each of them defines their own body.
2014,
Gusti Bayu,
Hartoyo,
Indonesian,
Prodita Sabarini,
Tanti Noor Said,
Titiana Adinda,
Full title: "Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela" by Marcia Ochoa.
"Queen for a Day connects the logic of Venezuelan modernity with the production of a national femininity. In this ethnography, Marcia Ochoa considers how femininities are produced, performed, and consumed in the mass-media spectacles of international beauty pageants, on the runways of the Miss Venezuela contest, on the well-traveled Caracas avenue where transgender women (transformistas) project themselves into the urban imaginary, and on the bodies of both transformistas and beauty pageant contestants (misses).
Placing transformistas and misses in the same analytic frame enables Ochoa to delve deeply into complex questions of media and spectacle, gender and sexuality, race and class, and self-fashioning and identity in Venezuela.
Beauty pageants play an outsized role in Venezuela. The country has won more international beauty contests than any other. The femininity performed by Venezuelan women in high-profile, widely viewed pageants defines a kind of national femininity. Ochoa argues that as transformistas and misses work to achieve the bodies, clothing and makeup styles, and postures and gestures of this national femininity, they come to embody Venezuelan modernity."
2014,
English,
Marcia Ochoa,
Venezuela,
Full title: "Confessions of the Teenage Transsexual Whore" by Markus Harwood-Jones.
"In a 10-part zine series, Confessions of the Teenage Transsexual Whore shares stories of living and loving as a young queer and trans sex worker trying to make it in the Big City.
This collection was written between 2010-2012 and features non-fiction work, written by Star, paired with original visual art."
2014,
English,
Markus Harwood-Jones,
Original title: "Manifeste d'une femme trans... et autres textes" (Manifesto of a trans woman... and other texts) is the French language edition of "Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity" by Julia Serano.
The book analyzes the sexism, misogyny and transphobia that lead to the discrimination of transsexual women and the devaluation of femininity in general. The precision of its analysis and the deciphering of the mechanisms of oppression of trans women make it a valuable work for the French-speaking public. Starting from the analysis of literature, films and TV shows, but also from her own experience, the author takes an innovative and relevant look at the condition of trans people... And does not hesitate, either , to question the functioning of non-trans people to support his point and update transphobia. In a context where reactionary and anti-feminist ideas are making a comeback, this book is not just a breath of fresh air. It brings new elements to French-speaking reflections on feminisms and helps us to completely rethink the construction of genres.
2014,
French,
Julia Serano,
USA,
Original title: "La mia vita (non più) scandalosa. Scritti inediti di Giò Stajano" (My life (no longer) scandalous. Unpublished writings by Giò Stajano) by Giò Stajano.
Gioacchina Stajano, aka Giò, a famous character of the homo-trans Italian world, has always been labeled as a transgressive and scandalous person. In reality, she was desperately searching for an identity which, after ups and downs, she found reflected in the merciful Love of God and in faith in Christ. The book highlights the face of the great Giò, outlined by some unpublished writings that reveal her delicacy of soul and her profound spirituality.
According to Wikipedia, Countess Maria Gioacchina Stajano Starace Briganti di Panico, known simply as Giò Stajano (1931-2011), was an Italian nobleman, writer, journalist, actress, and transgender painter. In the 60s, before her mtf transition in 1983, she was the center of public attention as one of the first homosexual men publicly declared in Italy. She is remembered for a night swim in the Fontana della Barcaccia. She was said to have been inspired by Federico Fellini's scene of Anita Ekberg's bath in the Trevi Fountain in La dolce vita (1960).
2014,
Giò Stajano,
Italian,
Original title: "Roland, Gloria, Diane et moi" (Roland, Gloria, Diane and I) by Peggy Guex.
No pretenses, no self-pity, no regrets. Just the captivating story of an extraordinary life course, the testimony of a deliciously complex and definitely singular being. An astonishing journey between Switzerland, France, Morocco, Lebanon, Netherlands, Italy and so many other lands on the lands of fire of audacity where lukewarmness is foreign. Happiness, strokes of fate. Peaks and abysses, drunkenness and vertigo, burning and ice.
"Roland, Gloria, Diane, and me": behind this title, one soul and only one, a melting pot of entangled personalities, inseparable, united forever, colorful. A strange kaleidoscope of disturbing facets of a protean creature that knew, at all costs, to free itself from constraints and conventions... Then, at the end of the road, beyond the mirrors, after a thousand twists and turns, finally, the conquest of her freedom as a woman and a tremendous desire to live, again.
2014,
French,
Peggy Guex,
Original title: "Hanbunshōjo boku to atashi" 半分少女 僕とアタシ (Half Girl Me and Atashi) by Kaba-chan KABA.ちゃん.
This book is the story of Kaba-chan, born in 1969, in Yanagawa, Fukuoka, a Japanese transgender woman, and choreographer. According to Wikipedia, after studying dance in the USA, she became known in Japan as a member of the musical group Dos with Taeco Nishikawa and Asami Yoshino.
Being a celebrity in Japan, Kaba-chan was open with her sexuality. While she was already known for her flamboyant character in Dos, she came out as a gay man publicly on television on a 2002 episode of the Japanese variety show Dancing Sanma Palace.
2014,
Japanese,
Kaba-chan,
Full title: "Le gai cimetière" (The gay cemetery) by Marie-Pierre Pruvot. This is the fifth part of the 5-book series about Marie-Pierre Pruvot's life.
Le Gai Cimetière follows La Chanson du Bac. The story takes place while the Carrousel is permanently closed, the troupe dissolved, and the mysterious epidemic already has a name: AIDS. The trouble had already given way to anxiety, the hecatomb causes terror. It is through the ordeal of her friend Lola that Bambi travels through this period. The remaining members of the former troupe strengthen their bonds of friendship and try to fight back. Nothing prevents friends from disappearing in lamentable suffering and conditions. Yet, among so many misfortunes, the troupe never ceases to bathe in this usual humor essential to life, and until death...
2014,
Bambi,
French,
Georges Burou,
Marie-Pier Ysser,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
Original title: "Il mondo segreto delle Trav raccontato da una Trav" (The secret world of Travestie told by a Travestie) by Loredana.
"Do you know the difference between a crossdresser, a trans or a travestie? You will understand it by reading this book written by Loredana, a travestie who will guide you to discover this secret world. Because the Travestie world is one of the LGBT worlds (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans ...), which is less known as it is mostly lived as a second life, secretly, in the closet. Where very few know the names and addresses of the others. Where there is an ironclad, almost maniacal privacy.
Loredana tells about herself: her life, her experiences, her fears, her feelings, and her transgressions. And her story is intertwined with those of her "little sisters" (as they are called amicably among each other). This book is also a manual of the Travestie world: how to become one, how to get by, and what rules must be respected. Loredana is not afraid of the judgment that people will give: she is only interested in offering a clear photograph taken from the inside. And then in the stories she often presents without any veils and censorship."
Original title: "Otoko no musume-tachi" 男の娘たち (Man's daughters) by Nao Kawamoto 川本 直.
This book is a non-fiction work called "Man's Daughters" that investigates the scene of cross-dressing culture and gender culture centered on young people. The origin of the publication is Japan's biggest cross-dressing event, attended by cosplay cross-dressing boys, and "closeted" people who live their daily lives as women... Their life histories depict a gradation of diversification and subdivision of the community. It is a fascinating book that required three years of in-depth research.
Nao Kawamoto was born in Tokyo in 1980. His debut novel Julian Butler's True Life (2021) won the 73rd Yomiuri Literature Prize (Best Novel) and the 9th Salmon Children's Literature Prize. His other books include "Men's Daughters" and co-edited "Kenichi Yoshida Again."
2014,
Japanese,
Nao Kawamoto,
Full title: "La chanson du bac" (The baccalaureate song) by Marie-Pierre Pruvot. This is the fourth part of the 5-book series about Marie-Pierre Pruvot's life.
Bambi continues her epic and goes through the upheavals that France is experiencing. May 68 was for her not only a political shock. Awareness pushes her to set other goals for the fulfillment of her life. While the Sorbonne is upside down, Bambi feels the oppressive urge to resume her abandoned studies. She undertakes a brief tour and, without forgetting her role at the Carrousel, she devotes her free time to studying.
Back in Paris, sentimental setbacks, health problems, disappointing experiences, everything seemed to stand in the way of her efforts. How will she achieve her ends? Marie-Pierre Pruvot offers a photograph of France at the end of a reign: the threat of devaluation of the franc, the announcement of a referendum, and sounds of General de Gaulle's fall. Powerless witness to the tumult of life, her character remains compartmentalized in the frivolity of the shows.
2014,
Bambi,
French,
Georges Burou,
Marie-Pier Ysser,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
Full title: "A Trans Popstar's World: When Life Dreams and Being Transgender Collide" by Talaine Mare.
"This book is about a trans perspective on various social issues trans people often face. It is written for both trans people and other people interested in learning about trans lives. It is based on the author's own experiences as well as the many stories of real life trans people she has come across over many years.
There were three aims in the writing of this book: to provide a picture of what trans lives are really like to interested non-trans people, to stimulate discussion in the trans community on some important issues we face, and to hopefully inspire some trans people to think about these issues.
2014,
English,
Talaine Mare,
Original title: "IVANTITY: kore ga watashi no ikiru RUNWAY" - IVANTITY: これが私の生きるRUNWAY (This is my runway) by IVAN.
This is the first biography book of IVAN, a Japanese fashion model, musician, and actress. She was born Liera Manuel Ivan in Mexico in 1987. Her father is half Japanese and half Spanish, and her mother is Mexican. She was bright up in Japan.
In 1998, she was selected as the only male contestant in the 1st Okinawa Actors School National Audition Grand Prix, and took singing and dancing lessons for about a year. After that, she moved to the United States and went to high school in California. After graduating, she returned to Japan and started modeling.
In 2004, she was selected as a male model for the Paris Collection. In 2007, she began her musical career. In 2013, she came out as a transgender woman and became a TV celebrity.
"Avant que j'oublie; suivi de Regarde maman, je danse!" (Before I forget; followed by Look at mom, I dance!) is the French language edition of "Kijk mama, ik dans: 's lands bekendste transseksueel vertelt" (Look mom, I dance: The country's best-known transsexual tells).
"Vanessa van Durme has made choices in her life. Hard choices, painful choices. Choices that caused her parents a lot of grief.
Now she is a celebrated actress who feels her sixtieth birthday approaching. She has fond memories of her work for public and commercial broadcasting, of the comedy see the wrote, and of the wonderful role she played in All India by Alain Platel and Arne Sierens.
Her autobiography regularly brings tears to the eyes of the reader. Sometimes out of sympathy, more often out of laughter."
According to Wikipedia, Vanessa Van Durme (born in 1948) is a Belgian actress and screenwriter. She studied at the Conservatory of Ghent in the drama section and made her stage debut – as a young actor – at Nederlands Toneel Gent (NTG).
2014,
Belgium,
French,
Georges Burou,
Vanessa Van Durme,
Original title: "Endlich Frau!: Drei Transsexuelle auf ihrem Weg ins Glueck" (Finally a woman!: Three transsexuals on their way to happiness).
'In 1982, in a northern German city, Hans Georg van Herste had to witness how a transsexual woman was being pursued and beaten by several young men. A police officer not only did not intervene but encouraged the men to keep going. This experience did not leave van Herste cold.
Since then he has been supporting transsexuals on their way into real life. Although many people, especially religiously colored and so-called experts, repeatedly put obstacles in his way, he did not allow himself to be discouraged and made a significant contribution to improving the lives of transsexuals.
2014,
German,
Hans Georg van Herste,
