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.
“Io sono lei: Storia della mia transizione” is a book that arrives quietly and then refuses to let go. It is not a manifesto, not a theoretical treatise, and not a victory lap, even though it narrates one of the most radical acts a person can undertake, the decision to finally live as oneself after decades of denial. Lucy Sante’s memoir of transition is instead a work of patient excavation, a journey backward through memory, language, and perception, written with the same precision and curiosity that have long defined her work as a cultural historian. What makes the book extraordinary is not only the fact that Sante transitions at an age when society insists that identity should already be settled, but the way she understands that transition as something that had been present all along, an underground current shaping her life long before it was allowed to surface.
At the beginning of 2021, Luc Sante sent an email to a small circle of friends that shattered the frame through which they had known her. At sixty-seven, she announced that she was about to begin her gender transition. The message did not come out of nowhere, yet for many it felt seismic. For Sante herself, it was the end point of a lifelong tension between what she understood intellectually and what she allowed herself to feel. The book retraces this long repression with disarming honesty, showing how a deeply buried awareness of being female quietly informed her choices, her sensibility, and even her way of looking at the world.
2025,
Interview,
Italian,
Lucy Sante,
Ella era yo: Memorias de mi transición is the Spanish-language edition of I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, the extraordinary late-life memoir by Lucy Sante, one of the most distinctive and revered voices to emerge from New York’s underground literary and cultural scene. Translated with great sensitivity and precision by María Alonso Seisdedos, winner of Spain’s National Translation Prize, the book brings Sante’s deeply personal journey to Spanish-speaking readers without losing the clarity, irony, and emotional exactitude that define her prose. It is not simply a story of transition, but a meditation on truth, time, self-knowledge, and the long, often painful distance between who we are and who we allow ourselves to be.
2024,
Interview,
Lucy Sante,
Spanish,
Full title: "I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition" by Lucy Sante. The book was published in English and has been translated into Spanish and Italian.
Lucy Sante’s I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition has been recognized as one of the most remarkable literary achievements of recent years, earning the distinction of Best Book of the Year from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Slate. The memoir is celebrated not only for its lyrical prose and incisive cultural observations but also for its unflinching exploration of Sante’s late-in-life gender transition. The Washington Post described it as “a joy to read… much to say about the trans journey and will undoubtedly become a standard for those in need of guidance,” while The Boston Globe praised Sante’s “bold devotion to complexity and clarity” as exemplary of memoir writing, a call to embrace an authentic life. Lit Hub included it among its Most Anticipated Books of 2024, noting the book as “a powerful example of self-reflection and a vibrant exploration of the modern dynamics of gender and identity.”
Sante, born in Belgium and raised in the United States by conservative Catholic parents, spent much of her early life feeling out of place. As the only child in a working-class family, she navigated repeated transatlantic moves, ultimately finding a sense of belonging only in New York City in the 1970s among a community of bohemian artists. Her memoir traces the arc of her life, intertwining her career and personal ambitions with the eventual acknowledgment of her true gender identity. She recounts her years of presenting a façade, even to herself, while developing a distinguished career as a writer, critic, and cultural historian. I Heard Her Call My Name is as much a memoir of transition as it is a meditation on the intersection of identity, artistry, and the pursuit of authenticity. It captures with grace and empathy the learning curve of embracing womanhood after decades living in a man’s world, revealing a thoughtful and often humorous engagement with the challenges and joys of transition.
2024,
Belgium,
English,
Interview,
Lucy Sante,
