Hello, Cruel World

The twentieth anniversary edition of transgender trailblazer Kate Bornstein’s one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive — for teens, freaks, and other outlaws

Featuring an introduction by Sara Quin and a new afterword by Paul B. Preciado (translated by Jayrôme C. Robinet)

“You’ll want to keep extra copies of this one on the shelf to give away to friends in need.” —Bitch Magazine
Now with 20 additional alternatives and Kate Bornstein’s urgent new essay, “Hello, Cruel Gender,” this edition of Hello, Cruel World offers a much-needed and unorthodox catalog of alternatives to suicide for all of us — ranging from the playful to the irreverent to the controversial, fun, challenging, earnest, and easy. With love, humor, and grit, Bornstein dares readers to re-envision the gender system, encouraging us to unleash our hearts’ desires and journey toward an emphatic embrace of life.

“This book is written for the teen locked inside each of us,” writes Paul Preciado in a new afterword to the book. “The one who has lost their dream, forgotten their infinite desire for transformation, the one who has gotten used to accepting the desires of others rather than pursuing their own.” Here is a trove of insights, at once intimate and edgy, to keep every freak out there alive.

Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Nonfiction, 2007 Finalist
Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, 2009 Honor Book