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: "Es ist nie zu Spät: Transition" (It's never too late: Transition) by Marie-Luisa Quolke.
Marie-Luisa Quolke’s book Es ist nie zu spät: Transition (It’s Never Too Late: Transition) is more than a memoir. It is a declaration of courage, truth, and hard-won freedom. Born in Berlin in 1960, Marie-Luisa entered the world as a boy, though deep inside she knew from an early age that something was profoundly out of place. Her story is not one of sudden realization, but of decades spent in silence, misunderstanding, and quiet endurance. For nearly fifty years, she lived in a body that did not reflect her soul, following the path expected of her, while suppressing the woman within. It took her a lifetime to claim her identity, and in doing so, she proved that authenticity has no expiration date.
The book offers an intimate account of what it means to live with this deep internal dissonance, and how society’s unpreparedness can compound that pain. Growing up in a time when being transgender was barely understood, Marie-Luisa had no words to describe what she was feeling. Like many of her generation, she carried her secret into adulthood, shaping her life around the expectations of others rather than the truth of her own heart. Her writing captures this tension vividly, allowing readers to feel the weight of those lost years. Yet the book is not a lament. It is a triumphal act of self-expression, a testimony that it is never too late to step into one’s true self, no matter how long the journey has been.
2023,
German,
Germany,
Marie-Luisa Quolke,
Original title: "Meine zwei Leben: Als Junge geboren – als Frau im Bundestag" (My two lives: Born a boy – as a woman in the Bundestag) by Valerie Wilms.
Valerie Wilms’ book Meine zwei Leben: Als Junge geboren – als Frau im Bundestag (My Two Lives: Born a Boy – as a Woman in the Bundestag) is both a personal memoir and a political statement that challenges the direction of modern gender politics in Germany. Written with striking candor, it is the first time that Wilms, a former member of the Bundestag, publicly shares her life story and her experience as a transgender woman in politics. More than a simple autobiography, the book raises difficult questions about identity, authenticity, and the balance between personal freedom and social responsibility.
Born in 1954 in Hannover as Volker Wilms, Valerie Wilms built a distinguished career long before entering politics. She studied mechanical engineering at the University of Hannover and earned her doctorate in engineering from the University of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg. Her professional path was firmly rooted in technical expertise rather than activism. She worked in design engineering and later as a technical inspector for the railway industry before becoming a lecturer at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences. This solid technical background formed the foundation of her political career, which began when she joined the Green Party in 2005.
2025,
German,
Germany,
Valerie Wilms,
Original title: "Rollenangst - Meine Biografie: Alles ist möglich, solange es fast unmöglich ist!" (Role anxiety - My biography: Everything is possible as long as it is almost impossible!) by Sarah Marie Schäfer.
In the book, Sarah Marie Schäfer shares her powerful journey of self-discovery as a transgender and intersex woman. Over 21 years, she struggled with her identity, mental health challenges, and physical health issues, including a muscle nerve disease, epilepsy, and autism. Despite these obstacles, Sarah’s determination and resilience helped her reclaim her true self, culminating in gender-affirming surgery and newfound happiness.
The book reflects her journey of overcoming adversity, including conflicts with her family, police encounters, and a panic disorder.
2025,
German,
Germany,
Sarah Marie Schäfer,
Original title: "Julie auf dem Besenstiel: Gottes Schöfungsunordnung" (Julie on the broomstick: God's disorder of creation) by Julie-Ann Sue Munday.
"Suicide?
How can someone who believes in God have suicidal thoughts? How can a child want to jump headlong from a tree? How can someone like that still make it into Lufthansa's management?
Gender dysphoria! What is that? If the anatomy does not fit the soul!
Julie Munday, loved by her parents, basically had a carefree childhood. However, due to a birth defect and growing up in a sect, she was forced to live a life and a way of thinking that others dictated to her and that gradually broke her. Despite everything, she was successful, traveled all over the world and was exceptionally athletic.
2023,
German,
Germany,
Julie-Ann Sue Munday,
Original title: "Angebliche Huren: Prostitutionskoketterie in zeitgenössischen Drag-Performances" (Alleged whores: Prostitution Coquetry in Contemporary Drag Performances) by Daniel Inäbnit.
In many contemporary drag performances, an extremely subversive, sex-positive, but also euphemistic handling of vestimentary and linguistic signs that move in the field of associations of prostitution is striking. The study explores the question of how and why drag performers often make references to sex work in this way and stage them accordingly.
Linked to this is the question of how drag performances can currently be defined at all and which established theatre science concepts can prove productive for such a description.
2023,
Daniel Inäbnit,
Drag queen,
German,
Germany,
Original title: "Charlotte Charlaque. Transfrau, Laienschauspielerin. Königin der Brooklyn Heights Promenade" (Charlotte Charlaque: Trans woman, amateur actress. Queen of Brooklyn Heights Promenade) by Raimund Wolfert.
The life of the German-American Charlotte Charlaque (1892–1963) crosses the Atlantic several times – from Schönberg to Berlin, San Francisco and Prague to New York. As a Jew, Charlaque left Nazi Germany in 1934. Eight years later, she made the life-saving "leap" to the USA. In New York, she became a dazzling celebrity as the uncrowned queen of the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. She now liked to call herself Charlotte von Curtius. But what not even her closest friends knew was that her new surname was an allusion to her old birth name. Because when Charlotte Charlaque was born, her parents assumed she was a boy and gave her the name Curt ... And she was not the only one.
2021,
Charlotte Charlaque,
German,
Germany,
Magnus Hirschfeld,
Ragnar Ahlstedt,
Raimund Wolfert,
Toni Ebel,
Original title: "Mit allem, was ich bin: Mein Leben" (With Everything I Am: My Life)
'Born as a man, a star as a woman: the most candid autobiography of the year. Already at the age of five, Gloria Gray knew that she was born in the wrong body.
In her autobiography, she sensitively and disarmingly candidly describes her path from the little boy who was teased and humiliated to the successful artist and mysterious entertainer of show business.
She relied entirely on her inner knowledge and, through various operations and hormone treatments, also externally became the woman she has always been inside.'
2009,
German,
Germany,
Gloria Gray,
Original title: "Grenzübertritt: Eine Suche nach geschlechtlicher Identität" (Crossing Borders: A Search for Gender Identity) by Renate Anders.
This sensitive and accurate account gives an account of the life of a young person who comes into conflict with her biologically masculine identity at an early age. She describes in detail the desperate attempts to adapt, to submit to the gender role imposed on her, her failure, and the radical step into a new identity as a woman.
Again and again, the understanding of roles and the norms of the sexes are reflected, and the subjective experience takes a position on the socialization and self-understanding of both men and women. After all, it is a matter of countering society's demands against the individual with the right of the individual to self-determination.
1984,
German,
Germany,
Renate Anders,
Original title: "Der Fluch: Mein Leben mit der Transsexualität. Ein Report von Jenseits der Straße." (The curse: My life with transsexuality. A report from Jenseits der Straße)
"Katrin Lindemann is very lady: the hairstyle fits, a strong red adorns the full lips, the eye shadow emphasizes the dark eyes, the yellow top contrasts with the black hair. Only the slightly deeper voice and the firm pressure of the strong hands give an idea of what the dark-haired woman has complained about throughout her life: Katrin Lindemann is transsexual, she was a man – before.
Bad Schwartau – After a long period of suffering, the 54-year-old has finally mastered the sex change that she prefers to call reassignment – from man to woman, as she has always felt. In a process lasting many years, which was very difficult and painful for her, her wish came true: the boy Reiner Lindemann, born in 1948 in Frankfurt/Oder, who was married twice and fathered two children with his wives, finally became Katrin. The individual that she always wanted to be, »that I had to be«, as Katrin asserts."
2003,
German,
Germany,
Katrin Lindemann,
Original title: "Fluch der Geburt: Mein Leben mit der Transsexualität" (Curse of birth - My life with transsexuality) by Katrin Lindemann.
On August 9, 2002, Katrin Lindemann began to write down her story, her life. A life with ups and downs. A life in which the intolerance of many people became a constant companion, but also a life that Katrin Lindemann didn't let get down.
Born Reiner Lindemann in 1948, she felt "something was wrong" early on, but there was still a long way to go before she finally changed her gender in 1992. This autobiography describes what often seemed like a "curse of birth". Without writing in a gimmicky or striking way, she tells of her life with transsexuality and thus provides deep insight, not only into her thoughts but also into our society.
2006,
German,
Germany,
Katrin Lindemann,
Original title: "45 Jahre im falschen Körper leben" (Living in the wrong body for 45 years)
'This book shows the often arduous path of a person who eventually realizes that she was born into the wrong body. Although she is tormented by self-doubt and encounters hostility and incomprehension from her own family and the environment, the author persistently pursues her goal: being diagnosed as a transgender woman and the man-to-woman transition.
She would like to encourage all interested parties to deal with the topic and, if necessary, to go this way, as it is worthwhile to comprehend it even with the greatest difficulty.'
2002,
German,
Germany,
Michelle Engelke,
Original title: "Die transzendierte Frau: Eine Autobiografie" (The Transcended Woman: An Autobiography)
'I'm sixty-seven and staring in the mirror. Thence reality stares back at me. I am Transsexual. I was born as a male and now live my life as something else. Forty years ago I underwent an operation in Casablanca, which consisted of making my male body a female one – and made me from a heterosexual man into a lesbian woman.
Out of love, Jean Lessenich decided twelve years after her sex change, to live as a man again. This seemed to her to be the only way to give her Japanese partner permanent residence in Germany. Today fifteen years after her death, she lives again as a lesbian wife.
Beyond all clichés, this autobiography shows us that life as a transsexual is not a Hollywood movie. It does not promise women's happiness after appropriate surgery, but shows, that it is worthwhile to go your own way.'
2012,
German,
Germany,
Jean Lessenich,
Original title: "Mein Weg zu mir: Aus dem Leben einer Transfrau" (My Way to Me: From the Life of a Trans Woman) by Patti-Saoirse Steininger.
Patti-Saoirse, YouTuber, tells her way as a trans woman, from an appointment with the therapist to gender reassignment surgery.
Patti-Saoirse (born July 28, 1996, in Cologne) is a German transgender activist and influencer. She reached the TOP40 at Miss Germany 21/22. At the age of 17, Patti-Saoirse started her YouTube channel in 2014, where she deals with trans* topics and "self-love". In addition, she started an Instagram and later a TikTok account with the same topics. She was featured in many German projects and publications: "Transgender: Pattis geschlechtsangleichende Operation" (2018), "Meine neue Vagina! – Patti nach der Transgender-OP" (2018), "Dumm gefragt" (2018), "Vagina" (2019).
2019,
German,
Germany,
Patti-Saoirse Steininger,
