Transgender Biographies

Jane Foster - One Perfect Daughter

Full title: "One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn't" by Jane Foster.

This memoir by Jane Foster titled One Perfect Daughter: He Was The Perfect Son. Until She Wasn’t is a wrenching, honest chronicle of how a family comes apart and slowly, painfully reassembles itself around a child’s truth. Foster begins from a place many parents know well: pride in an accomplished son, admiration for his brilliance, hopes for his future.

Julian is smart, well‐behaved, full of promise. She loves him, expects him to follow the path she and so many others imagine for a child like him. Then one evening across the dinner table he hands her a note: “Please don’t be disappointed. This doesn’t change who I am.” She reads, confused. He says, “I’m transgender.” That moment becomes a fulcrum on which everything tilts. The future she saw for Julian, the person she thought she knew, begins to shift, to slip in ways she does not yet understand. The story that follows is raw. Uninhibited. Foster allows us into the collapse of her certainties. She admits to shock, grief, confusion. She grapples with what it means for her child to change identity, how that affects their relationship, how it changes her view of herself as a mother. The emotional currents are turbulent. There is denial, there is acceptance, there is resistance, there is reconciliation. There are late‐night arguments, anguished tears, moments of fierce love that transcend everything else.

Adam Suchý and Alena Vernerová - Transgender

Original title: "Transgender" by Adam Suchý and Alena Vernerová.

The book Transgender by Adam Suchý and Alena Vernerová presents an intimate, open, and honest conversation between a mother of a transgender child and a clinical psychologist who has spent nearly two decades working with transgender individuals undergoing medical transition. This topic has become one of the most discussed in recent years, generating intense emotions, polarizing opinions, and a mixture of myths, ideologies, ignorance, and prejudices.

Transgender issues intersect with social, legal, diagnostic, and global changes, making them both highly visible and deeply personal. Through an engaging dialogue, the book offers the latest knowledge, research findings, personal experiences, and stories, acknowledging that while not all answers are known, the courage to ask the questions is invaluable. It is intended for anyone affected by transgender topics, not just transgender people themselves, but also their parents, siblings, teachers, professionals in helping roles, and a broader professional audience interested in understanding the contemporary world more fully.

Andrea Leigh - Do You Still Like Football

Full title: "Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention" by Andrea Leigh.

Andrea Leigh’s memoir Do You Still Like Football: From Harley-Riding Rancher to Fashion Icon: A Journey of Courage and Reinvention is a story that refuses to fit neatly into one category. It is part life story, part manifesto, part guide to self-discovery, and part love letter to authenticity. What begins as the account of a rancher, husband, father, and pharmaceutical executive soon unfolds into something far deeper: the journey of a woman who dared to look into the mirror and acknowledge a truth that had been waiting for her all along.

By all standard measures, Andy, as she was known then, had built the American Dream. A successful career in the pharmaceutical industry brought security, while a marriage and family life on a ranch grounded in sustainable practices offered both beauty and meaning. Yet beneath the outward picture of success was a persistent sense of incompleteness, a quiet calling toward something more. That unspoken longing would eventually lead Andrea to confront herself with honesty, vulnerability, and ultimately, courage.

Valeria Barcellos - Transradioativa

Original title: "Transradioativa: Você me conhece porque tem medo ou tem medo porque me conhece?" (Transradioactive: Do you know me because you're afraid, or are you afraid because you know me?) by Valéria Barcellos.

“Transradioativa: Você me conhece porque tem medo ou tem medo porque me conhece?” by Valéria Barcellos is a powerful and deeply personal work that transcends conventional autobiographical writing. In this book, Valéria, a black trans woman, singer, actress, DJ, performer, writer, and visual artist, shares her lived experiences with unflinching honesty and artistry.

Her life story is inseparable from the broader struggles of trans and Black communities in Brazil, and her work embodies transnegritude and transfeminism with an intensity that challenges readers to confront their own assumptions and fears. Valéria’s recognition as a Mulher Cidadã, the highest honor awarded to women in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, underscores her role as a trailblazer not only in the arts but in social advocacy, making her story one of resistance, resilience, and radical affirmation of identity.

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.

Die bizarre Welt der Transsexuellen in Wort und Bild

Original title: "Die bizarre Welt der Transsexuellen in Wort und Bild" (The Bizarre World of Transsexuals in Word and Image) by unknown author.

The 1980 publication Die bizarre Welt der Transsexuellen in Wort und Bild, translated as The Bizarre World of Transsexuals in Word and Image, offers a controversial and provocative glimpse into the representation of trans women in late 20th-century European erotica.

Ostensibly, the book presents itself as a sociocultural exploration of transsexuality, yet the underlying focus is far more sensationalized than scholarly. It captures a time when the visibility of transgender people was rapidly increasing, but public understanding was minimal and often filtered through prurient or voyeuristic lenses.

Cathy Heart - Am I Trans Enough?

Full title: "Am I Trans Enough?" by Cathy Heart.

In a time not too far behind us, transgender people lived largely in silence, invisible to a society that did not yet have the words, understanding, or compassion to grasp their realities. The cultural landscape was bleak, dominated by misconceptions that being transgender was either a sexual preference or a curious lifestyle choice. Into this difficult world came the early life of Cathy Heart, whose book Am I Trans Enough? reflects not only her personal journey but also the broader struggle of transgender individuals trying to find their place in a society that often refused to see them.

Cathy’s story begins in the pre-internet years, a period when information about transgender lives was scarce and communities of support were hard to find. For many, admitting to oneself that they were living in the wrong gender felt almost criminal. Cathy captures this atmosphere vividly, showing what it meant to grow up with an inner truth that could barely be spoken aloud. Her earliest memories stand out with remarkable clarity, such as being four years old and joyfully wearing a dress in her grandmother’s home. That small but powerful moment carried a sense of rightness that never left her, even as life grew more complicated.

Valentina Berr - La respuesta a todo

Original title: "La respuesta a todo lo que le preguntarías a una tía trans" (The answer to everything you would ask a trans girl) by Valentina Berr.

Imagine you are at a birthday party. You do not know many people there, and by chance you sit next to a young woman you have never met before. She seems approachable, the conversation warms up, and suddenly you realize she is trans. For many people, this becomes the perfect moment to unload a flood of questions, questions rarely asked with bad intentions, but often intrusive, repetitive, or simply exhausting for the person receiving them. When did you know you were trans? What did your parents say? Have you had surgery? How do you have sex? Don’t trans women have an advantage in sports?

It is this all-too-familiar scenario that inspired Valentina Berr’s La respuesta a todo lo que le preguntarías a una tía trans (The Answer to Everything You Would Ask a Trans Girl), published by Editorial Egales. In this book, Berr flips the script: instead of being cornered by strangers, she takes the initiative and writes down all the answers herself, with humor, warmth, and disarming honesty. The idea is simple but powerful. Many trans women have experienced being turned into unwilling teachers at social gatherings, forced into conversations about their past, their bodies, and their most intimate details with people they hardly know. Berr acknowledges this paradox, recognizing that the questions will keep coming whether or not she wants them to. So she decides to create a safe space in which curiosity can be satisfied without causing harm. She invites readers to imagine that she is that trans woman at the party, and the book is the conversation you might secretly want to have. But this time, she is in control. “Today, that girl is me, and this book will be that conversation,” she writes. “Here you will find the answers to all the ‘Can I ask you something?’ questions you can think of about being trans.”

Katherine Dudtschak - Sincerely, Katherine

Full title: "Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future" by Katherine Dudtschak.

There are books that entertain, and there are books that quietly shift the ground beneath your feet. Sincerely, Katherine.: Life, Gender, Inclusivity, and Leadership for the Future belongs to the latter category. It is not only the story of a corporate leader but also the unveiling of a truth so deeply buried that acknowledging it required dismantling an entire life and rebuilding it anew.

Katherine Dudtschak grew up in southern Ontario, the daughter of immigrants who survived World War II camps. Her early life was defined by scarcity, post-war trauma, and the kind of challenges that can press a child into becoming either brittle or unbreakably determined. She chose the latter. Despite learning difficulties and the weight of expectation, she carved out a path into one of Canada’s most competitive industries, rising to the upper echelons of banking. To the outside world, she had it all: four children, a successful career, the respect of peers, and material security. But inside, something essential was missing. The man her colleagues and friends saw was a mask, and behind it lived Katherine, the woman she had always known herself to be. The turning point came unexpectedly, in the most ordinary of settings: her daughter’s university dormitory. There, on a wall, hung a poster about gender inclusivity. To most passersby, it was a piece of student activism, easily overlooked. For Katherine, it was a mirror. In its language, she recognized herself, the truth she had buried for decades rising suddenly, urgently, irrepressibly. That poster did not just open a door; it unlocked a life.

Original title: "In...confidências mineiras e outras histórias" (Minas Gerais inconfidences and other stories) by Ruddy Pinho.

When we turn to the literature of trans authorship in Brazil, the name Ruddy Pinho inevitably surfaces as one of its earliest and most vibrant voices. Known widely as “A Maravilhosa,” Ruddy was not only a celebrated hairdresser to Brazil’s elite but also a writer who brought her personal history, humor, and resilience into the literary scene. Her book In...confidências mineiras e outras histórias (Minas Gerais Inconfidences and Other Stories), a collection of short stories awarded by the National Library, stands as one of her most important contributions to Brazilian letters, blending sharp social observation with the intimate details of her lived experience.

Born in Sabinópolis, Minas Gerais, and raised in Belo Horizonte, Ruddy Pinho began her working life at just 16, cutting hair in the bohemian quarters of the city. By the 1960s, she had moved to Rio de Janeiro, where her talent, charisma, and bold style quickly made her one of the most sought-after hairdressers in the country. She transformed the look of countless stars, including Marília Pêra, Odete Lara, and Susana Vieira. Her invention of the “lioness cut,” immortalized by singer Simone Bittencourt, became a cultural phenomenon of the 1980s. Yet Pinho was never confined to one role. She was also an actress, appearing in Neville de Almeida’s Navalha na Carne and later in Leandra Leal’s celebrated documentary Divinas Divas. Her ability to move seamlessly between salon, stage, and screen reflected the same fluidity that characterized her life story.

Nia Chiaramonte - I Hardly Knew Me

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.

P. García and F. Cortés - Yo soy mi género

Original title: "Yo soy mi género: testimonios de mujeres trans migrantes" (I am my gender: testimonies of migrant trans women) by Pedro Reyes García and Fabián Coutiño Cortés.

In recent years, public discourse has placed increasing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Governments, institutions, and social movements alike have pushed for recognition of groups whose lives challenge traditional notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. Yet, despite these shifts, large segments of society remain misunderstood, invisibilized, or reduced to stereotypes. Among them are transgender women, particularly those who migrate in search of safer and freer lives. It is precisely this intersection of gender transition and migration that shapes the heart of Yo soy mi género: testimonios de mujeres trans migrantes (I Am My Gender: Testimonies of Migrant Trans Women), a book authored by Chilean academics Pedro Reyes García and Fabián Coutiño Cortés.

Published by Editorial Ril with the support of the University of Santiago, the book combines ethnographic inquiry with a deeply human, almost literary narrative, allowing readers to step into the lived experiences of four Latin American trans women who now call Montreal, Canada, their home. The origins of the project stretch back to a summer day in Montreal. As Dr. Reyes recalls in the book’s introduction, he and Coutiño were walking along the vibrant Sainte Catherine Street when they encountered a striking figure: a middle-aged trans woman performing at Sky, a well-known gay bar, during its Saturday Latin Night. That performer was Liberia, a charismatic artist who would become a central figure in the book and a gateway to meeting other women whose stories would later shape the project.

EJ Jade Manalo - Becoming Jade

Full title: "Becoming Jade: A Memoir of Transition, Music, and Self-Discovery: A Memoir of Transition, Music, and Self-Discovery" by EJ Jade Manalo.

In her heartfelt memoir Becoming Jade: A Memoir of Transition, Music, and Self-Discovery, EJ Jade Manalo opens the door to her world with honesty, courage, and a spirit of resilience that is as inspiring as it is humbling. More than a personal narrative, Jade’s book is a beacon for anyone searching for authenticity and strength in the face of adversity.

At its core, Becoming Jade is the story of a young trans woman navigating a world that often seemed unwilling to embrace her for who she was. Growing up with autism added another layer of complexity to her journey, shaping both the challenges she faced and the unique ways she approached them. Jade doesn’t shy away from discussing the realities of transferring between schools with rigid rules and minimal accommodations. These institutions, meant to nurture growth, often became spaces of tension where she had to fight for her right to be herself. But Jade’s narrative is never one of defeat. Instead, it is about resilience, about finding ways to thrive despite barriers, about discovering moments of joy and independence even when surrounded by misunderstanding. She invites readers to see the world through her eyes, where something as simple as riding an elevator becomes a source of solace and empowerment.

Kenya Cuevas - Casa de las muñecas

Original title: "Casa de las muñecas" (Doll's House) by Kenya Cuevas.

Casa de las muñecas (Doll’s House) by Kenya Cuevas is not just a book, it is a manifesto of defiance, a searing testament to human resilience that tears open the wounds of injustice to expose a truth we cannot ignore. Kenya Cuevas, a transgender woman, activist, and symbol of relentless struggle, bares her soul in these pages, recounting a life scarred by rejection, violence, and discrimination. From the horrors of life on the streets to the creation of shelters and safe spaces for the transgender community, this book is the story of a woman who refused to be erased, who rose again and again in the face of a system determined to silence her.

Through unwavering strength, courage, and the support of those who believe in justice, Kenya transformed unimaginable pain into decisive action, exclusion into safe havens, and isolation into a network of support that now saves lives. Casa de las muñecas challenges every reader to confront the structures that perpetuate hatred, to question the world around them, and to take an active role in creating change. It is an urgent, indispensable account of struggle, memory, and dignity in a Mexico wounded by persistent violence. Kenya Cytlaly Cuevas Fuentes, born in Mexico City on September 5, 1983, is a fearless human rights defender whose activism changed history. She ensured that the transfeminicide of her companion, Paola Buenrostro, became the first case officially recognized as a transfeminicide by Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission in 2019. She founded Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias and Casa Hogar Paola Buenrostro, the first shelter for transgender women in Mexico, and championed the Paola Buenrostro Law, earning national recognition and numerous awards for her tireless advocacy.

Dominique Gallaway - Free To Be Me

Full title: "Free To Be Me: Transitioning at 40" by Dominique Gallaway.

When Dominique Gallaway made the decision at age forty to embrace her authentic self, she wasn’t just making a personal choice, she was writing a radical act of survival and joy into existence. Her memoir, Free To Be Me: Transitioning at 40, is not only a story of transformation but also a testimony of courage, grief, resilience, and the deep beauty of becoming who you always were.

Dominique, a proud Black transgender woman, opens her life to readers with unflinching honesty. For decades, she had lived behind a carefully constructed façade, fulfilling roles others expected of her while secretly carrying the weight of a truth she feared the world wasn’t ready to accept. Like so many transgender women who transition later in life, her silence was not born of weakness, but of survival. Yet, as Free To Be Me reveals, silence can only hold back authenticity for so long.

Nikita Carter - Both Sides of the Great Divide

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.

Original title: "Veni Vidi Vici - Resan Efter: Del 2 - En Självbiografi Av Wilhelmina Rudin" (Veni Vidi Vici - The Journey After: Part 2 - An Autobiography By Wilhelmina Rudin) by Mina Rudin.

In Veni Vidi Vici – The Journey After: Part 2, Swedish author Wilhelmina “Mina” Rudin picks up where her previous volume left off, charting a profoundly human, deeply personal journey of identity, transformation, and resilience. As the title echoes Caesar’s triumphant declaration, I came, I saw, I conquered, Rudin invites readers to witness not just a victory, but a long, courageous path leading toward personal truth and healing. This is not just a memoir; it's a testament. It's a lived experience, unfolding in real-time, as the author shares her ongoing exploration of self through the lens of medical transition, emotional recovery, and professional reinvention. It is a book about becoming, and all the complications, joys, and reflections that come with it.

Jessie Parker - Still Here, Still Becoming

Full title: "Still Here, Still Becoming" by Jessie Parker.

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.

Camila Sosa Villada - La traición de mi lengua

Original title: "La traición de mi lengua" (The betrayal of my tongue) by Camila Sosa Villada.

Memory is the most treacherous affection there is, says Camila Sosa Villada in one of the texts that compose The Betrayal of My Tongue. Memories always flow in disorder and leave us fragile and vulnerable to feelings we rarely can control. Is it possible to resist our memory? she wonders, and then, as a condition of survival, she clings to betrayal to reflect on language and its relationship with eroticism and the past.

This series of writings respects chaos, plays with the sharpness of imagining oneself in another place and inhabiting another language. Fiction and non-fiction are assaulted by a language that is inherited and betrayed. With prose as sharp as it is poetic, Sosa Villada once again cultivates the art of writing what is left unsaid. Sometimes the hardest coexistence of all is with oneself. In her novel Thesis of a Domestication, recently adapted to film with her starring role, the protagonist, a celebrated trans actress, struggles with the ambivalence that her family and her comfortable life provoke in her.

Rae Elle Riley - Just Nod If You Can Hear Me

Full title: "Just Nod If You Can Hear Me: A Memoir" by Rae Elle Riley.

There are memoirs that explain. There are memoirs that reflect. And then, once in a very long while, there’s a memoir that doesn’t ask for permission, doesn’t wait for understanding, and certainly doesn’t smooth over the jagged parts. Instead, it grabs you by the collar, shoves you into its world, and demands that you feel every splinter of bone-deep truth embedded in its prose.

Rae Elle Riley’s Just Nod If You Can Hear Me is that memoir. From the very first page, we meet Chuck Keiran, a steamfitter, a brawler, a man etched from grit and gasoline, your classic blue-collar antihero clinging to life in a rust-soaked world of factories, unions, and dive bars. But Chuck is not who he seems. Beneath the hard exterior and years of camouflage lives Rae, a trans woman buried under the wreckage of a life built to survive everyone else’s expectations. Rae doesn’t step out of the shadows gently. She explodes into them, armed with nothing but her truth, her pain, and her art. Just Nod If You Can Hear Me doesn’t offer a redemptive arc in the traditional sense. There are no clean breaks, no sudden epiphanies, no “and then everything was fine” ribbon to tie it all up. Instead, Riley offers readers a series of emotional detonations, each chapter a blowtorch to shame, silence, and societal erasure.

Lee Christiernsson - För alltid Lee

Original title: "För alltid Lee" (Forever Lee) by Lee Christiernsson and Marie-Anne Knutas.

Some stories arrive like a quiet breeze, and some burst through the noise like a thunderclap of truth. Forever Lee, the memoir co-authored by Swedish television personality Lee Christiernsson and writer Marie-Anne Knutas, is unquestionably the latter, a candid, deeply personal, and inspiring narrative of identity, courage, and renewal.

At its heart, Forever Lee is a story about becoming. It traces Lee’s life from a spirited, adventure-seeking youth through a celebrated career on Swedish television and a seemingly conventional life as a husband and father. For many years, Lee was best known to the public as “Carpenter-Björn,” the charming and skilled craftsman on Finally Home, a beloved home improvement series that aired for 22 seasons on TV4. But behind the camera, and beneath the veneer of a fulfilling public and family life, something essential was missing. Lee was living a role. For decades, he carried a truth so profound and so personal that it was nearly invisible to those around him. It wasn’t until the age of 45 that he was finally able to face the world as who he truly is: a non-binary transgender person.

Tess Juliana - Just Tess

Full title: "Just Tess: A Trans Female's Journey to Womanhood" by Tess Juliana.

In Just Tess: A Trans Female's Journey to Womanhood, author Tess Juliana opens a window into the tender, complex, and deeply human evolution of identity, soul, and purpose. This memoir is not just a record of transition from male to female, but a spiritual and emotional chronicle of duality, of two spirits, Jules and Tess, walking side by side until they could become one. Tess Juliana’s life is anything but ordinary.

Born with what many Indigenous cultures would call the gift of "Two Spirits," she navigated much of her early life as Jules, a man who served honorably in the United States Air Force as an air traffic controller. Jules' military career included a transformative year in remote Greenland, an experience that sparked a lifelong passion for geology and the Arctic's harsh and magnificent landscapes. That same passion carried him into a decades-long career in science education, during which he earned degrees in geology, science education, and biology. But science and adventure were only half the story. In Just Tess, the reader travels not only through physical terrain, across glaciers, mountains, and oceans, but also through the interior landscapes of longing, silence, love, fear, and truth.

Ximena Salazar - Mujeres trans en el Perú

Original title: "Mujeres trans en el Perú: Historias de vida e identidad" (Trans Women in Peru: Life Stories and Identity) by Ximena Salazar.

In a country marked by social stratification, deep-rooted conservatism, and intersecting forms of marginalization, Mujeres trans en el Perú: Historias de vida e identidad (Trans Women in Peru: Life Stories and Identity) by Ximena Salazar stands as a groundbreaking and deeply humanizing contribution to Peruvian gender studies.

More than just a book, it is a testimony, an archive of resistance, and an essential lens into what it means to be a transgender woman in contemporary Peru. By focusing on the lived experiences of seven trans women from Lima, Ayacucho, and Iquitos, Salazar crafts a careful and poignant anthropological inquiry that privileges the voices of her subjects over academic abstraction. One of the book’s most commendable strengths lies in its refusal to center solely on the author’s analytical voice. While Salazar, an anthropologist and academic, does provide a thorough theoretical framework, the heart of the book beats with the voices of the seven women whose stories she documents. These are women whose trans identities are not lived in isolation from the realities of poverty, racism, exclusion, and migration. Most of them come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and several are internal migrants navigating life far from their native lands. As such, their experiences reveal the multifaceted oppression that trans women face in Peru, an oppression that is not only gender-based, but also shaped by class, ethnicity, and geography.

Rachel Dover - And She Was: A Memoir of Transition

Full title: "And She Was: A Memoir of Transition" by Rachel Dover.

In her courageous and deeply affecting memoir, Growing A Pair: My Life, My Way, My Words, Rachel Dover invites readers into the messy, beautiful, and unflinchingly honest terrain of self-discovery. Following the same heartfelt tone that characterized her earlier writing in And She Was, Rachel expands her story with remarkable vulnerability, painting a vivid portrait of what it means to reclaim your truth after a lifetime of denial, self-sabotage, and quiet despair.

Through raw reflections, wry humour, and moments of profound insight, Rachel charts the winding path of her gender transition with compassion, grace, and a voice all her own. Rachel came out as transgender in mid-2018, after enduring years of self-destructive behaviour and internal struggle. Her turning point? A quiet, powerful revelation in therapy, that she could give herself permission to be who she truly was. That act of self-permission, so deceptively simple yet life-altering, became the cornerstone of the life she would go on to build. Growing A Pair explores this transition not only in terms of gender, but also in terms of reclaiming joy, purpose, and personal agency. It is not a how-to manual, but it is a beacon of hope for others navigating similar storms.

Claudia Rodríguez - Cuerpos para odiar

Original title: "Cuerpos para odiar" (Bodies to hate) by Claudia Rodríguez.

Claudia Rodríguez’s Cuerpos para odiar (Bodies to Hate) is an unflinching, visceral, and poignant literary statement. More than just a book, it is a political act, a chronicle of exclusion, pain, sisterhood, and survival within the brutal margins of Latin American society. Rodríguez, a Chilean trans activist, poet, and writer, has carved a space for the voices historically erased, ignored, or caricatured.

Her prose is tender yet lacerating, humorous and haunting, deeply lyrical and defiantly political. The book opens with a chilling confession: “Because it’s believed that what is different is grotesque and monstrous, I have been so hated that I have reasons to write. I was never a hope for anyone. I put letters together and write, poorly, about this emptiness.” These words immediately set the tone for the rest of the work, this is not a book written to please. It is not here to console. It is here to expose. To scream. To remember. To disturb. And perhaps, most of all, to demand that we see the lives so often consigned to the shadows. Rodríguez writes because she was not alone in her suffering. She writes for her sisters, those who died young, of AIDS, of violence, of neglect, without ever knowing love. “I write for all the travestis who never even realized they were alive, who died of shame and guilt before they could be happy.”

Ashley J. Webb - I Am Ashley

Full title: "I Am Ashley: A True Story of Growing Up Trans in a World That Said I Couldn’t Be Her" by Ashley J. Webb.

I Am Ashley: A True Story of Growing Up Trans in a World That Said I Couldn’t Be Her by Ashley J. Webb stands as a defiant beacon of courage and visibility in a world that too often demands conformity and silences those who dare to live authentically. This is not merely a story of gender transition or personal triumph, it is a raw, unapologetic journey of survival against the tides of erasure, misunderstanding, and systemic oppression.

Ashley was born intersex and assigned male at birth in New England, raised within a framework that could neither understand nor accommodate her true self. For decades, she navigated life burdened by medical mysteries, misdiagnoses, and the agonizing invisibility imposed by a society that refused to name or see her reality. Her memoir reads like a flame, burning through confusion, repression, and shame, illuminating the path toward self-realization and empowerment. “I didn’t transition for attention,” Ashley writes, “I transitioned to survive.” This powerful declaration sets the tone for a memoir that is as much about survival as it is about identity. The journey Ashley recounts is not one of a quiet, smooth self-discovery, but rather a fierce fight, against silence, against shame, and against systems built to keep people like her invisible.

Karla Sofía Gascón Ruiz - Lo que queda de mí

Original title: "Lo que queda de mí: Lo más difícil no es cambiar, es atreverse a ser" (What's left of me: The hardest thing is not to change, it's to dare to be) by Karla Sofía Gascón Ruiz.

In Lo que queda de mí: Lo más difícil no es cambiar, es atreverse a ser (What’s Left of Me: The Hardest Thing Is Not to Change, It's to Dare to Be), Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón doesn’t just continue her story, she tears the veil off it. This searing, unsparing memoir is both a follow-up and a counterpoint to her 2018 autobiographical novel Karsia. Una historia extraordinaria (Karsia. An Extraordinary Story), written under her former name, Carlos Gascón.

But where Karsia traced the outlines of her transition, Lo que queda de mí dives into the abyss, unflinching, raw, and deeply human. From the first lines, “A body suspended in the void. A final breath. A moment where time fragments and the mind retraces the paths that led it there”, Gascón’s prose sets the tone: visceral, immediate, and unapologetically personal. This is not a celebrity tell-all, nor a curated victory lap. This is a descent into the wounded core of being. It is, in her own words, “not just a story; it’s a strangled cry, a confession without filters.” Karla Sofía Gascón has lived many lives, actor, public figure, immigrant, trans woman, controversy magnet, Cannes winner. And yet, she begins Lo que queda de mí not with triumph, but with fragility. That suspended body isn’t just metaphor. It’s the image of a person fractured by years of self-denial, survival, and social performance. “How much of our existence is just an act?” she asks. “And what happens when the curtain finally falls?”

Julia Shelton - Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir

Full title: "Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir - A Trans Woman’s Guide to Radical Self-Love" by Julia Shelton.

What if becoming yourself wasn’t about changing who you are, but coming home to the truth you’ve always known? This is the question at the heart of Julia Shelton’s bold and unflinching debut, Becoming Me: A Trans Memoir – A Trans Woman’s Guide to Radical Self-Love. Part lyrical memoir, part defiant manifesto, Shelton’s book is a raw, radiant chronicle of survival, self-discovery, and sacred transformation.

With the grace of a poet and the grit of a woman who has walked through fire, Julia invites readers not only to witness her journey but to begin (or deepen) their own. Becoming Me opens with a tender, painful recollection of childhood, a time when gender was both a secret truth and a source of silent shame. Shelton paints early life with aching honesty: the confusion of being assigned male, the ache of invisibility, the early traumas that left her unmoored long before she had the language to name her reality. Her story is neither linear nor sanitized, and that’s what makes it so powerful. It is nonlinear healing. It is poetry breaking into prose. It is a woman wrestling with, and eventually embracing, the parts of herself the world told her to bury.

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