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: "One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn't" by Jane Foster.
This memoir by Jane Foster titled One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn’t is a wrenching, honest chronicle of how a family comes apart and slowly, painfully reassembles itself around a child’s truth. Foster begins from a place many parents know well: pride in an accomplished son, admiration for his brilliance, hopes for his future.
Julian is smart, well‐behaved, full of promise. She loves him, expects him to follow the path she and so many others imagine for a child like him. Then one evening across the dinner table he hands her a note: “Please don’t be disappointed. This doesn’t change who I am.” She reads, confused. He says, “I’m transgender.” That moment becomes a fulcrum on which everything tilts. The future she saw for Julian, the person she thought she knew, begins to shift, to slip in ways she does not yet understand. The story that follows is raw. Uninhibited. Foster allows us into the collapse of her certainties. She admits to shock, grief, confusion. She grapples with what it means for her child to change identity, how that affects their relationship, how it changes her view of herself as a mother. The emotional currents are turbulent. There is denial, there is acceptance, there is resistance, there is reconciliation. There are late‐night arguments, anguished tears, moments of fierce love that transcend everything else.
2024,
English,
Jane Foster,
Original title: "Transgender" by Adam Suchý and Alena Vernerová.
The book Transgender by Adam Suchý and Alena Vernerová presents an intimate, open, and honest conversation between a mother of a transgender child and a clinical psychologist who has spent nearly two decades working with transgender individuals undergoing medical transition. This topic has become one of the most discussed in recent years, generating intense emotions, polarizing opinions, and a mixture of myths, ideologies, ignorance, and prejudices.
Transgender issues intersect with social, legal, diagnostic, and global changes, making them both highly visible and deeply personal. Through an engaging dialogue, the book offers the latest knowledge, research findings, personal experiences, and stories, acknowledging that while not all answers are known, the courage to ask the questions is invaluable. It is intended for anyone affected by transgender topics, not just transgender people themselves, but also their parents, siblings, teachers, professionals in helping roles, and a broader professional audience interested in understanding the contemporary world more fully.
Full title: "Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention" by Andrea Leigh.
Andrea Leigh’s memoir Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention is a story that refuses to fit neatly into one category. It is part life story, part manifesto, part guide to self-discovery, and part love letter to authenticity. What begins as the account of a rancher, husband, father, and pharmaceutical executive soon unfolds into something far deeper: the journey of a woman who dared to look into the mirror and acknowledge a truth that had been waiting for her all along.
By all standard measures, Andy, as she was known then, had built the American Dream. A successful career in the pharmaceutical industry brought security, while a marriage and family life on a ranch grounded in sustainable practices offered both beauty and meaning. Yet beneath the outward picture of success was a persistent sense of incompleteness, a quiet calling toward something more. That unspoken longing would eventually lead Andrea to confront herself with honesty, vulnerability, and ultimately, courage.
2024,
Andrea Leigh,
English,
Original title: "Casa de las muñecas" (Doll's House) by Kenya Cuevas.
Casa de las muñecas (Doll’s House) by Kenya Cuevas is not just a book, it is a manifesto of defiance, a searing testament to human resilience that tears open the wounds of injustice to expose a truth we cannot ignore. Kenya Cuevas, a transgender woman, activist, and symbol of relentless struggle, bares her soul in these pages, recounting a life scarred by rejection, violence, and discrimination. From the horrors of life on the streets to the creation of shelters and safe spaces for the transgender community, this book is the story of a woman who refused to be erased, who rose again and again in the face of a system determined to silence her.
Through unwavering strength, courage, and the support of those who believe in justice, Kenya transformed unimaginable pain into decisive action, exclusion into safe havens, and isolation into a network of support that now saves lives. Casa de las muñecas challenges every reader to confront the structures that perpetuate hatred, to question the world around them, and to take an active role in creating change. It is an urgent, indispensable account of struggle, memory, and dignity in a Mexico wounded by persistent violence.
Kenya Cytlaly Cuevas Fuentes, born in Mexico City on September 5, 1983, is a fearless human rights defender whose activism changed history. She ensured that the transfeminicide of her companion, Paola Buenrostro, became the first case officially recognized as a transfeminicide by Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission in 2019. She founded Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias and Casa Hogar Paola Buenrostro, the first shelter for transgender women in Mexico, and championed the Paola Buenrostro Law, earning national recognition and numerous awards for her tireless advocacy.
2024,
Kenya Cuevas,
Mexico,
Spanish,
Full title: "Both Sides of the Great Divide" by Nikita Carter.
Both Sides of the Great Divide by Nikita Carter offers readers an intimate, powerful account of her life’s most profound transformation, a late-in-life awakening to her true self as a trans woman. At the age of 60, after a series of shattering experiences, Carter describes how she was “broken open,” awakening to a new awareness that reshaped her existence and compelled her to live authentically, embracing a truth she had long buried.
More than just a memoir, this book is a testament to resilience, courage, and the relentless pursuit of identity and freedom.
Nikita Carter’s life is steeped in music. A celebrated musician, composer, educator, and producer, her artistry is deeply woven into the fabric of her identity. For decades, she has been a vibrant force in the world of music, touring extensively across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her blues-drenched, soulful sound is at once haunting and joyous, expressive and unmistakably her own. From early gigs at the age of 16 to performances at renowned jazz festivals and collaborations with some of the most respected figures in jazz and contemporary music, Carter’s career is marked by a commitment to pushing boundaries and exploring new sonic landscapes.
She has worked with luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Nicole Mitchell, George E. Lewis, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson, Oliver Lake, and Marilyn Crispell, collaborations that have enriched her musical vocabulary and deepened her creative expression.
2024,
English,
Interview,
Nikita Carter,
Original title: "För alltid Lee" (Forever Lee) by Lee Christiernsson and Marie-Anne Knutas.
Some stories arrive like a quiet breeze, and some burst through the noise like a thunderclap of truth. Forever Lee, the memoir co-authored by Swedish television personality Lee Christiernsson and writer Marie-Anne Knutas, is unquestionably the latter, a candid, deeply personal, and inspiring narrative of identity, courage, and renewal.
At its heart, Forever Lee is a story about becoming. It traces Lee’s life from a spirited, adventure-seeking youth through a celebrated career on Swedish television and a seemingly conventional life as a husband and father. For many years, Lee was best known to the public as “Carpenter-Björn,” the charming and skilled craftsman on Finally Home, a beloved home improvement series that aired for 22 seasons on TV4. But behind the camera, and beneath the veneer of a fulfilling public and family life, something essential was missing. Lee was living a role. For decades, he carried a truth so profound and so personal that it was nearly invisible to those around him. It wasn’t until the age of 45 that he was finally able to face the world as who he truly is: a non-binary transgender person.
2024,
Lee Christiernsson,
Sweden,
Swedish,
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.
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.
2024,
English,
Rachel Dover,
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.”
2024,
Chile,
Claudia Rodríguez,
Spanish,
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.
2024,
English,
Riki Wilchins,
USA,
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.
2024,
English,
Eve Devitt,
USA,
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.
2024,
Barbara Marie Minney,
English,
Interview,
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.
2024,
Mexico,
Samantha Flores,
Spanish,
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.
2024,
Argentina,
Eva Faga,
Spanish,
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."
2024,
English,
Munroe Bergdorf,
UK,
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!
2024,
German,
Wiebke ter Lichten,
Full title: "World's First Transgender Married Couple "Open"" by Julia James.
"Explore the extraordinary true story of a trailblazing couple who redefined love, marriage, and identity. They were among the last within the LGBT community to feel secure enough to share their lives with the world, a revelation that came years after the LGB individuals had done so.
"The World's First Transgender Married Couple" offers an invitation to witness the heartfelt, moving journey of two individuals who transitioned not only in gender but in their outlook on life, love, and commitment. This landmark memoir ventures into the less-discussed facets of transgender identity and applauds the triumph of authentic self-expression in a world still adjusting to change.
2024,
English,
Julia James,
Original title: "Mi mejor versión... es femenina: autobiografía de mi transición" (My best version... is feminine: autobiography of my transition) by Silvia Sicore.
The author, a specialist in audiovisual communication, has been writing and creating content for both digital and analog media since a young age. In this autobiography of her transition years, she takes the opportunity, not only to recount the events of that period in her life, but also to reflect on what it means for her to be "trans" in today's world, and how this gender journey has influenced her immediate surroundings in Lleida and Barcelona.
With the pedagogical goal of promoting positive visibility for the trans community, Silvia opens herself up to the reader, revealing who she truly is. She shows that, among all the possible ways of being available to a person, striving to become one's best version is always a valuable path, whether or not that journey leads to a gender transition. This is, therefore, an atypical story. The author comes to the realization, later in life, as an adult and after living for decades as a heterosexual man, that hidden somewhere in the crossword puzzle of her identity was the word gender... and that her best version is, without a doubt, feminine.
Already as a young woman, long before her gender transition, Silvia used writing as a means of expression. It became not only a professional tool but also a source of recognition, earning her awards for her poems and short stories. Although her multifaceted personality led her to explore painting, drawing, and music, it is through writing that she has found the most effective way to communicate her inner world. She explores a variety of styles and genres, from poetry and novels to short stories and, more recently, autobiography, all with the clear intention of better understanding both the world around her and herself.
Sílvia Pérez-Pallarès, also known as Silvia Sicore, is a content manager, programmer, and sociocultural communicator. She has worked for organizations such as Barcelona Activa, the technical team of Pride BCN, and currently serves at the Sabadell City Council. A transgender activist and committed communicator, she is an active member of several associations, including the Platform of LGTBI Entities of Catalonia and the LGTBI.cat Group.
She is also a certified trainer by the Generalitat de Catalunya for educating civil servants on gender diversity, in accordance with the mandate of Law 11/2014 against LGTBIphobia. Silvia has also worked as a lecturer at the Universities of Barcelona, Girona, and Lleida, as well as for the SOC (Catalan Employment Service), and in several public high schools and colleges. She holds master’s degrees in Organizational Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Human Resources Management, Online Marketing, Community Management, Gender Equality, and also in Business Administration.
She has participated in several television programs (such as Chester with Risto Mejide on Cuatro and Tabús on TV3), as well as in interviews, media campaigns, and national awareness initiatives. She is also a regular contributor to national media outlets.
2024,
Silvia Sicore,
Spanish,
Full title: "And Here I Am: My Seventy Years On A Gender Tightrope" by Colleen Bellson.
"“Gender dysphoria”. “Transgender”. I'm older than both of those terms. You'd think that with nearly eight decades of experience, I'd understand the condition a lot more than I do. If you're looking for answers here, it's best that you not get your hopes up. I gave up on finding the "why" a very long time ago. For me, being "transgender" has been a gift, a curse, a source of both shame and fascination, and - on balance - a great deal of fun.
This book has nothing to do with politics, ideology, activism, legal battles, parental rights, or any other issue that's peripheral to the subject of gender self-identity. If you learn something along the way, that's great. But my intent is just to tell my own story."
2024,
Colleen Bellson,
English,
Full title: "It Gets Better . . . Except When It Gets Worse: And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me" by Nicole Maines.
"Nicole Maines knows a little something about “happily ever after”—not just because she’s a self-professed expert in the Disney princess canon, but because she’s lived it. After coming out at an early age, her family had not only to educate themselves, but also those around them as they fought and won a landmark court case in the state of Maine before she graduated high school. She made it into college, got the guy, and finally had The Surgery.
She achieved her lifelong goal of becoming an actress when she landed a major role in the CW’s Supergirl, playing television’s very first live-action transgender superhero. Cue sappy music and sunsets, because we’ve got ourselves a happy ending, right? Ha! As if. For the first time, in her own words, Nicole tells the story of her journey from childhood in rural Maine to the spotlights of Hollywood, sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way. With clever wit and unflinching honesty, she tackles some of the most insidious messaging absorbed by queer kids and all young women, from the idea that any one thing can (or should) ever really “fix” you, to wondering what’s wrong with you when things don’t always feel better, and reminding us that, sometimes, a happy ending is only the beginning of the story."
2024,
English,
Nicole Maines,
USA,
