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.
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,
Full title: "Being Ellen: A Second Chance at Life" by Ellen Krug.
How often does anyone get a second chance at life? For most people, life is a continuous journey with only one opportunity to become the person they are meant to be. Ellen Krug, known to friends and readers as Ellie, experienced that rare and extraordinary gift. After living fifty-two years presenting as a man who often prioritized career and societal expectations over personal authenticity, she embraced her true self and transitioned into the woman she had always known herself to be. Being Ellen: A Second Chance at Life is a deeply intimate and inspiring account of that transformation, detailing the challenges, triumphs, and profound lessons Ellie encountered along the way.
In Being Ellen, Ellie reflects on her journey with honesty, humor, and courage. She chronicles the moments of uncertainty and fear, as well as the joy of finally inhabiting her authentic self. Transitioning later in life brought unique challenges, from learning the subtleties of womanhood to navigating relationships that had been formed under her former identity. Ellie emphasizes the importance of chosen family, particularly her enduring friendship with Thap, a bond formed in eighth grade that remained a source of unwavering support throughout her life. Through these relationships, she discovered that love and allyship often appear in unexpected forms and that the people who truly matter will walk with you even when everything else changes.
2025,
Ellen Krug,
English,
Interview,
USA,
Full title: "Debbie's Secret Life: The Transgender Experience" by Deborah Ballard.
Deborah Ballard’s Debbie’s Secret Life: The Transgender Experience is not just the story of one girl forced to live in hiding, it is a deeply human account of what it means to carry a truth so profound and yet so dangerous that it must be concealed at all costs. At its heart lies Debbie, a girl with a secret. To the outside world she appears to be a boy. Even her parents are uncertain about her identity, and she quickly learns that revealing the truth could bring consequences so severe that they might cost her everything, even her life. In this world of silence and fear, the question becomes whether she will ever find the strength and freedom to be herself, or whether her struggle will become a catalyst for changing the way the world sees transgender people.
The book weaves together personal testimony, raw emotion, and social critique, offering a voice to the millions of transgender children and adults who have had to live in the shadows. Debbie’s story is not one of fantasy or invention. It comes from the lived experience of Deborah Ballard, an American IT architect consultant, writer, and activist whose own life has been marked by both extraordinary professional accomplishments and the often-painful realities of growing up transgender in a world that did not understand or accept her. She was one of the early pioneers in the commercialization of the Internet during the 1990s, helped advance Linux and Open Source technology in the following decade, and played a key role in globalization initiatives that reshaped international business. Yet behind those achievements was the secret life of a girl who knew her identity from the age of two but was forced to conceal it.
2012,
Debbie Ballard,
Deborah Ballard,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "Dance Naked with God" by Barbara Marie Minney.
Barbara Marie Minney’s Dance Naked with God is a collection that challenges readers to immerse themselves in the raw, multi-layered rhythms of human emotion. The work unfolds in language that is emotionally fractured yet intricate, each poem resonating with intensity and vulnerability. Partway through, Barbara poses the question, “How do poets love?” and in doing so, she invites readers to consider love not as a simple, singular experience but as a force that is complicated, all-encompassing, and profoundly human.
Her poems teem with imagery that overlaps and interlocks like scales, creating a shimmering, chameleon-like effect that captures the kaleidoscope of introspection, desire, and spiritual seeking. By the final poem, the reader is left with a sense of renewal, an awareness that passion, grief, and joy can coexist in the same space, transforming the self in subtle yet profound ways. These poems do not offer a neat answer to the question of how poets love, but they illuminate the depth and ferocity of poetic devotion, the ways it can challenge and expand one’s understanding of intimacy, identity, and faith. Reading the collection, I found myself transported into moments of ecstatic reflection and quiet revelation, feeling the liveliness of my own resurrection mirrored in Barbara’s words.
2023,
Barbara Marie Minney,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening" by Nia Chiaramonte.
In her memoir I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening, Nia Chiaramonte offers an intimate portrait of transition that is striking for its immediacy. Rather than narrating her journey from the safe distance of hindsight, she writes from within the unfolding moments themselves, therapy sessions, late-night reflections, family conversations, and the uncertain but luminous steps toward authenticity. The result is a profoundly human book that refuses simplification, capturing the painful, messy, and beautiful process of becoming oneself.
The title itself, I Hardly Knew Me, conveys the heart of Chiaramonte’s story: years of hiding, even from herself. “I used to be so hidden that even I couldn’t see who I was,” she writes, a confession that resonates deeply with anyone who has lived in silence or fear. That silence eventually breaks, sometimes quietly, sometimes with shattering force, in moments like posting her truth online, enduring the echo of responses and silences, and sharing vulnerable conversations with her wife Katie and their children. Through it all, Nia’s voice is both tender and unflinching, guiding readers through her discovery that authenticity is not only possible but necessary for survival.
2025,
English,
Interview,
Nia Chiaramonte,
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,
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: "Zápisky z tranzice" (Notes from Transition) by Daniela Špinar.
In Zápisky z tranzice, acclaimed Czech theatre director Daniela Špinar opens her private journal to the public, and with it, her soul. This deeply personal book chronicles a three-year journey of gender transition, capturing the physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation of one of the Czech Republic’s most celebrated theatre artists. What emerges is a raw, courageous, and moving reflection on identity, love, and resilience. Daniela Špinar’s career has long been defined by boldness.
A graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, she quickly rose through the theatrical ranks, staging acclaimed productions in regional and Prague theatres. Her rendition of Vojcek at the Theatre in Vinohrady became a landmark moment, and she later collaborated with the avant-garde company Letí. Her artistic achievements culminated in her appointment as Artistic Director of the National Theatre Drama in 2015, the fourth person to hold the post after the Velvet Revolution. There, she not only directed classic works but also authored her own dramatizations and innovative text collages. Yet Zápisky z tranzice reveals a different kind of bravery, more intimate and vulnerable than anything onstage. In October 2021, at the age of 42, Daniela experienced a profound realization: she was a woman. What followed was a turbulent period of self-discovery, public coming-out, and transition.
2025,
Czech,
Daniela Špinar,
Interview,
Full title: "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy Seal's Journey to Coming Out Transgender" by Kristin Beck and Anne Speckhard.
Kristin Beck’s Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming Out Transgender, co-authored with Anne Speckhard, is a raw and deeply personal memoir that provides a rare glimpse into the life of a highly decorated Navy SEAL navigating the complexities of gender identity. The book is both an account of Beck’s distinguished military career and an exploration of the emotional and psychological turmoil she faced before embracing her true self.
Beck’s military experiences, spanning 20 years and 13 deployments, including service with the elite SEAL Team Six, make for gripping reading. She recounts intense combat situations and the unwavering camaraderie among soldiers, but beneath the valor and discipline, she harbored a profound sense of dissonance. The memoir does not shy away from detailing the pressures of hypermasculinity within the military, an environment that often left Beck feeling alienated. Her transition was not just a personal journey but a public statement that challenged deeply ingrained perceptions of gender in one of the most traditionally masculine institutions.
2013,
English,
Interview,
Kristin Beck,
USA,
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: "Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge" by Barbara Marie Minney.
Barbara Marie Minney’s Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge is a remarkable testament to the power of poetry as a vehicle for personal truth, identity, and resilience. As the second poetry collection by this award-winning Appalachian poet, writer, and activist, this chapbook continues to build on the rich foundation established in her debut If There’s No Heaven, which itself won the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and was recognized as an Akron Beacon Journal Best Northeast Ohio Book.
Barbara Marie Minney is a native of West Virginia and a proud seventh-generation Appalachian. She brings to her work a unique perspective shaped by her heritage, her lived experience as a transgender woman, and her lifelong dedication to both craft and advocacy.
This intersectional identity imbues her poetry with a rare authenticity and courage, creating works that resonate deeply with readers across diverse communities.
The Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge is aptly named, as it challenges both the author and her readers to engage with poetry not just as a literary form, but as a means of memoir, capturing the intimate, complex, and sometimes painful experiences that define a life. The collection feels like a heartfelt conversation, revealing Barbara’s ongoing journey with identity, love, loss, and the search for belonging.
2021,
Barbara Marie Minney,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "Ella era yo: Memorias de mi transición" (She was me: Memories of my transition) is the Spanish language edition of "I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition" by Lucy Sante.
"An iconic writer's lapidary memoir of a life spent pursuing a dream of artistic truth while evading the truth of her own gender identity, until, finally, she turned to face who she really was For a long time, Lucy Sante felt unsure of her place.
Born in Belgium, the only child of conservative working-class Catholic parents who transplanted their little family to the United States, she felt at home only when she moved to New York City in the early 1970s and found her people among a band of fellow bohemians. Some would die young, to drugs and AIDS, and some would become jarringly famous. Sante flirted with both fates, on her way to building an estimable career as a writer. But she still felt like her life a performance. She was presenting a façade, even to herself."
2024,
Interview,
Lucy Sante,
Spanish,
Full title: "Enthusiastically Me" by Hazel Krebs.
"A journey of self discovery, covering only a few years, though a lifetime of emotions starting with despair and anguish created through expectations from family, society, and religion; eventually leading to discovering the beautiful life that was always held within. The journey uncovers the darkest paths of one existence, seemingly necessary to find the correct route for joyful happiness.
The story begins in March 2018, when the narrator, who is in the throws of a depressive episode, considers if this day will be the end. Along the path is the first stop at a familiar park, finding a bench that held the whole life for an afternoon. Eventually moving on from the bench and parts of the life, there is a meeting at that very bench, which is frustrating at first; however, later becomes the start of a new path. This time perhaps with a helpful trailblazer to join.
2024,
English,
Hazel Krebs,
Interview,
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,
Full title: "Not Ded Aslepe" by Iden Crockett.
"Not Ded Aslepe is an illustrated collection of poetry chronicling the author's emotions as she explores her gender, PTSD, OSDD, eating disorder, self injury, love, sexuality, and friendship. The collection is centered around the non-linear poetic narrative of the author and her primary other. The story unfolds through the meeting of this shadow sister, attempting to resist their influence, and ultimately accepting Them as a part of themselves.
his collection is a frank and unflinching look into one person's struggle to discover themselves while maintaining sanity. It is a celebration of love and sexuality, queerness, gender expression, and a powerful commentary on the duality of the soul.
This collection features eighty poems and is beautifully illustrated with nearly thirty original digital collages. The artwork for this collection was created by the author and is a re-interpretation of previously created work. Words and images combine to create a profoundly affecting piece of art. Not Ded Aslepe is a truly honest look at the author's mind. All of the beauty, horror, sensuality, and joy of a life is on display here."
2023,
English,
Iden Crockett,
Interview,
Full title: "Bernie Wagenblast's Transformative Expedition: Resonances Below Ground: A Voice Discovering Its Harmony" by Richard M Hunter.
"Descend inside the subway system at the center of New York City, where the sounds of millions of stories are mixed with the roar of trains. We meet Bernie Wagenblast here, in the midst of the busy platforms and flickering fluorescent lights—the voice that leads travelers through the underground veins of the city.
However, "Bernie" is only a whisper, hiding the lady who is desperate to be free: Beatrice. A moving and engrossing journey through Bernie's metamorphosis, Echoes in the Underground is a symphony of emotions set against the backdrop of a world in upheaval. See his inner battles as he juggles his own need for authenticity with society's expectations. Sensitize to the quiver in his voice as he leaves the mask of "Bernie" and enters the platform as Beatrice, her voice now free to soar instead of being limited to announcements. This is a tapestry made of the threads of innumerable people impacted by Bernie's courage, not just her narrative. Watch how her transition encourages a young trans woman to speak up, deepens the relationship between a father and daughter, and challenges the city's systemic racism."
2024,
Bernie Wagenblast,
English,
Interview,
Richard M Hunter,
Full title: "Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of The Matrix" by Tilly Bridges.
"Trans woman and screenwriter Tilly Bridges takes you through the trans allegories of the Matrix franchise, with deep dives into The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Matrix Resurrections, tracking one person’s transition journey - from Thomas Anderson, to Neo... to Trinity.
Each movie’s allegory is deeply layered, building from movie to movie, and speaks to a different aspect of trans existence.
You’ll learn how color is used to convey more than you realize, how Neo’s psyche is personified in the people around him, how no other mass media franchise speaks as truly, deeply, and honestly to the trans experience, and exactly why these movies are beloved and vital to the trans community (and their cis allies).
Free your mind, and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes."
2023,
English,
Interview,
Tilly Bridges,
Full title: "Bilbo's Bend" by Aleshia Brevard.
"Trey Bilbo spent his early life on a Tennessee farm, the son of a loving Appalachian-born mother and a distant blue-blooded father. Young, handsome, and talented, he wins an art school scholarship that takes him to San Francisco. He finds himself an affordable place to live in the nefarious Tenderloin district, where he is befriended by a male street hustler with a flair for fashion design, a Cajun stripper who performs with his pet boa, and an assortment of 1960s social activists.
Trey experiments with several personas in his search for identity-as the boy-toy of a wealthy male art connoisseur, the husband of a pregnant friend, an ally to a transsexual high fashion model-all the while struggling to find himself. Does sleeping with another man mean he's gay? Why does that feel not quite right? In this coming-of-age novel, Trey Bilbo wrestles with probing questions about his sexual uncertainty, as he revisits many of the San Francisco haunts and wilder sides of streets that Ms. Brevard herself knew in her pre-gender-transitioning days.
Author Aleshia Brevard transitioned from male to female in 1962, not long after sex change surgery, as it was called then, became available. In the years since, she has often wondered what life as a boy might have been if gender reassignment had not been possible. This novel is her answer."
2015,
Aleshia Brevard,
English,
Interview,
Full title: "Queer Sex: A Trans and Non-Binary Guide to Intimacy, Pleasure and Relationships" by Juno Roche.
When Juno Roche published Queer Sex: A Trans and Non-Binary Guide to Intimacy, Pleasure and Relationships, the book arrived like a long overdue conversation in a culture that too often silences or misrepresents trans and non-binary voices. Roche, a transgender activist, writer, and public speaker, has never been afraid of candor, and here she creates a book that is equal parts manifesto, testimony, and love letter to the possibilities of intimacy.
At its core, Queer Sex is not a “how-to” manual in the traditional sense. Instead, it is a rich and often funny collection of first-hand accounts, dialogues, and reflections. Through interviews with diverse figures from across the trans and non-binary community, Roche takes readers into the heart of discussions about sex, dating, gender, desire, and the beauty of trans bodies. The book celebrates difference while dismantling the shame and silence that so often surrounds queer and trans sexuality.
2018,
English,
Interview,
Juno Roche,
Full title: "Transformative Surgeries: What to Expect at Each Surgical Stage of your Transgender Journey" by Christina Vegas.
"Transitioning in and of itself is an extremely challenging process. Add-in the multiple surgeries during this scary, sometimes-tumultuous journey can be incredibly overwhelming.
When I started transitioning, I couldn’t find many books on the subject of trans surgeries. There was lots of information about each procedure but not a lot of information on what each one was really like. A few of these procedures have a profound impact on your life, and I was desperate to know what they were like. I had so many questions: How long does it really take to recover? Were you happy with the results? Did they address your dysphoria?"
2023,
Christina Vegas,
English,
Interview,
