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: "A reinvenção do corpo: Sexualidade e gênero na experiência transexual" (The Reinvention of the Body: Sexuality and Gender in the Transsexual Experience) by Berenice Bento."This book is anchored in the life stories of people who have changed their bodies, surgically or not, to become real, so as not to be 'freaks', a common expression among transsexuals. The reinvention of the body: sexuality and gender in the transsexual experience will suggest that explanations for the emergence of the transsexual experience should be sought in the historical and social articulations that pr
2021,
Berenice Bento,
Brazil,
Portuguese,
Full title: "Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects" by David Evans Frantz, Christina Linden, and Chris E. Vargas."Spanning over four centuries, this volume brings together a wide-ranging selection of artworks and artifacts that highlight the under-recognized histories of trans and gender-nonconforming communities. Through the contributions of artists, writers, poets, activists, and scholars, this title reflects on historical erasure and imagines trans futures.
An expansive array of objects chart not a patriarchal history but a gender-neutral, trans-centric history.The first publication of its kind, t
2024,
Chris E. Vargas,
Christina Linden,
David Evans Frantz,
English,
Kate Bornstein,
Sandy Stone,
Zackary Drucker,
Original title: "Memorias, identidades y experiencias trans: (In)visibilidades entre Argentina y España" (Memories, identities and trans experiences: (In)visibilities between Argentina and Spain) by Jorge Luis Peralta and Rafael M. Mérida Jiménez."Visible but, at the same time, invisible: this paradoxical condition has marked and continues to mark the existence of trans people. Consequently, the reconstruction of possible genealogies comes up against a certain void in terms of representations, especially if they are first-person accounts, not mediated by an "other" alien to the social and sex
2015,
Argentina,
Camila Sosa Villada,
Kim Pérez,
Lohana Berkins,
Naty Menstrual,
Spain,
Spanish,
Full title: "Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of The Matrix" by Tilly Bridges."Trans woman and screenwriter Tilly Bridges takes you through the trans allegories of the Matrix franchise, with deep dives into The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Matrix Resurrections, tracking one person’s transition journey - from Thomas Anderson, to Neo... to Trinity.
Each movie’s allegory is deeply layered, building from movie to movie, and speaks to a different aspect of trans existence.You’ll learn how color is used to convey more than you realize, how Neo
2023,
English,
Interview,
Tilly Bridges,
Original title: "Tierra amarga" (Bitter Land) by Kayla Casanova."Kayla's journey begins in the south of dark Italy in the 80s. As a being of light that she has been since she was born, she decided to seek her true happiness. Always happy, positive and with a different vision of life, she will manage to overcome the obstacles that she will encounter from bullying, anorexia, homophobia, transphobia and all the other phobias that will come across in her life.But nothing manages to break her goal, but instead gives her energy to turn her into what she is today, a being of peace, with enough spark
2022,
Italy,
Kayla Casanova,
Spanish,
Full title: "Passage" by Gwen Benaway."In her second collection of poetry, Passage, Gwen Benaway examines what it means to experience violence and speaks to the burden of survival. Traveling to Northern Ontario and across the Great Lakes, Passage is a poetic voyage through divorce, family violence, legacy of colonization, and the affirmation of a new sexuality and gender. Previously published as a man, Passage is the poet's first collection written as a transwoman. Striking and raw in sparse lines, the collection showcases a vital Two Spirited identity that transects borders of race, gender,
2016,
Canada,
English,
Gwen Benaway,
Original title: "Continuadísimo" (Continuity) by Naty Menstrual."Naty Menstrual writes tales of grotesque lust but tinged with the tender piety with which the best popular chroniclers usually wrap their creatures. Her scatological eroticism has antecedents as remarkable as Quevedo, who wrote Gracias y desgracias del ojo del culo and Aristophanes, who put a black pudding seller as the protagonist of his comedy Los caballeros. With narrative dexterity, Naty Menstrual passes through the noses of readers new flowers of evil who, with their crooked heels and tired wigs, know how to wrest a to
2008,
Argentina,
Naty Menstrual,
Spanish,
"Valid: Dystopian Autofiction" is the English language edition of "Valide" by Chris Bergeron."Although it is described as an autobiographical science fiction novel, the context it offers is not that far removed from our current world. We project ourselves 30 years into the future, in a world governed by the artificial intelligence Total David. Human beings are then confined and are only allowed a few hours of going out a day. "This feeling of living in a bubble that is in the novel, and that came before the pandemic, is for many trans women what they experience on a daily basis. Valide is a s
2023,
Canada,
Chris Bergeron,
English,
Original title: "La Revolución de las Mariposas" (The Butterfly Revolution) by Alicia Ruiz, Las Mochas, Lucía Fuster Pravato, Marlene Wayar, Gabriela Mansilla, Karina Nazábal, Alan Otto Prieto, Sebastian Amaro, Alba Rueda, Say Sacayán, Dario Arias, Emiliano Litardo, and Paula Viturro."The Butterfly Revolution. Ten years after The Deed of the Proper Name. An investigation into the situation of the trans population in the City of Buenos Aires. It was developed jointly by the Gender and Sexual Diversity Program, the Divino Tesoro Foundation and the Mocha Celis Trans Popular High School. It seeks
2013,
Alan Otto Prieto,
Alicia Ruiz,
Argentina,
Gabriela Mansilla,
Karina Nazábal,
Las Mochas,
Lucía Fuster Pravato,
Marlene Wayar,
Sebastian Amaro,
Spanish,
Full title: "Bilbo's Bend" by Aleshia Brevard."Trey Bilbo spent his early life on a Tennessee farm, the son of a loving Appalachian-born mother and a distant blue-blooded father. Young, handsome, and talented, he wins an art school scholarship that takes him to San Francisco. He finds himself an affordable place to live in the nefarious Tenderloin district, where he is befriended by a male street hustler with a flair for fashion design, a Cajun stripper who performs with his pet boa, and an assortment of 1960s social activists.Trey experiments with several personas in his search for identity-
2015,
Aleshia Brevard,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "TRANSBARCELONAS: Cultura, género y sexualidad en la España del siglo XX" (Transbarcelonas: culture, gender and sexuality in the Spain of the twentieth century) by Rafael M. Mérida Jiménez."The 1970s have been colonized in Spain by the official discourse of the Transition, by political change and the construction of democracy. And like any process of colonization, it has been destructive and deceitful: the trans reality has been as ignored as it has been marginalized.Thus, Barcelona's trans capital status was not only in the nightclubs, but also in its cinemas and streets. The
2016,
Rafael M. Mérida Jiménez,
Spanish,
"Being Wiebke II: Part VIII of the diary of a trans woman, the second “I finally am myself” part (Jan. - Mar. 2023) (Becoming Wiebke) is the English language edition of "Wiebke sein II: Teil VIII des Tagebuchs einer trans Frau, der zweite “angekommene” Teil (Jan. - Mär. 2023)” (Wiebke werden) by Wiebke ter Lichten.""It must have been around the summer of 2018 when my girlfriend asked me out of the blue if I had ever thought of being completely transformed into a woman. She suggested that it might be interesting. I was pushing around quite a bit, and honestly, the thought might have crossed my
2023,
English,
Wiebke ter Lichten,
Original title: "Mio figlio in rosa" (My Son in Pink) by Camilla Vivian."Confronting different people and places has taught me to understand and accept diversity, but above all, it has made me become a curiosity junkie. This is the conclusion Camila reaches after verifying that her son has always felt the desire to be a girl.In fact, far from putting any obstacle or obstacle, Camila decides to take her son's hand and help him during the process of searching for his own identity, a path during which they will have to face numerous prejudices and the lack of information that characterize the wo
2017,
Camilla Vivian,
Italian,
Full title: "A Working Class Family Ages Badly" by Juno Roche."Juno Roche has had a remarkable life. They were born in Peckham in the 1960s, into a working-class family who dabbled in minor criminality. The only one of their siblings to go to university, shortly after beginning their course at Brighton they were diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence. They spent much of their younger life caught up in serious drug addiction, addiction financed often by sex work, but recovered and, after working for some years as a teacher, have for a long time now been a writer and successful campaigner.Th
2022,
English,
Juno Roche,
"Follando con mujeres trans" (Fucking trans women) is the Spanish language edition of "Fucking Trans Women: A Zine About the Sex Lives of Trans Women" by Mira Bellwether."Mira's groundbreaking text is not so much a guide on how to have sex as a trans person or with a trans person, but what trans culture can teach us about sex and sexuality. Trans culture is consent, exploration, knowing and loving each other, fluidity and romance. Mira captures this wisdom in his text, from the little-known practice of "muffing" to toys, anatomy, communication, friendship, and more." According to Wikiped
2023,
Mira Bellwether,
Spanish,
"Ladyboys of Thailand: An Anthropological Approach" is the English language version of "Ladyboys de Thaïlande: Une approche anthropologique" by Jean-Pascal Huvé and Franck Poupart.It is estimated that between half a million and one million "kathoeys" live in Thailand. All of them, from a very young age, have had the feeling of being little girls trapped in boys' bodies and have never stopped assuming or claiming their femininity.
Why in Thailand, why so many, why so pretty?The authors met and interviewed many ladyboys, whether they were veterinarians, escorts, cabaret dancers or political sci
2022,
English,
Franck Poupart,
Jean-Pascal Huvé,
Original title: "Trans: Histórias reais que ajudam a entender a vida das pessoas transexuais desde a infância" (Trans: Real stories that help understand the lives of transgender people from childhood) by Renata Ceribelli and Bruno Della Latta."In Trans - Real stories that help to understand the lives of transgender people since childhood, journalists Renata Ceribelli and Bruno Della Latta revisit the interviewees of the report and also gather unpublished accounts of those who are often silenced and discriminated against daily.""This book requires an open and free mind to be able to enter the
2021,
Brazil,
Bruno Della Latta,
Portuguese,
Renata Ceribelli,
Full title: "Danica Roem: Biography. Breaking Barriers, Challenging Societal Norms, And Effecting Positive Change" by Eric Miller."Danica Roem, is a trailblazing figure whose remarkable journey spans music, journalism, and groundbreaking politics. A passionate violinist in her early years, Roem's commitment to self-expression and community service set the stage for her multifaceted life.Transitioning from a career in journalism, where she worked at the Gainesville Times, Roem entered the political arena with a historic win in the 2017 Virginia House of Delegates election. Her victory made her
2023,
Danica Roem,
English,
Eric Miller,
Original title: مروری بر زندگی تراجنسیتی ها (A Review of Transgender Life) by Mehri Shahhosseini."This book contains information received from transgender people and experts in this field, and it is about the situation of people whose internal gender identity is in conflict with the gender they were assigned at birth; Therefore, they always think about how to make changes in their body to achieve the desired sexual characteristics, according to their soul and spirit.To put it more simply, transgenders are people who have a healthy soul in a body that they do not consider to be their own, whic
2022,
Iran,
Mehri Shahhosseini,
Persian,
Full title: "Italian Trans Geographies" by Danila Cannamela, Marzia Mauriello, and Summer Minerva."To my knowledge, this collection is absolutely unique-and, for that reason, absolutely vital. Over and over again, I was impressed with how smart it is. Besides being accessible to audiences both inside and outside of the academy, the movement across gender studies, anthropology, history, and political activism is also useful. I learned a lot by reading this anthology, and it really challenged me to think about the relationship between my own Sicilian American identity, gender, and sexuality, an
2023,
Danila Cannamela,
English,
Helena Velena,
Italy,
Marzia Mauriello,
Porpora Marcasciano,
Romina Cecconi,
Summer Minerva,
Original title: "Rogéria: uma mulher e mais um pouco" (bbbbbb) by Márcio Paschoal."Rogéria's story is more like fiction. Born Astolfo Barroso Pinto, she had to face great challenges to assert herself as a homosexual, an icon of transformism and, above all, an artist. Moved by an enormous passion for art and life, she conquered, over more than 50 years of career, her space in theater, cinema and television, consecrating herself as an irresistible, almost mythical character: Rogéria, the transvestite of the Brazilian family.In this book, Marcio Paschoal reconstructs the intense trajectory of As
2016,
Brazil,
Márcio Paschoal,
Portuguese,
Full title: "Transsexuality in Turkey: The Representation of Transsexual Identities in Contemporary Turkish Films" by Hüma Saruhan."LGBT issues in Turkey are often ignored by the government entities and mostly misrepresented in the Turkish mass media. Transsexual subjects, often erroneously identified as transvestites, yet have been subjected to various types of violence and stereotyping throughout the history of the modern Turkish Republic. The mass media undoubtedly played a part in enforcing many negative and/or erroneous stereotypes in the minds of the audience. Yet, there are some Turkis
2020,
English,
Hüma Saruhan,
Turkey,
Original title: "Nany People: Ser mulher não é para qualquer um" (Nany People: Being a woman is not for everyone) by Flavio Queiroz."Being a woman is not for everyone' narrates the personal trajectory of Nany People who, as she says, never came out in Playboy, but lives in people's imagination. She arrived in São Paulo at the age of 20 without too many resources but with a lot of determination. From the shows she did as a drag queen in concert halls, through theater and radio, she soon took flight to television, conquering Brazil once and for all.She wrote a column for G Magazine for almost t
2015,
Brazil,
Flavio Queiroz,
Portuguese,
Full title: "What Is A Woman? Answers From A Transgender Perspective" by Michelle Jacklyn Miller."As we near the 2024 elections, certain members of the far right have made anti-trans legislation their battle cry. Candidates are making bigotry their platform for election. This book is meant to combat common misconceptions about transgender people in general. We dive into the science behind gender and understand why transgender women are, indeed, women.This book is a must-read for everyone who supports the transgender community. However, if you are on the fence about who to believe, the crazy r
2023,
English,
Michelle Jacklyn Miller,
Original title: "La felicidad es terrible" (Happiness is Terrible) by Lizy Tagliani."At some point in 2021, Hernán Casciari realized that Lizy Tagliani was (in addition to a lot of things) a writer. She was on the radio program Perros de la calle. The two shared that space and Casciari was fascinated by the way Lizy recounted the anecdotes that made up her life. In an intuitive and masterful way, each story had an introduction, conflict and outcome, with the detail that all these stories exhibited the surreal and terrible way in which Lizy had carried out her existence.Convinced that these na
2022,
Argentina,
Lizy Tagliani,
Spanish,
Full title: "Trans America: A Counter-History" by Barry Reay."Trans seems to be everywhere in American culture. Yet there is little understanding of how this came about. Are people aware that there were earlier periods of gender flexibility and contestability in American history? How well known is it that a previous period of trans visibility in the 1960s and early 1970s faced a vehement backlash right at the time that trans, in the form of what was then termed transvestism and transsexuality, seemed to be so ascendant? Was there transness before transsexuality was named in the 1950s and tran
2020,
Barry Reay,
English,
Original title: "Certos Movimentos de um Coração" (Certain Movements of a Heart) by Ruddy Pinho."Certain Movements of the Heart is another book by the poet Ruddy, who lays bare her soul in a cadence of feelings, without mask, hypocrisy and/or camouflage, seeking what is most valuable - authenticity.
Ruddy combines Love and Art "as inseparable brothers and lovers in unusual incest invading her BEING".She opens her heart and sings: "I threw into the sea / the key to my heart. /Now it's going to be cool./ I left the door open/for anyone who wants to come in." And she goes further, in her cry of
1988,
Brazil,
Portuguese,
Ruddy Pinho,
"Mama Black Widow" is the French language edition of "Mama Black Widow" by Iceberg Slim, published in 2013. The book was translated into French by Gérard Henri."Mama Black Widow tells the tragic story of Otis Tilson, a stunning black drag queen trapped in a cruel queer ghetto underworld. In hopes of escaping the racial bigotry and economic injustice of the South, Otis’ family journeys north from their plantation to an urban promised land. Once in Chicago Otis and his brother and sisters become prisoners to a wasteland of violence, crime, prostitution and rape. This is the gut-wrenching tale o
2020,
Drag queen,
French,
Iceberg Slim,
Otis Tilson,
