Both/And
Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature, a vital anthology of essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, sharing stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery.
Featuring seventeen essays by trans people of color—spanning writers, scientists, actors, activists, and drag queens—Both/And explores what it means to live as a trans or gender nonconforming person of color today.
Acclaimed authors Akwaeke Emezi, Tanaïs, and Meredith Talusan share their stories alongside activist and organizer Raquel Willis and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, as well as a host of rising literary talent. Each story is told with honesty, authenticity, and beauty. A nonbinary molecular biologist has nightmares about their estranged father transitioning. A writer revisits a casual hook-up when she discovered her womanhood. And a woman vacations with her wife in Hawaii, where she gets in touch with the fire goddess within. These stories depict real trans lives from trans points of view, at a time when these perspectives are most urgent and valuable.
Inspired by Electric Literature’s groundbreaking series and edited by the first Black, openly trans editor-in-chief of a major literary publication, Both/And uplifts and amplifies stories of queer joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Norris, editor-in-chief of Electric Literature, brings together 17 essays on trans life in America in this stunning anthology. Each piece considers the intersection between race and gender against the backdrop of escalating anti-trans sentiment. In "Body Type 1," Vanessa Angélica Villarreal considers the radical possibilities offered by role-playing games as a place to grieve the fantasy of inhabiting "a precolonial self." "Straining Toward Humanity" finds Kai Cheng Thom contemplating her place between the binary stereotypes of trans women as "saints" or "monsters," and in "On Beauty," Akwaeke Emezi considers the "deviance" of trans bodies and reflects on how beauty expectations were communicated to them at a young age. In "All Power to the People," Raquel Willis contends that prison abolition is "not solely about tearing down and ending what exists.... It's also about what we can build and create, especially through sacred queerness." Across the collection, the complex and multifaceted experiences of trans people of color are rendered vividly, and the pieces urge political action in the present while offering a beacon of hope for a more just future. Readers will find this tough to forget.
