In a world that often demands certainty and clarity, Jessie Parker offers something far more honest and healing in her book Still Here, Still Becoming: vulnerability, evolution, and truth told in motion. This stirring collection of essays is not a triumphalist memoir nor a neat blueprint of trans identity. Instead, it is something rarer and more necessary, an invitation into the beautiful, messy, and resilient becoming of one transgender woman who refuses to be anything other than fully, unapologetically herself.
At the heart of Still Here, Still Becoming is Parker’s unwavering commitment to truth-telling, even when it hurts. Each essay opens a window into her inner world and lived experiences as a trans woman navigating a society that is too often hostile, indifferent, or simply unprepared to understand. But this is not a book solely about suffering. Yes, Parker addresses the heartbreak, confusion, and pain of living in a body, and a world, that sometimes feels at odds with one's identity. But she also writes about joy. Real joy. Loud, earned, glittering joy that bursts forth in moments of connection, affirmation, love, and self-recognition. From the earliest pages, Parker’s prose is intimate, generous, and deeply reflective. “I didn’t write this book because I have all the answers,” she tells us. “I wrote it because I’ve lived the questions.” That statement captures not only the tone of the book, but its very ethos.
