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International Transgender Day of Visibility

by Rhianna Walton, March 31, 2021 8:29 AM
International Transgender Day of Visibility 2021

International Transgender Day of Visibility is an international observance celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people. It is also a time to raise the public’s awareness of the discrimination and harm many transgender and gender nonconforming people experience.

Here at Powell’s, it’s also an excellent excuse to share some of our favorite recent books and authors who explore themes of gender, identity, pride, and safety in creative, mind-expanding, and scintillating ways.

Fairest Fairest
by Meredith Talusan

Talusan’s memoir examines her journey from an albino child star in the Philippines to a Harvard student exploring gender and sexuality to a trans woman. Talusan is an accomplished journalist, and her unusual life story is aided by a keen eye for detail and an even keener ability to impart the complex interrelationships between perceived whiteness and power, perceived gender and safety, and the challenge of corralling all the aspects of oneself into a cohesive identity.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
by Andrea Lawlor

Lawlor’s debut bildungsroman has been a Powell’s staff favorite since its moment of publication. (Catch our Q&A with Lawlor here.) Paul can change genders at will, and they do, often to engage in different sexual situations. This novel isn’t for the squeamish, but Lawlor follows Paul’s coming-of-age with humor, sensitivity, and acuity, filling the world of the novel with a spot-on replica of early ’90s San Francisco and an engaging, diverse range of supporting characters.

Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story
by Jacob Tobia

Maybe of especial value to high school and college students (Sissy spends much of its time reflecting on Tobia’s college experiences), Tobia’s sweet and funny memoir explores Tobia’s path to self-identity, while also exploring how gender limits and harms many beyond those who self-associate as LGBTQIA+. You’ll laugh (a lot), you’ll sigh, and you’ll quickly become a Jacob Tobia fan.

Sorrowland Sorrowland
by Rivers Solomon

I just finished reading an advance reader edition of Sorrowland and while I have some quibbles (basically, Solomon includes too many themes and ideas, and does all of them too well, writing too beautifully, to make Sorrowland a cohesive story) it is still well worth reading. Solomon tells the story of Vern, a runaway from an oppressive all-Black community who may have been subject to government experiments and may be turning into something not quite human. Vern’s understanding of her gender and sexuality shifts over the course of the plot, just one fascinating element of this imaginative and overbrimming novel by one of America’s leading young writers.

Detransition BabyDetransition Baby
by Torrey Peters

Did you hear Peters’s interview with Sam Sanders on It’s Been a Minute and think, I need to read that book right now? Me too. Detransition Baby explores how three people — transgender, cisgender, and detransitioned — navigate parenthood and a complicated, three-way relationship. Peters illuminates the internal worlds, and external pressures, of her characters with riveting sensitivity and prose.

Lizard Radio Lizard Radio
by Pat Schmatz

Schmatz’s creative YA novel combines a dystopian near future where difference is not tolerated with the sometimes lonesome and scary experience of growing up unsure of who you are and what you desire. Kivali doesn’t know who or even what she is; is she a boy or a girl? A human or a space lizard? And will the ultra-regimented agriculture camp she’s been tossed into for the summer help her find the answers, or reveal her as a threat to society?

The Subtweet The Subtweet
by Vivek Shraya

This absorbing novel about an intense friendship between two South Asian Canadian musicians, Neela and Rukmini, isn’t directly about gender, sexuality, or identity. Instead, Shraya (I’m Afraid of Men, How to Fail as a Popstar) concentrates on the shared passions and experiences and professional rivalries that sustain, and ultimately undo, the relationship. Through it all, Shraya thoughtfully explores social media and texting as integral elements of the women’s relationship, something that most novelists still shy away from despite our cultural dependence on social media for work and leisure. A clever, nuanced portrait of life as a female artist of color in the 21st century, The Subtweet entertains and enlightens.

Freshwater Freshwater
by Akwaeke Emezi

This fascinating, fast-paced novel explores gender and sexual identity, cultural dislocation, and mental illness through the lens of the Nigerian spiritual entity, the ogbanje. By attaching the main character’s gender fluidity and depression to a traditional Nigerian narrative of gods and possession, Emezi questions the Western impulse to pathologize difference while expanding the reader’s understanding of the possible. After reading Freshwater, you’ll be curious about Emezi; learn more in their forthcoming memoir, Dear Senthuran.

Thinking Again Thinking Again
by Jan Morris

Most of the books on this list concern themselves with the lives of young people, but Jan Morris’s delightful Think Again covers more than half a century of her extraordinary life: summiting Mt. Everest in 1953, covering the Eichmann trial, writing monumental histories, and documenting her experiences with gender reassignment in the 1970s. Under the guise of a modern diary (six months of 2018), Morris’s recollections roam far and wide, and never fail to surprise.

The City in the Middle of the Night The City in the Middle of the Night
by Charlie Jane Anders

Dubbed “anthropological/social” sci-fi by Kirkus, Anders’s The City in the Middle of the Night is a fabulous exploration of monetary privilege, colonialism, and true friendship, all on a half melting, half icy planet inhabited by humans and native, intelligent crocodile-like monsters. Anders manages a perfect balance of action and emotional development, forcing the reader to sit painfully with Sophie as she determines friend from foe, while also making them want to race ahead to the next space battle. Fun and smart: What could be better?

The Thirty Names of Night The Thirty Names of Night
by Zeyn Joukhadar

Zeyn Joukhadar’s much-loved debut, The Map of Salt and Stars, and beautiful essay for the Powell’s blog clued us in to his facility with language about place and identity, but I’m not sure anything could have prepared us for the poetry and intensity of his second book, The Thirty Names of Night. About Syrian American immigrants separated by time but connected through art, culture, and similar yearnings, The Thirty Names of Night is about the ghosts of history and the ever-unfolding, creative act of becoming oneself.

My Life in Transition My Life in Transition
by Julia Kaye

Comics author Julia Kaye (Super Late Bloomer) continues her chronicle of living openly as a trans woman with My Life, which takes a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest look at Kaye’s dating and relationship experiences, as well as the everyday ups and downs of life post-transition.


Browse our longer lists of sensational books by transgender and gender nonconforming writers:
Extended list of books to honor International Transgender Day of Visibility 
Shop all related books 



Books mentioned in this post

Lizard Radio

Pat Schmatz

The Map of Salt and Stars: A Novel

Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition

Julia Kaye

Freshwater

Akwaeke Emezi

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

Andrea Lawlor

The City in the Middle of the Night

Charlie Jane Anders

Sissy A Coming of Gender Story

Jacob Tobia

Thirty Names of Night

Zeyn Joukhadar

Fairest: A Memoir

Meredith Talusan

Detransition, Baby: A Novel

Torrey Peters

My Life in Transition: A Super Late Bloomer Collection

Julia Kaye

Thinking Again A Diary

Jan Morris

How to Fail as a Popstar

Vivek Shraya, Brendan Healy

Sorrowland

Rivers Solomon

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir

Akwaeke Emezi
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