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.
Original title: "Bangkok Ladyboys" by Henrik List.
"In this unique book, the author Henrik List and photographer Anders Askegaard travel from the 'heterosexual matrix' and out of the closet, across the boundaries of prejudice and through the mirror to a Bangkok at the beginning of the 21st century, where nothing is what it appears to be - not even many of the "girls" in the city's nightlife and red light districts.
A raw, poetic and reflected portrayal in text and images of Thailand's "third sex" - an essay about and 48 pages of color photographs of these so-called ladyboys."
2006,
Danish,
Henrik List,
Thailand,
Original title: "Kønsskifte: juridisk set" (Gender reassignment: legally speaking) by Marianne Holdgaard and Bettina Lemann Kristiansen.
"Gender reassignment poses particular legal problems. Based on extensive case material, the book deals in particular with administrative law and human rights issues related to legal regulation and practice in connection with gender reassignment. A distinction is made between the physical and the legal gender change (permission to change the first name and social security number).
The legal basis for gender reassignment and its use is related to general societal developments, including the increased acceptance of and knowledge about transsexuality and its treatment – both in the healthcare system and in the population. The area of justice is at a crossroads between overriding social considerations and fundamental considerations of the integrity, freedom, and autonomy of the individual. On the basis of legal policy considerations, it is argued for a change in the legal situation."
2004,
Bettina Lemann Kristiansen,
Danish,
Marianne Holdgaard,
Original title: "Paradiset er ikke til salg: Trangen til at være begge køn" (Paradise is not for sale: The urge to be both sexes) by Preben Hertoft and Teit Ritzau.
"The book sheds light on the concept of gender identity as reflected by transvestites and transsexuals, and attempts to demystify these concepts by means of a series of 'case stories' about how it has really happened to people who have had sex reassignment surgery – among them the famous Christine Jørgensen and Lili Elbe. Preben Hertoft was for many years the head of the Department of Sexology. Teit Ritzau is a doctor and film director."
1984,
Christine Jorgensen,
Danish,
Lili Elbe,
Preben Hertoft,
Teit Ritzau,
Original title: "Det Stof Drømme er Gjort af: En bog om transvestitter og kønsroller" (The Drug Dreams Are Made By: A Book About Transvestites and Gender Roles) by Lisbeth Holten.
"Photographic portrait collection consisting of black and white photographs of transgender women. For the most part, their maiden names are listed and for some of them, there is an accompanying text about them.
There are portraits of: Lise, Otte and Susanne, who are married and trans men and trans women, respectively. Susanne, Michelle Fridan. Hanne and wife Sonja. Anette and wife Kettyn Lisen, Lena, Vibeke, Laila, adorning the cover photo. Majorie. Monica. Cecilie. Karin. Conny. Jenny. Iben. Gitte. Marianna. Elsebeth. Alice. Gitte. Sally. Fanny.
Common to all of them is that they were members of the association FPE-NE."
1992,
Danish,
Lisbeth Holten,
Original title: "Kærlighedshistorier" (Love stories) by Maria Helleberg.
"The book contains 11 love stories. The fourth love story "The Gender" from page 66 to page 88 deals with the couple Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe. Our perception of love is based on history. Over time, a large number of love couples have played a major role in forming the myth on which we today base our perception of love. The love stories serve as a kind of role models or templates for us today.
Maria Helleberg takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining trip back in time and along the way gives her personal interpretation of a number of love stories from Saxo's legends over the Golden Age and up to modern times. Along the way, we hear about Signe and Hagbard, Liden Kirsten and Buris, Elsebe Gyldenstjerne and Stygge Krumpen, Marie Grubbe and Søren Møller, Caroline Mathilde and Struensee, Juliane Marie Ottesen and Nicolai Abildgaard, Regine Olsen and Søren Kierkegaard, Countess Danner and Frederik the Seventh, Elvira Madigan and Sixten Sparre, Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, Helle Virkner and Jens Otto Krag, Tove Ditlevsen and Victor Andreasen. We have all learned from the characters in this book. Love exists and blossoms – and may fade."
2012,
Danish,
Lili Elbe,
Maria Helleberg,
Original title: "At Performe Transkønnet Vrede" (Performing transgender anger) by Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas.
""Performing transgender anger" is Gry Stokkendahl Dalga's polyphonic, furious, and political call for better conditions for transgender people. Poetry, translations, essays, and fanfiction are intertwined in Gry Stokkendahl Dalga's work."
""Performing transgender anger", which with tenderness, indignation, and rage, cries out about the conditions and position of transgender people in society. Through the inclusion of references to other works, science, and a wide range of transgender people, the book portrays society's neglect of a large and vulnerable population while pointing the way to a better future."
2022,
Danish,
Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas,
Original title: "At blive et helt menneske: Om mit liv og min lange rejse mod erkendelsen" (To become a whole person: About my life and my long journey towards realization) by Malene Andreasen.
"The author, Malene Andreasen writes about her autobiography: I have made a decision to change my life, do away with the feeling of being ashamed of myself. It is not an easy process, everything that we people with our gender do not think about, but take for granted, must be done away with. The shame and thus actually less self-esteem for not having the standpoint that others have and act on. Every corner in me must be turned and every corner must be accepted as the woman I am. It's actually a pretty tough process that requires courage. I have a DUTY to make the most of my life. I have the RIGHT to be greeted for who I am."
2015,
Danish,
Malene Andreasen,
Original title: "Transformation" (Transformation) by Heidi Sinnet.
"The book Transformation is a photo book that depicts life as a trans person. A friend whom I had known for many years came over one day and asked me if I wanted to photograph him as a woman. I was a bit surprised, as I didn't know that side of him, but of course I agreed to the photo assignment. It dawned on me how little I knew about being transgender.
At the same time, I found it fascinating to see the transformation that had taken place, from man to woman. My ignorance and curiosity made me want to investigate the subject further, and focus on it - because perhaps many others had the same ignorance and curiosity as me? I have photographed the participants in the book, interviewed them and written their personal stories. They have enlightened and inspired me, and I hope that with this book, I can enlighten and inspire you. As Sara Skaarup writes in the foreword: May the beautiful pictures and personal accounts open many eyes and hearts. Male, female, a bit of each, both or alternately, maybe it's not that decisive. There is so much room for all of us."
2021,
Danish,
Heidi Sinnet,
Original title: "Når Sjælen Brænder: En guide for transkønnede" (When the Soul Burns: A Guide for Transgender People) by Michelle Klæstrup.
For many years, Michelle Klæstrup struggled with anxiety, low self-esteem, and lack of self-confidence, fighting for her surroundings to perceive her as normal and completely ordinary. She did not dare to tell and involve others in the many terrible problems that were part of her daily life during these many years.
Today, she has freed herself from most of her demons, and now shares with readers her many years of experience.
This publication touches on the topics of gender identity, sexuality, and not least, psychological and physical influences.
2015,
Danish,
Michelle Klæstrup,
"Ferskvand" is the Danish language edition of "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi.
I liked Gina Maya's review a lot, so let me quote her: "Transgender narrative this may be, but it's far removed from Western, U.S.-based definitions in spite of its primary location in the U.S. The story follows the young life of Ada, a Nigerian child who travels to America to study, but her whole life involves psychical interaction with the indigenous spirits who vie for control of her. Is Ada Ogbanje too?
By the end, she appears to embrace this self-conception as an offspring of the Universal Creator Ala, visualized as cosmic python – the source of the spring from which all freshwater comes from its mouth. Yet Ada for almost the novel's entirety is also the human, engaged in an uneasy relationship with otherworldly spirits who inhabit her mind, visualized in turn as a room of marble, perhaps not unlike the Kaaba of Mecca. The most powerful, possessive, and controlling of the spirits is Asughara, occasionally presented as Ada's pernicious alpha. At times, Asughara blocks out Ada from consciousness, either to protect or punish Ada."
2021,
Akwaeke Emezi,
Danish,
Nigeria,
Original title: "Ned til kvinderne: da Per blev til Pia" (Down to the woman – when Per became Pia).
'Authentic story of a transgender man who, at the age of fifty, burned all the bridges behind him and underwent gender reassignment surgery and became Pia-Britt Ruberg. It was the first step to social descent – from a solid job, a good career, and marriage – to the world of women.
However, the transformation from Per to Pia was much more complicated than expected. At the request of Pia, Hanne-Vibeke Holst has written the story of the painful secret, the double identity, and the ultimate transformation based on interviews with Pia, her father, and relatives.'
2000,
Danish,
Hanne Vibeke Holst,
Pia-Britt Ruberg,
Original title: "Før min mand forsvinder" (Before my husband disappears) is the Danish language edition of "Ennen kuin mieheni katoaa" by Selja Ahava, a Finnish author.
I found this fantastic review: "You may be a woman, but does it need to be seen?"
This is how the Finnish writer Selja Ahava has written in her autofiction novel, where she has written down her thoughts and feelings during the period when her husband suddenly exclaims one day after 10 years of marriage that he has always wanted to be a woman.
Selja Ahava has written her thoughts exactly as they have appeared in her head, and we follow the process from when her husband says it at the kitchen table, until they have to sign the divorce papers, and she has to get used to calling her husband, who has had breast surgery, wears makeup and handbags, changed her social security number and now goes by the name Lili.
2019,
Danish,
Selja Ahava,
Original title: "Det gyldne menneske" (The Golden Man) bt Regitze Falk.
"Under the name Regitze Falk, Toni Mygdal-Meyer wrote the book about what it was like at the age of 40 to openly step out into the world as a transvestite and about living an everyday life as a lesbian husband with a wife and daughter.
Regitze Falk steps out into the world – fully clothed and with perfect make-up – at forty-some. Until then, she wore only men's clothing and a male name. She is married and the father of a daughter and feels good about it.
Her book about this late birth is a step-by-step, almost day-by-day description of what it's like to come out of the closet as a transvestite.
The first trip to the city in big scrub, the first coming out to family, friends, and acquaintances. The first run gauntlet – on high unsafe heels – between truck drivers on the Storebælt ferry. All the many different wild and mad episodes, the misunderstandings, the comedy and the good surprises. Perhaps especially the latter, because Regitze Falk's book is neither fierce defense nor attack.
1994,
Danish,
Regitze Falk,
Original title: "I samfundets sprækker: studier i upassende sociologi II" ( In the Cracks
of Society – Studies in Inappropriate Sociology II).
The book covers interviews with several transgender women – conducted in March 2005, presenting a wide range of human destinies, incidents, and strange experiences that one is usually not aware of. It shows people who, due to a different way of life or self-understanding, find themselves in the shadows, outskirts, or cracks of the 'normality' world.
The publication presents a wide range of micro-sociological and micro-ecological studies of life forms, localities, and people who are on the margins of society or who, in their daily lives, must seek to deal with their otherness through a variety of strategies or practices. We meet call girls, infantilists, prison inmates, far-right sympathizers, vagabonds, death workers, transgender women, and porn stars. All the chapters focus on identity and interaction and their methodologically qualitative and exploratory research angle.
2007,
Danish,
Michael Hviid Jacobsen,
Original title: "Det er herfra jeg vil begynde at tale, disse ord kan finde vej" (It is from here that I will start talking, these words can find their way) by Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas.
Gry Stokkendahl Dalga's debut moves between several types of text in this small work, which contains great emotions. The work is at once a poem and a diary, it is personal and political, and it contains hope and anxiety, expectations and fears. First of all, it is a story about a young trans woman's thoughts and feelings during a period of her life when she is waiting for her first interview at the sexology clinic. She is in a waiting position on her way to becoming herself. She is a woman trapped in a man's skeleton, as she herself writes it.
Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas is a Danish author, poet, and writing teacher. She was born in 1990 in Silkeborg and graduated from the Talent School's Writing Program in 2019. She is known for her works that explore themes of transgender identity, anger, hope, and finding peace with one's body. She has published three books: "Det er herfra jeg vil begynde at tale, disse ord kan finde vej" (2019), "Kudan; eller Kalven" (2020), and "At performe transkønnet vrede" (2020). She has won several literary awards, including the Munch-Christensen Debutant Prize and the Poetry Prize. She currently lives and teaches in Aarhus.
2019,
Danish,
Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas,
Original title: "Alter ego" (Alter ego)
When Kaare Scheuer Pedersen was born in 1935, his mother wanted a girl. Therefore, she dressed and raised her son as a girl. She let him know that the doctors could easily fulfill his dream of being transformed into the girl he was inside as soon as he turned 18. But that was not the reality, and for almost a lifetime Kaare Scheuer Pedersen has lived in prosperity and adversity with her female alter ego.
Alter Ego is a brave, incredible, and horizon-expanding account of the lifelong work of coming to terms with one's destiny and one's gender.
2010,
Danish,
Kaare Scheuer Pedersen,
Original title: "Rejsen mod Bente: kønsskifteoperationen i Casablanca" (The journey towards Bente: the gender reassignment surgery in Casablanca). The book was published in 2001 and republished in 2018.
This book is the deeply personal story of Bent Nimb, who embarked on a life-changing journey. In 1982, Bent Nimb was on her way from Copenhagen to Casablanca to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Years of hormone treatments at Rigshospitalet with many refusals of surgery from dozens of doctors, psychiatrists, sexologists, and the medical examiner's office had preceded the surgery.
But Bent Nimb could not wait any longer and took matters into her own hands.
2001,
2018,
Bente Nimb,
Danish,
Georges Burou,
Full title: "Ham og mig: født som dreng, genfødt som kvinde" (Him and me: born as a boy, reborn as a woman) by Maria Haaning.
At only 18 years old, Maria Haaning became the youngest Dane ever to undergo gender reassignment surgery to fulfill her lifelong dream of living in the body she should have been born in. The road to the operation was long and twice cost Maria her life. But today she lives as the woman she has felt she is all her life.
In the book, Maria gives an honest insight into what it is like to live as a freak and be an outcast of her school class, her family, and the society around her. At the same time, Mary gives her recipe for how to get through such a hell of self-hatred, beatings, degradation, and loneliness. Maria vividly tells how she herself literally put down her old self and began a new life as a new person – a person she has gone through fire and water to be transformed into.
2012,
Danish,
Maria Haaning,
Original title: "Mine Digte" (My Poems).
In her poems, Cecillia Mundts gives powerful and poignant testimony to living as a transgender woman. Changing gender identity is, by its very nature, a huge personal upheaval, but on top of that comes the reaction of the outside world.
It is often prejudiced and relentless, and Cecillia also had to learn that it is not always only harsh words. When she took to the streets one day in 2013, she was knocked down with a hammer and her life changed once again.
The poems are aimed not only at poetry lovers, but also people who want to get an insight into the problem of what gender identity really is. At a time when we are experiencing a significant increase in hate crimes, the book can also be used as a discussion paper in primary and secondary schools, and other educational similar places.
2014,
Cecillia Mundt,
Danish,
Original title: "Fra bondeknøs til piskedronning" (From peasant girl to whip queen)
The book follows her from her peaceful childhood as a kid in Ebeltoft to the years as the country's absolute sadist queen, where she spanks in her own brothel in Vesterbro and acts as a whip-wielding stripper in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.
The pictorial biography is a fast-paced tale of innocence, love, violence, sex, and money with a distinctive character in the lead role, who describes herself as a woman at the top and a man at the bottom.
2014,
Danish,
Sandra Day,
