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: "Transpłciowość - androgynia. Studia o przekraczaniu płci" (Transgenderism - androgyny. Gender Transcendence Studies) by Jacek Bielas, Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Ptasznik and others.
Recently, the issue of crossing gender boundaries has been appearing more and more often in the Polish public discourse. Transgender and intersex people, or otherwise transgressing gender boundaries and conventions, are appearing more and more frequently in public spaces. The themes of transgenderism and transgression of gender conventions are also beginning to appear more and more often in academic publications.
This book – being an interdisciplinary publication that tries to show the phenomenon of transgenderism in a wide spectrum of many perspectives – combines articles from the field of sociology, psychology, philosophy, cultural studies and law, as well as articles written from the point of view of people active in the "T" environment.
2012,
Jacek Bielas,
Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Ptasznik,
Polish,
Original title: "Płeć: dana czy zadana? Strategie negocjacji (nie)tożsamości transpłciowej w Polsce" (Gender: given or assumed? Strategies for negotiating transgender (non)identity in Poland) by Anna Kłonkowska.
Anna M. Kłonkowska's book is a well-written and expert presentation of the global and Polish state of research on the social situation of transgender people. The added value is the results of empirical research on the life strategies of transgender people in Poland in the last few years. Therefore, these are original and new data on an important social issue, obtained by a researcher who has been publishing on this topic for many years and is one of the few Polish experts in the field of transgenderism.
2017,
Anna Kłonkowska,
Polish,
Original title: "Myśli innej kobiety" (Thoughts of Another Woman) by Kristine Turowska and Damian Drewniak.
A beautifully published album with the poetry of Kristine Turowska - a transgender woman, enriched with unique photographs by the master of lyrical photography - Damian Drewniak.
This album is a unique book, not only because of the author, but also because of the form that combines lyrics not only with words, but also with images. It is a must-read for sensitive people, especially those who are familiar with the world of transgender women. The album contains seventeen poems, twelve of which are illustrated with photographs, as well as a mini-story about happiness entitled "The Little Match Girl" with another four photographs. The book has a format of 21x21cm and contains 44 pages.
2022,
Kristine Turowska,
Polish,
"Incognito" is the Polish language edition of "Inkognitó" by Tibor Noé Kiss, first published in 2010.
Tibor/Noémi has visited the women's section of a shoe store for the first time. Another customer groaned and called her names, the salesperson complimented the choice of boots and smiled. Tibor/Noémi tried to smile too. That was four weeks ago. Today she would go out into town in boots. But now she sits alone in an armchair with her body, and each hates the other.
Incognito is an impressive depiction of how a football-loving youth finds a stranger in herself and her body. It is a coming-of-age story, a coming-of-the-closet story, and a skilled, frantic novel in its minimalist conciseness about creating one's identity in the cross-pressures of one's own feelings and the surprise and disapproval of the surrounding society.
2017,
Polish,
Tibor Noé Kiss,
Original title: "Godność proszę. O transpłciowości, gniewie i nadziei" (Dignity please. About transgender, anger and hope) by Maja Heban.
What do transgender people face on a daily basis? What legal, social, and medical aspects affect their daily lives? How do the media write about transgender people and what expectations are placed on them? Who and why smuggles into Poland a campaign to spread lies about the transition, which has already led to tragedy in Great Britain and the United States? And where is hope in all this?
This book is a personal manifesto and at the same time a continuation of the author's activist activity. Maja Heban sets two goals in it: to make it easier for cisgender people to understand transgenderism and to give their own community the satisfaction that postulates and thoughts shared by at least some people will be able to resound loudly.
2023,
Maja Heban,
Polish,
Original title: "Ciała obce. Opowieści o transpłciowości" (Foreign bodies. Stories about transgenderism) by Paula Szewczyk.
Life can't be limited to just being transgender. I'd rather hear the questions "How are you?" and "What's up?" that everyone else is asked.
For science, transgenderism is no longer a mystery, and for psychiatry, it is not a "disease." But in society, people who have realized that they were born in a body that does not match who they still remain incomprehensible and alien.
Paula Szewczyk's book allows us to understand them, to get so close to them that we begin to hear their confessions and dramas, although they are expressed in whispers. We hear Staś, who before he moved out of the house, led a double life - among his friends he was himself, for his parents he remained a "daughter". We hear Kornel struggling with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts - a boy who was sent to a ward for young women in a psychiatric hospital. We hear Tim trying not only to settle down with the body that is bothering him, but also with the fate of the migrant. He came to Poland because it is even more difficult for people like him to live in his native Belarus.
2023,
Paula Szewczyk,
Polish,
Original title: "Człowiek w przystępnej cenie. Reportaże z Tajlandii" (Man at an affordable price. Reports from Thailand) by Urszula Jabłońska
A collection of reports from Thailand, stories about the situation of society, especially women, and references to young transsexual girls.
"This story takes place in red neighborhoods lighthouse (where the author tries to understand why prostitution in Thailand is illegal), slums (where she discovers that nearly two-thirds of adult Thais work illegally), fishing ports, and shelters for refugees.
The book presents a story about what it actually means to "buy a man". What makes him want to do it? Where is the border between help and trade? Who can afford freedom? And why exactly in Thailand, where slavery was abolished at the beginning of the twentieth century, and whose name means "country of free people"?"
We can follow the story of Nong Toom, a transgender Muay Thai fighter (Thai boxing), who no longer fights. And there are other ladyboys who tape their genitals to look more feminine...
2017,
Nong Toom,
Polish,
Thailand,
Urszula Jabłońska,
Original title: "Dziennik" (The Diary) by Klaudia Newerna. This is the second book by Klaudia Newerna. Her first book "Onna: Sceny z życia" (S(he): Life Snapshots) was published in 2010.
The record of events in the author's life covers the period from December 2000 to mid-2005, including a reference to some of her activities after those years. In the book, the author describes her own experiences from the period in which she undertook the process of gender transition, which at the beginning is usually associated with the need to confront doctors and the legal system.
The described events concern the period that should be treated as "pre-Internet times", the experiences of contemporary transgender women are currently shaped differently due to the fact that the Internet is generally available. Although there are relatively few transsexual people, their fates can be very diverse – this is mainly influenced by: financial resources, the issue of acting as a woman or a man (mtf, ftm), the intellectual potential of family and friends, and finally a gracious or unkind nature that bestows a specific beauty.
2019,
Klaudia Newerna,
Polish,
Original title: "Kobieta w męskim ciele" (A woman in a man's body) by Wanda Falkowska.
The author presents the story of Elżbieta Lubarczyk (born Eligiusz in the mid-1940s in Lower Silesia in Polanf), one of the first transgender women to have changed their gender in Poland. She did it in the late 70s of the twentieth century.
Her story can be easily associated with Lili Elbe. "Eligius" and "Einar" are artists and painters. They have relationships with women. The former with two, with whom he marries and has two children - in this case, it distinguishes him from Einar. In addition, Eligiusz's wives are not painters. Both abandon painting when they are seriously considering turning into women.
1983,
Polish,
Wanda Falkowska,
Original title: "Onna: Sceny z życia" (S(he): Life Snapshots) by Klaudia Newerna.
Diary of a transsexual (m/f) Facts - Analysis - Stories - Photos - Copies of documents, Articles. The only such item on the market. If transsexualism has touched you (or you want to know what it's like to live with it...), this is the book for you.
Find out about the experiences of someone similar to you. I believe it will help you get through something that others/others don't have to struggle with. They don't know about "trans" because they don't need to know anything. If a person doesn't care about something, they don't care. What's more: they cannot recognize the problem and simply negate it and fight it, because they consider certain things abnormal! The publication presents events from the years 2000-2005.
2010,
Klaudia Newerna,
Polish,
Original title: "Transseksualizm i rodzina: Przekaz pokoleniowy wzorów relacyjnych w rodzinach transseksualnych kobiet" (Transsexualism and the family: The generational transmission of relational patterns in the families of transgender women) by Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik.
The book was published in 2001 by Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik, a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
2001,
Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik,
Polish,
Original title: "Transseksmisja" (Transsexmission) by Tatiana Szkapienko.
Do you want to increase the length of your... Nose? Or maybe you are interested in gender change? The Kaliningrad clinic offers not only a new "me". Kaliningrad is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian semi-exclave between Lithuania and Poland. The clinic is a contemporary Tower of Babel, which offers medical services but it is also a multinational space for exchanging views on gender politics and male-female differences.
This book is in fact a set of stories presented by an employee-translator of a plastic surgery clinic in the Kaliningrad region, describing in detail the adventures of clinic patients (mainly Poles) who undergo cosmetic and feminization surgeries.
2007,
Polish,
Tatiana Szkapienko,
Original title: "Beznadziejna ucieczka przed Basią: Reportaże seksualne" (Hopeless escape from Basia: Sex stories) by Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska.
Contrary to what the subtitle suggests, the book is not about having sex. It is a collection of biographies of people living in Poland and beyond its borders - transvestites, prostitutes, transsexuals, homosexuals, some of them raising children.
The characters from Surmiak-Domańska's reportages have one thing in common - rejection by the majority of the population. (...) For example, Anna, a transsexual woman who after a poorly performed operation in a state clinic, vegetates being neither a woman nor a man.
2007,
Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska,
Polish,
Original title: "M/K autsajderzy" (M/F outsiders) by Aleksander Sokołowski.
A touching story about the fate of two people who have one thing in common: not accepting their own gender. Besides, everything separates them. He is a mannered, narcissistic student of pedagogy. To respond to the complexes plaguing him, he begins a bizarre game of the "other sex".
She is a transsexual, a simple girl born in a male body, for whom the issue of her difference is a matter of life and death. At first separate, in the further part of the plot their fates intertwine into an inseparable whole. What will come of it, you will find out at the very end of the book.
1998,
Aleksander Sokołowski,
Polish,
"Mam na imię Jazz" is the Polish language edition of "My name is Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings (2015). A nice book for children with the story of Jazz Jennings.
"From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boy's clothing.
This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers."
2019,
Jazz Jennings,
Jessica Herthel,
Polish,
Original title: "Byłam mężczyzną" (I was a man) by Ada Strzelec.
"I was a man" is the diary of Ada Strzelec, one of the first transgender women in Poland to have undergone gender reassignment surgery. The book is full of dramatic and intimate details from the life of a transgender woman living in times when information about transsexualism was next to nothing.
1992,
Ada Strzelec,
Polish,
Original title: "Zbłąkana płeć" (Lost in Gender) by Kazimierz Imieliński and Stanisław Dulko.
'The book is based on conversations between doctors and transsexual people, their diaries and biographies. This book makes the reader aware of the enormity of loneliness that affects people with the problem of gender dysphoria.
The problem of loneliness among people, to which transsexuals are condemned to a large extent by the attitude of their closest environment.'
1991,
Kazimierz Imieliński,
Polish,
Stanisław Dulko,
"Skok anioła" is the Polish language edition of "Le Saut de l'ange" (The Leap of the Angel) by Maud Marin, the first biography of Maud Marin.
'Is it possible to imagine the life of a man who hates his sex? The book is a terrifying diary of a person whose stigma of otherness casts a shadow over her whole life. The family does not "see" the problem. They stubbornly claim that Maud is a male person, despite the fact that she is more and more boldly declaring her femininity. Such behavior leads Maud to descend into the darkness of nightlife on the street - sex work and the criminal underworld.
After many years of humiliation, Maud manages to change gender. But this is only the beginning of the battle for a dignified life. After all, you have to change your birth certificate, get a job, arrange your life like a normal woman. Will she succeed?'
1993,
Maud Marin,
Polish,
Original title: "My, trans" (We, Trans) by Piotr Jacoń.
'They are constantly accompanied by fear, loneliness, a sense of loss. They suffer from depression and often attempt suicide. They are hurt by the lack of tolerance and understanding in society. And they want so little: to live normally.
Here is a moving collection of interviews with transgender people, as well as their parents, psychologist, lawyer, activist, and... a priest, breaking taboos and opening eyes to the needs of other people.
Piotr Jacoń is a TVN 24 (a Polish 24-hour commercial news channel) journalist and father of a transgender daughter.
2021,
Piotr Jacoń,
Polish,
This is the Polish language edition of "Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family", written by Amy Ellis Nutt, a health and science writer at The Washington Post.
Title in Polish: "Amy Ellis Nutt - Zostać Nicole. Metamorfoza amerykańskiej rodziny" (To become Nicole. Metamorphosis of the American family).
In the book introduction, we can read: "When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But it wasn’t long before they noticed a marked difference between Jonas and his brother, Wyatt. Jonas preferred sports and trucks and many of the things little boys were “supposed” to like; but Wyatt liked princess dolls and dress-up and playing Little Mermaid. By the time the twins were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt’s insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept and embrace Wyatt’s transition to Nicole, and to undergo an emotionally wrenching transformation of their own that would change all their lives forever."
2016,
Amy Ellis Nutt,
Nicole Maines,
Polish,
