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: "Hazel: Travesti Kardeşimin Kısa-Uzun Yaşam Öyküsü" (Hazel: The Short-Long Life Story of My Transvestite Brother) by Ayten Görgün Smith.
A son. A brother. She is also a trans person. Serdar came into the world as a man. Her gender dysphoria started at the age of two and she started wearing women's clothes at the age of 16. After a while, she told her family, "My name is now Hazel." - she said.
The author is Hazel's older sister. She describes the experiences of her family, her brother, and herself in a simple and sincere language. You read how life makes all the members of a family accept the concept of "transgender". It is a short-long life story of my transgender brother, which has been published in a book as a duty to fulfill a will, a social responsibility, a social awareness work of an older sister, as her brother died of blood cancer at the age of 35.
2020,
Ayten Görgün Smith,
Turkish,
"Tatlisu" is the Turkish language edition of "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi.
I liked Gina Maya's review a lot, so let me quote her: "Transgender narrative this may be, but it's far removed from Western, U.S.-based definitions in spite of its primary location in the U.S. The story follows the young life of Ada, a Nigerian child who travels to America to study, but her whole life involves psychical interaction with the indigenous spirits who vie for control of her. Is Ada Ogbanje too?
By the end, she appears to embrace this self-conception as an offspring of the Universal Creator Ala, visualized as cosmic python – the source of the spring from which all freshwater comes from its mouth. Yet Ada for almost the novel's entirety is also the human, engaged in an uneasy relationship with otherworldly spirits who inhabit her mind, visualized in turn as a room of marble, perhaps not unlike the Kaaba of Mecca. The most powerful, possessive, and controlling of the spirits is Asughara, occasionally presented as Ada's pernicious alpha. At times, Asughara blocks out Ada from consciousness, either to protect or punish Ada."
2021,
Akwaeke Emezi,
Nigeria,
Turkish,
Original title: "Lubunya: Transseksüel Kimlik ve Beden" (Lubunya: Transgender Identity and Body) by Selin Berghan.
Almost everywhere in the world today, transsexuals face the hostilities that their different sexuality creates in society; they are excluded because they are seen as threatening patriarchy, and in the best case they are ignored.
This book aims to determine the situation of transsexuals in Turkey by listening to them from their own mouths and to give visibility instead of covering up the problems. As much as it's a means for transsexuals to express themselves, it also sheds light on what our society thinks about gender and sexuality in general: Where does the anger and disgust with transsexuals come from?
2007,
Selin Berghan,
Turkish,
"Danimarkalı Kız" is the Turkish language edition of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Having gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s was an unusual and sensational affair, and the man who took the step to do so was the Danish painter Einar Mogens Andreas Wegener, who after the operation took the name of Lili Elbe.
The operation took place at the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, where the male organs were removed. The surgery was performed by Felix Abraham at the recommendation of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Einar Wegener was married to the beautiful, celebrated artist Gerda Wegener. They lived in a highly unusual marriage. Their life fate is told in this book, which is a fiction novel based on authentic events and diary entries from Einar Wegener.
2016,
David Ebershoff,
Lili Elbe,
Turkish,
"Yeni Kız" (New Girl) is the Turkish language edition of "New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is" (2017) by Rhyannon Styles.
"Imagine feeling lost in your own body. Imagine spending years living a lie, denying what makes you 'you'. This was Ryan's reality. He had to choose: die as a man or live as a woman.
In 2012, Ryan chose Rhyannon. At the age of thirty Rhyannon began her transition, taking the first steps on the long road to her true self, and the emotional, physical and psychological journey that would change her for ever.
In a time when the world is finally waking up to transgender people, Rhyannon opens up to us, holding nothing back in this heartbreakingly honest telling of her life. Through her catastrophic lows and incredible highs, Rhyannon paints a picture of what it's like to be transgender in glorious technicolor. From cabaret drag acts, brushes with celebrity and Parisian clown school, to struggles with addiction and crippling depression, Rhyannon's story is like nothing you've read before."
2019,
Interview,
Rhyannon Styles,
Turkish,
Original title: "Ben de Varım: Transfobiyi Özgürleştirme" (Me Too: Liberating Transphobia) by Deniz Su Tiffany.
If you belong to a minority that is oppressed because of your religion, language, race, or sexual identity, you need to make your voice heard so that you don't get hurt. But how to make your voice heard? Either you pick up the megaphone and shout it in the squares, or you communicate with other people one-on-one and get them to know you.
Are you ready to break all trans taboos and embrace an excluded segment of society, starting with the headlines in the old newspaper reports that "transvestites spread terror"?
You will read about the mistakes you know to be true not from others, but from the mouth of a transgender woman herself. Everything about trans people, from the gender transition process to emotional swings, family and bilateral relationships, is included in this book.
2016,
Deniz Su Tiffany,
Turkish,
