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.
Original title: "Travestis brasileiras e escolas (da vida): cartografias do movimento social organizado aos gêneros nômades" (Brazilian transgenders and schools (of life): cartographies of the organized social movement to nomadic genders) by Adriana Sales.
The book Travestis brasileiras e escolas (da vida): cartografias do movimento social organizado aos gêneros nômades by Adriana Sales is a groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of transgender existence and resistance in Brazil. It does not merely analyze the lives of travestis from an external academic perspective, but instead speaks from within their world, blending experience, activism, and research into a single, powerful narrative. What makes this work so important is that it was written by someone who has lived the history she describes. Adriana Sales is herself a travesti, an activist who has been part of the organized trans movement in Brazil since 1998. Her position as both an insider and a scholar allows her to approach her subject matter with sensitivity, complexity, and courage.
2020,
Adriana Sales,
Brazil,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Mein Leben im wirklichen Ich: Trans*gedanken in Trans*gedichten" (My Life in the Real Me: Trans* Thoughts in Trans* Poems) by Kerstin F. Wolff.
Kerstin F. Wolff’s book Mein Leben im wirklichen Ich: Transgedanken in Transgedichten emerges as a poignant continuation of her literary and personal journey, following her earlier work Mein Weg zum wirklichen Ich, which chronicled her transformation from the hidden life of a man to the visible existence of a woman.
In this new volume, the narrative focus shifts from the turmoil and uncertainty of transition to a sense of arrival, of having reached a state of self-recognition and authenticity. The texts offer reflections on a life now lived openly, moving beyond fear, doubt, and despair to embrace memory, introspection, and political consciousness. Through her poems and essays, Wolff explores the nuanced realities of trans existence, allowing both personal and social dimensions to intertwine, creating a rich tapestry of thought and experience. Her work delves into the intersections of identity and society, highlighting how the personal is inherently political and how being a trans person shapes one’s perspective on the world.
2020,
German,
Kerstin F. Wolff,
Full title: "Gender Explorers: Our Stories of Growing Up Trans and Changing The World" by Juno Roche.
Juno Roche’s Gender Explorers: Our Stories of Growing Up Trans and Changing the World is one of those rare books that feels like both a mirror and a window. It is a mirror for young trans people who have rarely seen themselves represented with such honesty, joy, and hope, and it is a window for everyone else to see what is possible when children are supported in their gender journeys instead of being stifled by fear or prejudice. The book opens with a striking belief that sets the tone for everything that follows: children who are questioning and exploring their gender are the gender bosses we so desperately need, they are our future. In this spirit, Juno offers a collection of interviews that let trans children and young people speak in their own words, not as case studies or statistics, but as whole human beings with dreams, fears, humor, and a vision of their lives.
The structure of the book is deceptively simple. Juno sits down with trans children, teenagers, and their families, and together they talk about the things that matter most to them: what it feels like to come out, what kinds of support have been essential, what makes them hopeful, and what worries they carry with them. The voices of parents and carers are included as well, showing the way love and acceptance from family can transform what might otherwise be a hostile world into a place where flourishing is possible. The result is a moving chorus of voices, each one unique, but together painting a picture of resilience and joy. These are not tragic tales of suffering that dominate so much of mainstream media when it comes to trans lives. Instead, they are affirmations of existence, proof that with love, recognition, and space to explore, trans children live fully and dream boldly.
2020,
English,
Interview,
Juno Roche,
Original title: "Toda vida importa: uma análise antropológica, sociológica e jurídica sobre os trabalhadores transexuais" (Every life matters: an anthropological, sociological, and legal analysis of transgender workers) by Daniela Miranda Duarte.
Daniela Miranda Duarte’s book Toda vida importa: uma análise antropológica, sociológica e jurídica sobre os trabalhadores transexuais emerges as a necessary and urgent contribution to contemporary Brazilian society. The author begins by carefully introducing conceptual aspects, guiding the reader into a subject that is often surrounded by prejudice, misunderstanding, or silence. She lays the groundwork with clarity, ensuring that even those unfamiliar with the struggles of transgender people can engage with the discussion in a meaningful way. By doing so, she removes barriers of distance and indifference, replacing them with knowledge and empathy.
2020,
Brazil,
Daniela Miranda Duarte,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Transradioativa: Você me conhece porque tem medo ou tem medo porque me conhece?" (Transradioactive: Do you know me because you're afraid, or are you afraid because you know me?) by Valéria Barcellos.
“Transradioativa: Você me conhece porque tem medo ou tem medo porque me conhece?” by Valéria Barcellos is a powerful and deeply personal work that transcends conventional autobiographical writing. In this book, Valéria, a black trans woman, singer, actress, DJ, performer, writer, and visual artist, shares her lived experiences with unflinching honesty and artistry.
Her life story is inseparable from the broader struggles of trans and Black communities in Brazil, and her work embodies transnegritude and transfeminism with an intensity that challenges readers to confront their own assumptions and fears. Valéria’s recognition as a Mulher Cidadã, the highest honor awarded to women in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, underscores her role as a trailblazer not only in the arts but in social advocacy, making her story one of resistance, resilience, and radical affirmation of identity.
2020,
Portuguese,
Valéria Barcellos,
Original title: "Veni Vidi Vici - Resan Efter: Del 2 - En Självbiografi Av Wilhelmina Rudin" (Veni Vidi Vici - The Journey After: Part 2 - An Autobiography By Wilhelmina Rudin) by Mina Rudin.
In Veni Vidi Vici – The Journey After: Part 2, Swedish author Wilhelmina “Mina” Rudin picks up where her previous volume left off, charting a profoundly human, deeply personal journey of identity, transformation, and resilience. As the title echoes Caesar’s triumphant declaration, I came, I saw, I conquered, Rudin invites readers to witness not just a victory, but a long, courageous path leading toward personal truth and healing.
This is not just a memoir; it's a testament. It's a lived experience, unfolding in real-time, as the author shares her ongoing exploration of self through the lens of medical transition, emotional recovery, and professional reinvention. It is a book about becoming, and all the complications, joys, and reflections that come with it.
2020,
Mina Rudin,
Swedish,
Wilhelmina Rudin,
Full title: "Eva's World: A Real Woman’s Life" by Ella Marques.
This is the third book by Ella Marques. "I was born a boy, from Venus: It's time to be yourself" (2017) was the first autobiography of Ella Marques. In 2020, she published her second book: "Coming Home to Venus: The story of a woman transitioning to her real self".
"Eva’s World is the story of a transgender pansexual hard-working woman that travels the world for business and pleasure. She and her three friends Linda, Olympia and Victoria come together regularly, talk about their lives, their loves and their expectations. Two of these girls are transgender, the other two are cisgender - their lives and expectations are similar, just some small differences. This is a positive book about life as a very privileged transgender person, about traveling, about fun, expectations but above all about love. Yes, transgender women are women. They live, they love, and they can be quite normal. All I ask is that you open your eyes."
2020,
Ella Marques,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "Empowering Differences: Leveraging Your Differences to Impact Change" by Ashley T Brundage.
"Empowering Differences is the intentional action of using power and authority for yourself or others while positioning ways in which you are not the same as the people around you. Using your differences, what makes you unique, to empower yourself and others to move your career forward. Follow author, Ashley T Brundage, as she puts Empowering Differences into action. She has been on her own journey of self exploration and was forced to find out how she fits into this world. She started her careers as a means of survival and has quickly risen through each position.
She celebrated her authenticity, empowered herself, and others, to create a stronger community. Incorporating the 10 key empowering actions covered within this book, Ashley advanced her career from a part time bank teller to a vice president of the national diversity and inclusion team at a major financial services corporation in less than 5 years. Everyone’s journey will look different, but these methods can produce similar results and the takeaways of the book can be applied to anyone. Take the first step to accelerate your career by empowering your differences."
2020,
Ashley T Brundage,
English,
Full title: "Wo-Man: The Power of Non-Disclosure" by Malikah R. Harris.
"Malikah R. Harris, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey is an author, writer, producer, director, vocalist, comedian, and a motivational speaker, who started her career in magazine writing and as a blogger. She has written everything from positive quotes to historical events. Her style of writing caught the public eye due to her poetic play on words."
"Malikah R. Harris, born and raised in Newark, New Jersey is an author, writer, producer, director, vocalist, comedian, and a motivational speaker, who started her career in writing as a blogger and for magazines. She has written everything from positive quotes to historical events. Her style of writing became a hit within the public eye because of her poetic play on words."
2020,
English,
Malikah R. Harris,
Full title: "If There's No Heaven" by Barbara Marie Minney.
Barbara Marie Minney’s If There’s No Heaven is a profoundly moving and courageous poetry collection that charts the deeply personal journey of a transgender woman embracing her authentic self later in life. As a native of West Virginia and a seventh-generation Appalachian, Barbara brings a distinctive voice shaped by her rich cultural roots, her Christian faith, and her complex experience of gender transition at age sixty-three after decades of repression.
Winner of the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and recognized as an Akron Beacon Journal Best Northeast Ohio Book that same year, If There’s No Heaven is much more than a collection of poems. It is a lyrical memoir that serves as both an intimate confession and a bold challenge to societal norms and stereotypes surrounding gender, faith, and identity.
Barbara’s poetry unfolds with a raw honesty and clarity that invites readers into the first two years of her transition. As she writes, these pages document not only her struggles and triumphs but also the process of reclaiming her identity as the woman she was “always intended to be,” a journey she undertook after repressing her true gender for over sixty years.
2020,
Barbara Marie Minney,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "Transcartografia: Atrizes e Atores Trans na Cena Teatral" (Transcartography: Trans Actresses and Actors in the Paperback Theatre) by Jerônimo Vieira de Lima Silva.
The work "Transcartography: Trans Actresses and Actors in the Theatrical Scene" starts with a focus on the LGBTTQ+ movement in Brazil and Portugal to analyze the theatrical scenario in both countries.
Official statistics and data on transphobia are presented, as well as a mapping of transsexual actors and actresses inserted in the political and social contexts of these countries. The aspects of theatricality and performativity that are inserted in the construction of genders are also listed, especially with regard to the transsexual.
2020,
Brazil,
Jerônimo Vieira de Lima Silva,
Portugal,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Vamos por más: mocha celis na experiência educacional das travestis e transexuais" (Let's go for more: mocha celis in the educational experience of transvestites and transsexuals) by Luana Pagano Peres Molina.
"In Brazil, we see alarming data that show an escalation in violence and murder of trans populations (transvestites, transgenders, and transsexuals). The public policies of the different governments that have passed through the country, moved by so-called right-wing and left-wing ideologies, have done little or nothing to change this scenario.
"Geni e o Zepelim" is a Brazilian song composed in 1978 by Brazilian composer Chico Buarque to be part of the musical Ópera do Malandro. The character Geni is described as being a transvestite who is constantly harassed by her community, "who can give it to anyone", who is "made to be beaten" and "good for spitting". The song's catchphrase: "Throw a stone at Geni" has become well known in the popular songbook and is repeated jokingly whenever someone is spoken of who is the target of public execration."
2020,
Argentina,
Brazil,
Luana Pagano Peres Molina,
Portuguese,
Full title: "Transsexuality in Turkey: The Representation of Transsexual Identities in Contemporary Turkish Films" by Hüma Saruhan.
"LGBT issues in Turkey are often ignored by the government entities and mostly misrepresented in the Turkish mass media. Transsexual subjects, often erroneously identified as transvestites, yet have been subjected to various types of violence and stereotyping throughout the history of the modern Turkish Republic. The mass media undoubtedly played a part in enforcing many negative and/or erroneous stereotypes in the minds of the audience. Yet, there are some Turkish films that on the surface aim to bring to light the hard conditions transsexual subjects face in their daily lives. Apart from reviewing the background of transsexual issues in the Turkish history and analyzing the approach of the Turkish media in their treatment of transsexual subjects, I also aimed to establish the extent in which the media could be the cause of the re/creation and re/production of the transsexual image, gender roles and violence within the heterosexist and transphobic social structure in Turkey.
2020,
English,
Hüma Saruhan,
Turkey,
Full title: "Trans America: A Counter-History" by Barry Reay.
"Trans seems to be everywhere in American culture. Yet there is little understanding of how this came about. Are people aware that there were earlier periods of gender flexibility and contestability in American history? How well known is it that a previous period of trans visibility in the 1960s and early 1970s faced a vehement backlash right at the time that trans, in the form of what was then termed transvestism and transsexuality, seemed to be so ascendant? Was there transness before transsexuality was named in the 1950s and transgender emerged in the 1990s?
Barry Reay explores this history: from a time before trans in the nineteenth century to the transsexual moment of the 1960s and 1970s, the transgender turn of the 1990s, and the so-called tipping point of current culture. It is a rich and varied history, where same-sex desires and identities, cross-dressing, and transsexual and transgender identities jostled for recognition. It is a history that is not at all flattering to US psychiatric and surgical practices. Arguing for the complexity of a trans past and present, Trans America will be a groundbreaking work for the trans community, as well as anyone interested in the history of medicine, sexuality, psychology and psychiatry."
2020,
Barry Reay,
English,
"Mama Black Widow" is the French language edition of "Mama Black Widow" by Iceberg Slim, published in 2013. The book was translated into French by Gérard Henri.
"Mama Black Widow tells the tragic story of Otis Tilson, a stunning black drag queen trapped in a cruel queer ghetto underworld. In hopes of escaping the racial bigotry and economic injustice of the South, Otis’ family journeys north from their plantation to an urban promised land. Once in Chicago Otis and his brother and sisters become prisoners to a wasteland of violence, crime, prostitution and rape. This is the gut-wrenching tale of the destruction of a family and the truest portrayal of homosexuality in the ghetto ever told."
2020,
Drag queen,
French,
Iceberg Slim,
Otis Tilson,
Original title: "Tragisch, aber geil 2.0" (Tragic but Horny 2.0) by Barbie Breakout.
""Tragic, but horny 2.0" is the completely revised and supplemented remake of Barbie's first autobiography from 2012. Full of unvarnished truths, touching observations and roaring comical insights into the life of a unique drag queen."
"A glimpse into Bärbel's world. I learned a lot about them. And in fact, one or two things about me. Thank you for the mirror you hold up to me, or to all of us. And thanks for the inspiration." Conchita Wurst
"A book like a best friend: sometimes wise, sometimes hilarious, when necessary, lovingly vulgar and always, always honest." Paul Schulz
2020,
Barbie Breakout,
Drag queen,
German,
Full title: "Rasaathi: The other side of a transgender" by Sasindran Kallinkeel.
"They seem a loud bunch of people, a socially unwanted class whose presence is not welcome almost anywhere till a wedding or childbirth happens. But try to delve deeper and you will understand how day-to-day existence is a struggle for people who weren’t lucky enough to be born as fully formed males or females. Forced to live in shanties far from city limits, they don’t have fixed jobs and can’t even dare to live a normal life.
And yet, life goes on for them despite the hardships that they mask with garish makeup and bright saris. They are sensible like you and me - they laugh, cry and fall in love. They are just like us, in more ways than you know. You will realise all that and more when you read this touching tale. Rasaathi is the story of every aravani, of every transgender"
2020,
English,
India,
Sasindran Kallinkeel,
Original title: "Transexuais em telenovelas: a construção de personagens na Rede Globo" (Transsexuals in soap operas: the construction of characters in Rede Globo) by Lalo Nopes Homrich.
"Lalo Nopes Homrich's work does not detract from the long tradition of studies on representations of minorities on television, particularly in soap operas, but it does something so far unprecedented. It sheds light on the field of production – the social production of representations – by interviewing the professionals involved with the construction of three transsexual characters in Rede Globo soap operas: Ramona, a trans woman, in the soap opera As Filhas da Mãe (2001); Dorothy, a trans woman, in the soap opera Geração Brasil (2014); and, finally, Ivan, trans men, in the soap opera A Força do Querer (2017).
2020,
Brazil,
Lalo Nopes Homrich,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Bajubá: Memórias e diálogos das travestis" (Bajubá: Memories and dialogues of transvestites) by Gabriela Costa Araujo.
In "Bajubá: memories and dialogues of transvestites" we find a study on Bajubá, a language used by the LGBT community, which has its origin in the African language Yoruba-Nagô, based on the lexicon of the Portuguese language, with different arrangements. The circulation of language, its permanence, popularization and the meanings triggered by transvestites through bajubá show that gender, race, ethnicity, generation and class intersect in the origin and flows of this dialect.
This publication is aimed at researchers, teachers and those interested in reflecting and (re)thinking about the language, based on bajubá, of the memories of transvestites and the LGBT community in the country.
2020,
Gabriela Costa Araujo,
Portuguese,
Original title: "Trans*" by ÉPICÈNE.
The book Trans, published in 2020 by ÉPICÈNE, is a remarkable and deeply thoughtful project that seeks to deconstruct the pervasive stereotypes surrounding transgender individuals while highlighting their humanity and diversity. Through forty-six carefully curated portraits, the book presents a multifaceted view of transgender life in Switzerland, offering readers both a visual and narrative experience that is rare in its depth and authenticity.
Each portrait combines a photograph by the talented photographer Noura Gauper with an in-depth interview conducted in one of Switzerland’s three main national languages by a professional journalist. The work includes twenty-three women and twenty-three men, representing a broad geographic and cultural spectrum with twenty participants from Swiss Romandy, twenty from the German-speaking regions, and six from Ticino, reflecting the rich diversity within the country.
The primary objective of Trans is to challenge discrimination and social exclusion, issues that continue to affect transgender individuals disproportionately. Studies have shown that the suicide rate among trans* people is ten times higher than that of the cisgender population, and unemployment rates are six times greater, revealing systemic barriers that hinder full societal integration.
2020,
ÉPICÈNE,
French,
Switzerland,
