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: "I mitt namn: En bok om att vara trans" (In my name: A book about being trans) by Moa-Lina Olbers Croall.
The book is based on interviews with trans people – everything from young people in middle school and high school to role models such as actress and winner of the Award for Best Female Lead Role in 2015 - Saga Becker, stage poet Yolanda Bohm and head of school and former principal Lina Axelsson Kihlblom, who came out as trans in Skavlan in the autumn of 2015.
The book also contains facts about trans and tips for anyone who is transgender. It's a book for young people pondering their gender identity, but it's also aimed at those around a transgender person, such as school staff, friends, and family.
Moa-Lina Croall (born 1982) is a Swedish author and musician. Moa-Lina has written several books for children and young people and teaches at Biskops Arnö's songwriting training.
2016,
Lina Axelsson Kihlblom,
Moa-Lina Olbers Croall,
Saga Becker,
Swedish,
Yolanda Bohm,
Full title: "Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes" by Don Kulick.
"In this dramatic and compelling narrative, anthropologist Don Kulick follows the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes (called travestis in Portuguese) in the Brazilian city Salvador. Travestis are males who, often beginning at ages as young as ten, adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles, and linguistic pronouns. More dramatically, they ingest massive doses of female hormones and inject up to twenty liters of industrial silicone into their bodies to create breasts, wide hips, and large thighs and buttocks.
Despite such irreversible physiological changes, virtually no travesti identifies herself as a woman. Moreover, travestis regard any male who does so as mentally disturbed.
Kulick analyzes the various ways travestis modify their bodies, explores the motivations that lead them to choose this particular gendered identity, and examines the complex relationships that they maintain with one another, their boyfriends, and their families. Kulick also looks at how travestis earn their living through prostitution and discusses the reasons prostitution, for most travestis, is a positive and affirmative experience."
1998,
Brazil,
Don Kulick,
English,
"Toransujendā mondai ―― giron wa seiginotameni" トランスジェンダー問題――議論は正義のために (Transgender Issues – Debate for Justice) is the Japanese language edition of "The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice" by Shon Faye.
"Trans people in Britain today have become a culture war 'issue'. Despite making up less than 1% of the country's population, they are the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarised 'debate', which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows. This media frenzy conceals a simple fact: that we are having the wrong conversation, a conversation in which trans people themselves are reduced to a talking point and denied a meaningful voice.
In this powerful new book, Shon Faye reclaims the idea of the 'transgender issue' to uncover the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In doing so, she provides a compelling, wide-ranging analysis of trans lives from youth to old age, exploring work, family, housing, healthcare, the prison system, and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities, in contemporary Britain and beyond."
2022,
Japanese,
Shon Faye,
Original title: "Endlich Nora!: Aus einem Transgender" (Finally Nora!: From a Transgender Life) by Nora Dahmer.
I grew up in the sixties and seventies when transsexuality was still a foreign word. More than 40 years trapped as Jens in my own public cage and believing that he was perverted and deviant. Desperately struggling with myself to be accepted as a man in society. I had a great family with two children. Should I endanger everything with a coming-out?
Accompanied by numerous preparations, I dare to come out with family and friends in 2019 after so many years of public cage. There are many moving situations that are so different from what I had previously feared. I can be a little Nora without having to give up my previous life.
2022,
German,
Nora Dahmer,
Full title: "My Transition Journal: A Transgender Arc of Self-Discovery" by Shelli Renee Joye.
The book presents the transition story of Shelli Renee Joye, an American scientist and academic. The publication is "an intense journal covering two years of transitioning from male to female, including a year of "telehealth" counseling daily correspondence with a world-leading gender therapist."
According to New Dawn Magazine, Shelli Renee Joye is the author of 10 books exploring the practical links between the physics of consciousness and Perennial philosophy. Dr. Joye attended Rice University on a physics scholarship and after graduating with a BS in Electrical Engineering, she met John Lilly and joined him in his work to explore interspecies communication. While living in New York, Dr. Joye was a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and after moving to San Francisco to do graduate work for an M.A. in Asian philosophies where she studied Patanjali’s Sutras in the original Sanskrit with Dr. Ramamurti Mishra. She recently completed her doctorate at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the interdisciplinary Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program.
2022,
English,
Interview,
Shelli Renee Joye,
USA,
Original title: "Aietirafat sayid sali: alqisat almuthirat litalib altibi aladhi tahawal alaa aimra'ati/ sali" اعترافات سيد سالي : القصة المثيرة لطالب الطب الذي تحول الى امرأة/ سالي (Confessions of Mr. Sally: The Thriller Story of Medical Student-turned-Woman/Sally) by Sally Mursi.
The book includes the confessions of Sally Mursi, a charismatic transgender pioneer from Egypt. According to Wikipedia, Sally Mursi (ar: سالي مرسي, born in 1968) is an Egyptian entertainer and transgender woman. Her sex reassignment surgery in 1988 stirred a lot of controversy and lawsuits in Egypt. Before she pursued medical operations, Mursi consulted with psychologist Salwa Jirjis Labib and underwent three years of conversion therapy, after which she was referred to a plastic surgeon Ezzat Ashamallah, who affirmed the diagnosis of "psychological hermaphroditism" and prescribed hormone replacement therapy for one year prior performing surgery on January 29, 1988.
1991,
Arabic,
Egypt,
Sally Mursi,
Original title: "Veneno: De Adra a las estrellas, una biografía ilustrada" (Poison: From Adra to the stars, an illustrated biography) by Alex Ander and Carlos Valdivia Biedma.
25 years ago, Cristina, la Veneno, appeared for the first time on television by Pepe Navarro. Every night, millions of viewers watched a trans woman shamelessly talk about herself, her work, or her past. Soon, her charisma, her body, and her authenticity catapulted her to fame, which, as is often the case, brought with it ups and downs and moments of darkness. From then on, Cristina's life was a rollercoaster in which as soon as she earned millions of pesetas a night, she found herself in prison for fraud. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her appearance on television, and the 5th anniversary of her death, journalist Álex Ander and illustrator Carlos Valdivia come together to capture in text and illustrations the life of one of the greatest icons of recent decades.
2021,
Alex Ander,
Carlos Valdivia Biedma,
Cristina La Veneno,
Cristina Ortiz,
La Veneno,
Spanish,
Full title: "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Trans (But Were Afraid to Ask)" by Brynn Tannehill.
"Leading activist and essayist Brynn Tannehill tells you everything you ever wanted to know about transgender issues but were afraid to ask. The book aims to break down deeply held misconceptions about trans people across all aspects of life, from politics, law and culture, through to science, religion and mental health, to provide readers with a deeper understanding of what it means to be trans.
The book walks the reader through transgender issues, starting with "What does transgender mean?" before moving on to more complex topics including growing up trans, dating and sex, medical and mental health, and debates around gender and feminism. Brynn also challenges deliberately deceptive information about transgender people being put out into the public sphere. Transphobic myths are debunked and biased research, bad statistics and bad science are carefully and clearly refuted."
2018,
Brynn Tannehill,
English,
USA,
Original title: "Watashi no karada wa kamisama ga itazura de tsukutta no? - Seidōitsuseishōgai o koete" 私の体は神様がイタズラで造ったの?―性同 - 性障害を超えて(Was My Body Created by God as a Prank? - Beyond Gender Identity Disorder) by Ikeda Minoru 池田 稔
The book presents the reality of the anguish of transgender people and the actual conditions of treatment for gender identity disorder in Japan. The author is a urologist who deals with patients suffering from gender identity disorder.
Ikeda Minoru receives many messages like this one: "No matter how you look at it, the body I was born with belongs to a "man". But I want to live my life as a "woman". Based on e-mails sent to the author's website, etc., the reality of the suffering of people suffering from gender identity disorder is summarized and explained so that it can be understood correctly from a medical point of view. The content covers exchanges such as emails between the author and people who feel uncomfortable with their gender.
2001,
Ikeda Minoru,
Japanese,
"Süßwasser" is the German 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."
2018,
Akwaeke Emezi,
German,
Nigeria,
Full title: "The Gender Frontier" by Mariette Pathy Allen. The book was published both in English and German.
"Mariette Pathy Allen documents the lives of extraordinary individuals, their partners, families and friends. Through photographs and short texts, the reader is offered an intimate connection to the book’s subjects and -insight into how their own lives are affected by gender.
As Allen says: "Trans-gendered people offer the rest of us a potentially exhilarating -vision of fluidity, freed from traditional roles or definitions. They make vivid the questions: What is the essence of humanness beyond masculinity or femininity?"
Framed by the emerging transgender political movement, The Gender Frontier is one of the first book to include both female-to-males and male-to-females, as well as queer youth. One of her subjects, Robert Eads, a female-to-male who died of ovarian cancer, was also prominently featured in the award-winning film Southern Comfort."
2003,
English,
German,
Mariette Pathy Allen,
Original title: "Blau mit ganz viel Glitzer" (Blue with lots of glitter) by Maria Vöckler & Sara Schurmann.
Luis Vöckler was three years old when he first expressed his greatest wish: he wanted to be a girl like his role model the ice queen Elsa. This is just a phase, his parents Maria and Cai think, leaving him the fun of dressing up at home. But over time, they realize that their little son could actually be a girl. For the whole family, all ups and downs of emotions begin.
Maria Vöckler talks about life with her trans* child Luisa. She deals openly with the topic and involves the kindergarten. And at first, everything seems to be going well. But then other parents complain to the management of the kindergarten, which then activates the youth welfare office. The accusation: child endangerment.
Maria Vöckler's very personal story is written down by journalist Sara Schurmann. She was looking for parents of trans* children for an interview in the summer of 2019. The research was not easy, but Maria Vöckler was finally ready to talk about her experiences.
2022,
German,
Maria Vöckler,
Sara Schurmann,
Original title: "Nata due volte" (Born twice) by Maria Nadotti and Giovanna Rizzo.
Giovanni Rizzo, an esteemed lawyer of the Venetian bar, underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1993 that would give him for the rest of his days the sexual identity that, despite contradictions, he felt his since he was a child.
At forty-eight, with a marriage and three children behind her, the professional success achieved and the fame of Don Giovanni, Giovanna can finally become a woman. Through a progressive approach to the world of Giovanna, Maria Nadotti reconstructs the stages of this "necessary metamorphosis" and introduces "Anch'io", the disturbing text that Giovanna Rizzo writes immediately after the operation.
1995,
Giovanna Rizzo,
Italian,
Maria Nadotti,
Full title: "Counseling in Genderland: A Guide for You and Your Transgendered Client" by Neila Miller.
"Those in the mental health field who have discovered gender confusion in their clients often have no background or experience in addressing it. It is like Alice's venture into Wonderland, with its own language, rules, ethics, reasoning, and poetry."
"This book is the first guide written for counselors of every description, plus interested laypersons, which gives a practical map in readable language, for making one's way in this foreign terrain. Neila Miller has been working and playing with crossgendered persons for half of her twenty-eight years as a humanistic counselor/educator."
1996,
English,
Neila Miller,
Original title: "Trans. Confesiones de una punk anarquista y vendida" (Trans. Confessions of an Anarchist and Sellout) is the Spanish language edition of "Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout" by Laura Jane Grace.
Since its inception in 1997, Against Me! Not only has it been one of the most influential punk bands in the world, but also one of the most controversial. Throughout their career towards success, they have been conquering new fans while raising blisters among the old guard who supported them from the beginning. They got into trouble with the law, changed drums repeatedly, and faced a furious horde of punks who called them "sell-out" and sabotaged their concerts.
But, beyond all this, something much more important disturbed Tom Gabel, the founder of the group; A secret that for thirty years he only revealed in the pages of his diary and hinted at in some of the lyrics of his songs. After a difficult childhood and delinquent adolescence marked by drug use, Gabel continued to struggle to find her own identity, until in May 2012 she revealed it to everyone in an interview for Rolling Stone: Gabel declared to be transgender, and since that day she lives as a woman under the name of Laura Jane Grace.
2021,
Laura Jane Grace,
Spanish,
"Le cattive" (The Bad Ones) is the Italian language edition of "Las malas" (The Bad Girls) published in Argentina in 2019 by Camila Sosa Villada.
From the Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada, a book of love and affection: when we finish the last page, we want the whole world to read it too! When she arrived in the city of Córdoba to study at the university, Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada decided to go to Parque Sarmiento during the night. She was scared to death, thinking that the brutal verdict she had heard from her father could come to fruition at any moment: "One day they will knock on this door to warn me that they found you dead, thrown into a ditch." For him, this was the only possible destination for a boy who dressed as a woman.
2021,
Argentina,
Camila Sosa Villada,
Italian,
Full title: "Belonging: Portraits from LGBTQ Thailand" by Steve McCurry.
"Thailand has long had the reputation as one of the most gay-friendly destinations in Asia, particularly Bangkok with its nightlife and its relative openness and safety. While this may be true for tourists and expats, the idea of Thailand as a haven for LGBTQ people and for same-sex couples, heavily promoted by the tourist industry, does not necessarily extend to Thais themselves."
"While Thailand is home to the largest LGBTQ communities in Asia, the reality for them is less accepting. Discrimination and exclusion targeting LGBTQ people continues despite a nominally progressive stance on inclusion, and same-sex marriage remains illegal.
Against this backdrop, McCurry's lushly colored photographs take us into the vibrant LGBTQ community in Bangkok, and this beautifully packaged, affordably priced book gives us a series of close to one hundred moving and intimate portraits of people who are no longer welcome in the community in which they grew up, but who have forged a new life and a new meaning of family in the queer community."
2021,
English,
Steve McCurry,
Thailand,
"Questo libro è trans" (This book is trans) is the Italian language edition of "What's the T? The Guide to All Things Trans and/or Nonbinary" by Juno Dawson.
"In What’s the T? Stonewall ambassador and bestselling author Juno Dawson is back again, this time with everything you’ve wanted to know about labels and identities and offering uncensored advice on coming out, sex, and relationships with her trademark humor and lightness of touch. It is informative, helpful, optimistic, and funny but with a good dose of reality and some of the things that can downright suck too. The companion title to the groundbreaking This Book Is Gay, What's the T? tackles the complex realities of growing up trans with honesty and humor and is joyfully illustrated by gender non-conforming artist Soofiya."
2021,
Italian,
Juno Dawson,
Full title: "Now That I See You" by Emma Batchelor.
"In those first moments, that admission felt precious to me: it was something that I alone had been deemed worthy enough to carry and I was grateful. I was grateful to finally know, but I still couldn't speak.
Something was wrong, she knew it, but she was entirely unprepared for what he would tell her."
"Viewed through the lens of a relationship breakdown after one partner discloses to the other that they are transgender, this autofiction spans eighteen months: from the moments of first discovery, through the eventual disintegration of their partnership, to the new beginnings of independence.
In diaries and letters, Now That I See You unfolds a love story that, while often messy and uncomfortable, is a poignant and personal exploration of identity, gender, love and grief."
2021,
Australia,
Emma Batchelor,
English,
Original title: "Murasaki no rirekisho" 紫の履歴書 (Purple Resume) by Akihiro Miwa 美輪 明宏. The book is an autobiography of Akihiro Miwa and was republished in 1992 and 2007.
Born in Nagasaki City in
1935, she made her debut as a professional singer at the age of seventeen. In 1957, "Mekemeke" was a big hit, and she took the world by storm with her natural good looks and unique fashion.
In 1966, she attracted attention again with her self-composed "Yoitomake no Uta", and the following year she starred in Shuji Terayama's "Hunchback Man of Aomori Prefecture" and "Fur Mary". In 1968, she starred in "Black Spider". In 1993, she reprised her role in Black Spider. In 1997, she won the Yomiuri Theater Award for Excellence for her reprise of The Two-Headed Eagle. She is active in a wide range of fields such as theater, concerts, movies, TV, radio, lectures, and writing.
1976,
Akihiro Miwa,
Japanese,
Full title: "Confusion" by Abby M. Greene.
The book is the biography of Abby M. Greene, an American transgender woman that was one of the co-founders of TV-TS CONFIDENTIAL, an American transgender magazine, illustrated with black and white photos and artwork. Abby M. Greene was a columnist and wrote different types of articles there. I came across this book in The University of Michigan Library but I could not find any additional information or its cover.
The photo of Abby M. Greene comes from TV-TS CONFIDENTIAL. Vol. 02, No. 15. available at the alta-glamour website. If you have any information about the book, please let me know.
1988,
Abby M. Greene,
English,
USA,
Original title: "Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera" (Anyone has a bad night) by Eduardo Mendicutti.
A moving story about one of the worst days for freedom and democracy in Spain, on the 40th anniversary of 23-F, the 1981 Spanish coup d'état attempt (Spanish: Intento de Golpe de Estado de España de 1981), known in Spain by the numeronym 23-F and also known as the Tejerazo, which was an attempted coup d'état or putsch in Spain on 23 February 1981.
This is the story of La Madelón, an Andalusian transgender woman, a supportive, talkative, tender, and lucid woman that broke down on the night of February 23, 1981. From that historic moment, La Madelón panics at the possibility of returning to what was before, of losing the freedoms that cost so many years and suffering. Enveloped by the exuberant speech of the people of the South, here are their adventures of that night, their occurrences, and their memories of other times.
2021,
Eduardo Mendicutti,
La Madelón,
Spain,
Spanish,
Full title: "Release the Beast: A Drag Queen's Guide to Life" by Bimini Bon Boulash.
"Bimini Bon Boulash captured hearts and minds on both sides of the Atlantic as the gag-inducing, death-dropping, plant-based breakout star of RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2. Not only did she make us laugh and cry, she showed us how to develop a Positive Mental Attitude and live happily and healthily outside society's idea of "normal."
Telling the story of how drag took her from the brink of self-destruction to the mainstage, as well as life lessons drawing on convention-breaking icons from Kate Moss to Katie Price, in this book Bimini uses all her wit, charm, and kindness to show us how to lead the lives we wish we could lead, through the life-changing magic of drag."
2021,
Bimini Bon Boulash,
Drag queen,
English,
UK,
Original title: "Transfeminismo" (Transfeminism) by Letícia Nascimento.
In the book, Letícia Nascimento, thanks to accessible and didactic language, brings to the general public necessary explanations about the concepts of gender, transgenderism, womanhood, femininity, and feminism. She shows that it is necessary for people to be open to the various existences that do not necessarily fit into the binary and cisgender organization of the world.
"A first step in this sense is to know the experiences of those who are part of these groups and this book, written by a transgender woman, an overweight woman of colour, who is present in academic circles and is an inspiration for other transsexual and transvestite women, presents these experiences, brings historical concepts and situates transfeminism within other existing feminisms."
2021,
Brazil,
Letícia Nascimento,
Portuguese,
Full title: "Half Him Half Her: When do I get to be ME" by Stephanie Rachael Vaughan.
"Gender, what is it exactly? It has often been said that Gender is who you go to bed 'as', whereas Sexuality is who you go to bed 'with'. But what happens if you are born 'intersex' and sit somewhere in between male and female; a situation made more complex if your parents conceal that fact from you? And what to think when you learn, more than five decades later, that you had modifying surgery when you were born?"
"Half Him Half Her is a heartfelt portrait beginning with the birth of Robin, to farming parents, in a small Yorkshire town in 1961. Ostensibly a boy, a relatively happy childhood ensues until puberty confirms some of the conflicting and troubling feelings that Robin has been experiencing. The physical and mental bullying started there. But despite his ever-increasing anxiety Robin survives through school, work life and even marriage.
2021,
Australia,
English,
Stephanie Rachael Vaughan,
UK,
Original title: "Diario di una trans (C'est la vie)" (Diary of a Trans (C'est la vie)) by Enrica Scielzo.
Enrico is a child born in Southern Italy into a large and happy family. From an early age, he feels that there is something special about him: he loves to look at Sailor Moon, fashion, make-up, and dreams of wearing a sparkling pink dress for his birthday. Soon he realizes that there is "a woman who aches in his body", and begins a difficult journey-interior and exterior-that will lead him to become a beautiful woman.
Diary of a Trans is the manifesto of a new generation, which looks to the future without ever forgetting its roots. During this introspective journey, Enrica talks about herself, giving very intense and moving pages about her childhood and her loves, but not sparing some criticisms of the society we live in today - apparently very open and liberal but, in fact, still full of prejudices. The biography is full of light, which wants to give hope to those who feel alone and wrong, and to those who still haven't found their way.
2021,
Enrica Scielzo,
Italian,
Original title: "28-28" by Barbra A. Bergstrom. The book was also published in 1996.
I came across this book while surfing through the vast library records of The University of Michigan Library. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find any additional information about the book on the Internet.
"A truthful biography about a sex re-assignment patient which includes the 1st 28 years he lived as a male and the next 28 years as a legal female. Pros and cons of the procedure. Hindsight being 20/20, given a chance, would she go through it all again?"
1996,
Barbra A. Bergstrom,
English,
Original title: "Yōkoso, kabā.-Chan kitchin e" ようこそ、KABA.ちゃんキッチンへ (Welcome to KABA-chan's Kitchen) by Kaba-chan KABA.ちゃん. The book is a cookbook presented by Kaba-chan, born in 1969, in Yanagawa, Fukuoka, a Japanese transgender woman, and choreographer.
According to Wikipedia, after studying dance in the USA, she became known in Japan as a member of the musical group Dos with Taeco Nishikawa and Asami Yoshino. Being a celebrity in Japan, Kaba-chan was open with her sexuality. While she was already known for her flamboyant character in Dos, she came out as a gay man publicly on television on a 2002 episode of the Japanese variety show Dancing Sanma Palace.
2005,
Japanese,
Kaba-chan,
