A random collection of over 2078 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: "Sorry I Was Such a D!ck, When I Had One!: A Story of Gender Joy, and the Messy Road to Authenticity" by Dee McWatters.
How does a forty-three-year-old straight white man suddenly realize she has always been a gay woman? That question sits at the heart of Sorry I Was Such a D!ck, When I Had One!, a memoir whose outrageous title barely hints at the tenderness, vulnerability, and emotional intelligence inside. Dee McWatters tells a story that feels at once deeply personal and strangely universal, a story about what happens when a life that looks complete on the outside can no longer contain the truth growing inside it.
For decades, Dee lived as Darren McWatters, a husband, a father, a respected professional in the British Columbia wine industry, a volunteer firefighter, a hockey referee, and a deeply embedded member of her small town community in Summerland, BC. From the outside, it was the kind of life that signals stability and success, the kind of life that rarely raises questions. Inside, however, was a constant, unnamed ache, a quiet sense of wrongness that followed her from childhood into adulthood, through relationships, work, and service to others. The memoir does not romanticize this dissonance. Instead, it lets readers sit with the confusion, the denial, and the exhausting effort of trying to be someone you are not, even when you do not yet have the language to explain why.
2025,
Canada,
Dee McWatters,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "The Evolution of Jodi: The Truth I Carried" by Jodi Gray.
The Evolution of Jodi: The Truth I Carried is not a book that asks for admiration. It asks for attention, patience, and honesty. Jodi Gray does not write to impress the reader with triumph after triumph, but to sit beside them and speak plainly about what it costs to survive, to heal, and to finally belong to yourself. The result is a deeply human story, one that unfolds quietly yet powerfully, rooted in lived experience rather than slogans or easy resolutions.
Jodi Gray’s life has been shaped by contradiction from the very beginning. She grew up in a deeply religious, conservative Christian household in North Carolina, a place where rules were rigid, difference was dangerous, and silence was often the safest response. From an early age, she knew she was different, though she did not yet have the language to explain why. What she did know was that being different felt wrong in the world she was raised in, and that knowledge settled into her body as fear, shame, and isolation. Severe abuse and poverty marked her childhood, laying the groundwork for anxiety and depression that would follow her well into adulthood.
2025,
Canada,
English,
Interview,
Jodi Gray,
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2025,
Canada,
English,
Interview,
Mandy Goodhandy,
Full title: "Make Haste Slowly: The Mike Duff Story" by Michelle Duff.
Michelle Duff’s Make Haste Slowly: The Mike Duff Story stands as one of the most vivid and intimate chronicles of grand prix motorcycle racing ever written. It is important to state from the outset that the book is not about her transition or her later life as Michelle. Instead, it is a deep dive into the racing world of Mike Duff, the Canadian athlete who carved his name into the history of the Continental Circus during the golden age of the sport. The book is a celebration of speed, technical mastery, courage, and the relentless pursuit of excellence at a time when the world of motorcycle racing was changing at an unprecedented pace.
At the heart of the story is Mike Duff, the first North American and the only Canadian to claim a victory in a world championship grand prix motorcycle race. Across the pages, Duff’s accomplishments unfold with the clarity of lived memory rather than mere historical retelling. The book captures the thrill of the 1964 250 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps, where Duff claimed his first world championship win on one of the most challenging circuits ever built. It then moves into the exhilarating 1965 season when he stood again atop the winner’s rostrum at the 125 Dutch Grand Prix at Assen in the Netherlands and yet again at the 250 Finnish Grand Prix at Imatra. These victories form the backbone of a career that combined raw determination with technical brilliance and a deep connection to the machines he rode.
2011,
Canada,
English,
Michelle Duff,
Full title: "Barbra Amesbury: Voice of Courage: A Journey Through Music, Identity, and Advocacy" by Charles Tyler JR.
In a world that so often insists on sameness, on fitting neatly into prescribed boxes of identity, appearance, and belief, what does it mean to live authentically? Charles Tyler Jr.’s Barbra Amesbury: Voice of Courage: A Journey Through Music, Identity, and Advocacy answers this question not through theory, but through the life of a woman who defied every expectation placed before her. This sweeping biography of Barbra Amesbury traces the evolution of a Canadian cultural icon who transformed herself and her art with breathtaking honesty, becoming a symbol of resilience, integrity, and creative defiance. Tyler’s portrait of Amesbury is not simply a chronicle of one artist’s career, but a meditation on the human right to live as one truly is, no matter the cost.
2025,
Barbra Amesbury,
Canada,
English,
Full title: "Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future" by Katherine Dudtschak.
There are books that entertain, and there are books that quietly shift the ground beneath your feet. Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future belongs to the latter category. It is not only the story of a corporate leader but also the unveiling of a truth so deeply buried that acknowledging it required dismantling an entire life and rebuilding it anew.
Katherine Dudtschak grew up in southern Ontario, the daughter of immigrants who survived World War II camps. Her early life was defined by scarcity, post-war trauma, and the kind of challenges that can press a child into becoming either brittle or unbreakably determined. She chose the latter. Despite learning difficulties and the weight of expectation, she carved out a path into one of Canada’s most competitive industries, rising to the upper echelons of banking. To the outside world, she had it all: four children, a successful career, the respect of peers, and material security. But inside, something essential was missing. The man her colleagues and friends saw was a mask, and behind it lived Katherine, the woman she had always known herself to be.
The turning point came unexpectedly, in the most ordinary of settings: her daughter’s university dormitory. There, on a wall, hung a poster about gender inclusivity. To most passersby, it was a piece of student activism, easily overlooked. For Katherine, it was a mirror. In its language, she recognized herself, the truth she had buried for decades rising suddenly, urgently, irrepressibly. That poster did not just open a door; it unlocked a life.
2026,
Canada,
English,
Katherine Dudtschak,
Full title: "Julie Lemieux: Canada's First Transgender Mayor - Unauthorized" by Shiro Deng.
In Julie Lemieux: Canada’s First Transgender Mayor – Unauthorized, author Shiro Deng chronicles one of the most quietly groundbreaking political careers in Canadian history. With sensitivity, depth, and journalistic curiosity, Deng paints a vivid portrait of Julie Lemieux, a soft-spoken, community-oriented cabinetmaker turned trailblazing public servant, who reshaped a rural Quebec village and, along the way, Canadian politics.
Julie Lemieux's story is not one of grand speeches or sweeping national headlines, but of grassroots transformation.
A former Drummondville cabinetmaker, she moved to the village of Très-Saint-Rédempteur in 2009 seeking a slower, more connected life. It wasn’t politics that brought her there, but wood, peace, and community. But the heart of this story, and the heart of Deng’s book, lies in the way Lemieux responded when her community needed her most.
The turning point came in the form of a church. When the beloved, but disused, Roman Catholic church at the village center was slated for demolition, Lemieux led the fight to preserve and transform it into a community and cultural hub. That victory sparked her political awakening, and in 2013, she was elected to the municipal council. Four years later, she would make history by becoming Canada’s first openly transgender mayor, and the first woman elected mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur.
2025,
Canada,
English,
Julie Lemieux,
Original title: "La fille d’elle-même" (The Daughter of Herself) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay. The book was published in 2021 and republished in 2023.
"Winner 2022, Prix des Libraires Rights for TV adaptation purchased by Zone 3 A runaway bestseller in Québec, where it has captured the hearts of readers and pushed trans-identity into the mainstream conversation, Dandelion Daughter is an intimate, courageous portrait of what it’s like to grow up having been assigned the wrong sex at birth.
Set against the windswept countryside of the remote Charlevoix region some five hours north of Montreal, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s autobiographical novel immortalizes her early years as an alienated boy trapped in a world of small-town values and her parents’ dissolving marriage, through complex adolescent years of self-discovery and first loves, to the harrowing episodes that fuel the growing realization that she must transition and give birth to her new self if she is to continue living at all. One of the first novels of its kind to appear in Québec, this inspiring story has already connected with a wide readership, and has been adopted by many schools to help expand worldviews and curriculums."
2021,
2023,
Canada,
French,
Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay,
Gabrielle Tremblay,
"Dandelion Daughter: A Novel" is the English language version of "La fille d’elle-même" (The Daughter of Herself) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay.
"Winner 2022, Prix des Libraires Rights for TV adaptation purchased by Zone 3 A runaway bestseller in Québec, where it has captured the hearts of readers and pushed trans-identity into the mainstream conversation, Dandelion Daughter is an intimate, courageous portrait of what it’s like to grow up having been assigned the wrong sex at birth.
Set against the windswept countryside of the remote Charlevoix region some five hours north of Montreal, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s autobiographical novel immortalizes her early years as an alienated boy trapped in a world of small-town values and her parents’ dissolving marriage, through complex adolescent years of self-discovery and first loves, to the harrowing episodes that fuel the growing realization that she must transition and give birth to her new self if she is to continue living at all. One of the first novels of its kind to appear in Québec, this inspiring story has already connected with a wide readership, and has been adopted by many schools to help expand worldviews and curriculums."
2023,
Canada,
English,
Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay,
Gabrielle Tremblay,
Full title: "Holy Wild" by Gwen Benaway.
"In her third collection of poetry, Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway explores the complexities of being an Indigenous trans woman in expansive lyric poems. She holds up the Indigenous trans body as a site of struggle, liberation, and beauty. A confessional poet, Benaway narrates her sexual and romantic intimacies with partners as well as her work to navigate the daily burden of transphobia and violence.
She examines the intersections of Indigenous and trans experience through autobiographical poems and continues to speak to the legacy of abuse, violence, and colonial erasure that defines Canada. Her sparse lines, interwoven with English and Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), illustrate the wonder and power of Indigenous trans womanhood in motion. Holy Wild is not an easy book, as Benaway refuses to give any simple answers, but it is a profoundly vibrant and beautiful work filled with a transcendent grace."
Gwen Benaway is a Canadian poet, writer, and advocate for the rights of transgender and Indigenous people. She was born in Wingham, Ontario, Canada, and is of Anishinaabe and Métis descent. Benaway is known for her work that explores themes of identity, love, and trauma, often drawing from her personal experiences as a trans woman and Indigenous person. She has published several collections of poetry, including "Ceremonies for the Dead," which won the 2016 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers.
Her poetry often reflects on the intersections of her identity and the challenges faced by Indigenous and transgender communities. In addition to her work as a writer, Gwen Benaway is an advocate for the rights of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ individuals. She has been involved in community organizing and activism, addressing issues such as violence against Indigenous women and the rights of trans people.
2018,
Canada,
English,
Gwen Benaway,
Full title: "Passage" by Gwen Benaway.
"In her second collection of poetry, Passage, Gwen Benaway examines what it means to experience violence and speaks to the burden of survival. Traveling to Northern Ontario and across the Great Lakes, Passage is a poetic voyage through divorce, family violence, legacy of colonization, and the affirmation of a new sexuality and gender. Previously published as a man, Passage is the poet's first collection written as a transwoman. Striking and raw in sparse lines, the collection showcases a vital Two Spirited identity that transects borders of race, gender, and experience.
In Passage, the poet seeks to reconcile herself to the land, the history of her ancestors, and her separation from her partner and family by invoking the beauty and power of her ancestral waterways. Building on the legacy of other ground-breaking Indigenous poets like Gregory Scofield and Queer poets like Tim Dlugos, Benaway's work is deeply personal and devastating in sharp, clear lines. Passage is a book burning with a beautiful intensity and reveals Benaway as one of the most powerful emerging poets writing in Indigenous poetics today."
2016,
Canada,
English,
Gwen Benaway,
"Valid: Dystopian Autofiction" is the English language edition of "Valide" by Chris Bergeron.
"Although it is described as an autobiographical science fiction novel, the context it offers is not that far removed from our current world. We project ourselves 30 years into the future, in a world governed by the artificial intelligence Total David. Human beings are then confined and are only allowed a few hours of going out a day. "This feeling of living in a bubble that is in the novel, and that came before the pandemic, is for many trans women what they experience on a daily basis. Valide is a sci-fi and sci-fi novel, but it's also an allegory of today. What I tried to describe was this isolation, this feeling that maybe society isn't built for me.""
"This novel is also an opportunity to show a very dark future for the LGBT community and especially trans people. Indeed, in the story, in order to adapt to this new regime dominated by artificial intelligence, the heroine Christelle is forced to become Christian again. And to erase all traces of his past. This echoes a reality experienced on a daily basis by transgender people, which is the fear of not being accepted by our society. That of losing their job if they decide to transition. That of no longer existing within society."
2023,
Canada,
Chris Bergeron,
English,
Full title: "Ceremonies for the Dead" by Gwen Benaway.
"Ceremonies for the Dead is an award-winning collection of poems that examine the haunting themes of inter-generational trauma, cyclical abuse, and inherited grief. Four generations of the dead take turns narrating these themes, navigating from the Great Lakes through the Appalachian Mountains, and examining the fur trade, an exile from Minnesota, the experiences of West Virginia coal miners, and the legacy of mission schools. Black humour and satire fill the collection, illuminating a fierce determination to survive and resist colonization and the endurance of culture and identity under extreme duress."
2013,
Canada,
English,
Gwen Benaway,
Original title: "Valide" (Valid) by Chris Bergeron.
"Although it is described as an autobiographical science fiction novel, the context it offers is not that far removed from our current world. We project ourselves 30 years into the future, in a world governed by the artificial intelligence Total David. Human beings are then confined and are only allowed a few hours of going out a day. "This feeling of living in a bubble that is in the novel, and that came before the pandemic, is for many trans women what they experience on a daily basis. Valide is a sci-fi and sci-fi novel, but it's also an allegory of today. What I tried to describe was this isolation, this feeling that maybe society isn't built for me.""
"This novel is also an opportunity to show a very dark future for the LGBT community and especially trans people. Indeed, in the story, in order to adapt to this new regime dominated by artificial intelligence, the heroine Christelle is forced to become Christian again. And to erase all traces of his past. This echoes a reality experienced on a daily basis by transgender people, which is the fear of not being accepted by our society. That of losing their job if they decide to transition. That of no longer existing within society."
2021,
Canada,
Chris Bergeron,
French,
Original title: "Les secrets de l'origami" (The Secrets of Origami) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay.
"Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay's second book hardly addresses trans identity, but unabashedly explores the dysfunctional relationships and disillusionment of a woman who claims to be in love with everyone. "I'm a passionate person who doesn't do things by halves, like the movie I starred in. I often get ideas about a relationship that's just been born, like a pre-origami blank page, before realizing it's not working.""
"Heartbroken by disappointment, she uses words to examine her scars, forced to admit that many of her injuries were caused by people's inability to endure intimacy for more than one night. "I often wonder if it's my fault, if it's because I'm trans or too intense, not enough this or that. I quickly become intimate with people. I allow myself to be vulnerable with someone I barely know. This is how I can live my truth. But sometimes, it scares some people...""
2018,
Canada,
French,
Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay,
Gabrielle Tremblay,
Full title: "The Trans Biography Project: Stories from the Lives of Eleven Trans People in BC" by Kathleen Cross.
"The purpose of this collection is to educate the broader community about the experiences, needs and situations of trans people. It features a brief biography of each person, using their words as much as possible to tell their stories, share their experiences, and articulate the issues that are relevant to them as a trans, transgendered or transsexual person (a note about language usage is below). These stories are an attempt to put a “human face” on the issues of trans people and to break down stereotypes. It is our hope that this collection may, in some small way, assist in making the voices of trans people better heard and, perhaps, more understood."
2001,
Aiyyana Maracle,
Canada,
Dannis Bragas,
English,
Kathleen Cross,
Kimberly Nixon,
Full title: "Thanks for Coming Out" by Cindy Rivers.
"Cindy Rivers, a proud, Canadian comedian, and transgender woman that came out at age 30. From the beginning of growing up in Newfoundland to coming out in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and all of her success and fail along the way."
In her 2021 interview for Global News, she said: "“After some time in the hospital and dealing with some things, I started to come out”.
The first person she came out to was her then-wife.
“That was interesting. We didn’t really tell anybody else for a little while… a couple months.
“We couldn’t really figure it out so we split up and I slowly started to tell everybody else. I came out at work and to my parents.”"
2022,
Canada,
Cindy Rivers,
English,
Full title: "Rowan Jette Knox: The Transition" by Claire Temp.
"This book is a captivating and inspiring account of Amanda Jetté Knox, a Canadian writer, author, and human rights advocate who shares her family’s story of thriving in a transgender family. In this book, you will learn how Amanda Jetté Knox discovered that their spouse of over 20 years was transgender and wanted to live as a woman, and how they reacted with love and acceptance.
You will also learn how their eldest child came out as non-binary and how they supported her with respect and understanding. You will witness the challenges and opportunities that Amanda Jetté Knox and their family faced as they came out to their other children, their relatives, their friends, and the world.
But this biography is not only about Amanda Jetté Knox’s family; it is also about Amanda Jetté Knox’s own journey of self-discovery, healing, growth, and love.
2023,
Canada,
Claire Temp,
English,
Full title: "Hi There! I'm the New Girl In Town" by Miss Jayee Chapman.
"Forty-Four Years. That's how long it took Jayee to start questioning if she was really who she wanted to be, who she was meant to be.
Coming to this realization wasn't easy for Jayee, and neither was her transition from male to female. She was overwhelmed with information, unsure about opening up to anyone, and frightened, though excited, about what the future would hold. But the real trouble began when she started hormone replacement therapy.
She could no longer hide her true self from her loved ones, which led to lost relationships. And even when she came out to those she loved, she still had to hide her true identity from her abusive, judgmental roommate.
Despite these challenges, Jayee grew into a strong, independent woman with a wonderful support system, love for herself, and a dream of sharing her story with the friends, family, and bullies of people like her."
2023,
Canada,
English,
Miss Jayee Chapman,
Full title: "Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls" by Kai Cheng Thom.
"Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.
But then Kai Cheng found herself in a crisis of faith, overwhelmed by the viciousness with which people treated one another, and barely clinging to the values and ideals she’d built her life around: justice, hope, love, and healing. Rather than succumb to despair and cynicism, she gathered all her rage and grief and took one last leap of faith: she wrote. Whether prayers or spells or poems—and whether there’s a difference—she wrote to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin. She wrote to flawed but nonetheless lovable men, to people with good intentions who harm their own, to racists and transphobes seemingly beyond saving. What emerged was a blueprint for falling back in love with being human."
2023,
Canada,
English,
Kai Cheng Thom,
