Synopses & Reviews
Transgender indie electronica singer-songwriter Rae Spoon has six albums to their credit, including 2012s
I Cant Keep All of Our Secrets. This first book by Rae (who uses "they" as a pronoun) is a candid, powerful story about a young person growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family in rural Canada.
The narrator attends church events and Billy Graham rallies faithfully with their family before discovering the music that becomes their salvation and means of escape. As their father's schizophrenia causes their parents' marriage to unravel, the narrator finds solace and safety in the company of their siblings, in their nascent feelings for a girl at school, and in their growing awareness that they are not the person their parents think they are. With a heart as big as the prairie sky, this is a quietly devastating, heart-wrenching coming-of-age book about escaping dogma, surviving abuse, finding love, and risking everything for acceptance.
Rae Spoon lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Review
Rae Spoon is definitely more than a songwriter to swoon for; I predict that
First Spring Grass Fire will be a curative for all the heartbroken kids in small towns trying to fight for their right to be who they are. This collection of tender-hearted coming-of-age stories is an impressive literary gem. Zoe Whittall, author of
Holding Still for as Long as PossibleSynopsis
Transgendered musician and writer Rae Spoons memoir about growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family in rural Canada.
About the Author
Rae Spoon: Rae Spoon is a transgender musician/writer/workshop facilitator from Calgary, Canada. Rae has been nominated for a Polaris Prize, toured internationally, and released six solo albums. They were recently published in the Arsenal Pulp Press anthology
Persistence and composed the instrumental score for the National Film Board film
Dead Man.