Showing titles in Biographies & Memoirs

In this brave and thoughtful book, Max Robinson goes beyond the ‘before' and ‘after' of the transition she underwent and takes us through the processes that led her, first, to transition in an attempt to get relief from her distress, and then to detransition as she discovered feminist thought and community.

Where do you belong when the place you called home no longer wants you? Raised in poverty in the backwoods of South Alabama, John grew up amid violence, instability, and fear. Home was never safe. Love was never secure. When a small Pentecostal church offered safety, purpose, and belonging, he embraced it completely.

What happens when your gender doesn't fit neatly into the categories of male or female? Even mundane interactions like filling out a form or using a public bathroom can be a struggle when these designations prove inadequate. In this groundbreaking book, 30 authors highlight how our experiences are shaped by a deeply entrenched gender binary.

On the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, Iestyn Edwards, bass baritone, boarded the HMS Victory to sing at a naval supper in the presence of Her Majesty. Stacks, Royal Marines commando, was there on duty. He was also on duty when Iestyn turned up in the middle of the Iraq war on a Combined Services Entertainment tour, this time in a tutu.... Despite trying to dry his ballet tights on the anti-blast wall, singing from a tank turret and confiscating the president of Estonia’s custard creams, the most unlikely friendship was formed.

Brian Belovitch has the rare distinction of coming out three times: first as a queer teenager; second as a glamorous transgender woman named Tish, and later, Natalia Gervais; and finally as an HIV-positive gay man surviving the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. From growing up in a barely-working-class first-generation immigrant family in Fall River, Massachusetts, to spinning across the disco dance floor of Studio 54 in New York City, Brian escaped many near-death experiences. Trans Figured chronicles a life lived on the edge with an unforgettable cast of characters.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Featured as One of Summer’s most anticipated reads by the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, ELLE, Buzzfeed, and Bitch Media. From the author of I Don’t Want to Die Poor and in the style of New York Times bestsellers You Can’t Touch My Hair...

Following in the footsteps of such category killers as Milk and Honey and Whiskey Words & a Shovel I, Fariha Róisín's poetry book is a collection of her thoughts as a young, queer, Muslim femme navigating the difficulties of her intersectionality. Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Róisín and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities.

What does it mean to never forget? Especially if one of the most significant days of your life involved experiencing September 11, 2001, as an FDNY dispatcher and still a new-to-New York transplant from Ohio. In this engaging testimony to the miraculous moments that define our personal journeys, Christopher Blake Carver offers his remembrance. Sharing experiences from being adopted at birth, to being an out gay person in the fire service, and a member of the greatest group of fire dispatchers in the world.

“I’m determined to get to know the real Tommy, to trace the shape of my scars.” For years, Tommy Dorfman turned her back on her thoughts and emotions, hoping they’d simply go away. After a lifetime of confusion, she finally gained clarity around her gender and began to transition. But...

Bestselling author Rachael Herron is stuck. She and her partner have lived in their beloved East Oakland home for 15 years, almost as long as they’ve been married. But the house is in a rough area, and they’re tied to a mortgage she’s not sure they’ll ever be able to pay off. So when the whispered longing for adventure grows into a bellow she can’t ignore, Rachael decides to utilize not only her dual citizenship but also her impulsive nature. She and her partner will abandon their standard-issue American life and move to the far-distant shores of Aotearoa.

Gay icon, great poet, leather daddy, eccentric professor, English, American, biker, non-driver, drug addict, hedonist, intellectual, enigmatic, friendly, Everyman, one-of-a-kind, brother, roommate, HIV-negative, paradigmatic AIDS writer, Nazi belt wearer, Jeff Dahmer scholar, Guggenheim Genius, secret philanthropist, Formalist, Existentialist, prolific letter writer, some-sort-of-an-angel...Thom Gunn was all of these and more... But hovering above these figures lay the memory of his mother.

An unconventional, unexpectedly funny, brutally honest memoir about infertility, pregnancy and motherhood 'You and your partner want a baby. But your two bodies can't make a baby together.' If you want a baby but your body says otherwise - If you don't know the polite way to say thank you for...

Andrew Sean Greer can’t wait to get home to San Francisco after a writer’s residency in Kansas. But when his mother, Sandra, decides to come along for the ride, he has a new goal: get her to crack a smile at every stop, whether breathtaking or breathtakingly kitschy. He’s always known his mother to be as efficient and serious as a chemist (which she happens to be), always in gray, eyebrow cocked, and handling challenges with grace. To mix things up, Andrew develops an elaborate itinerary of planned chaos.

The fullest, most textural, most accurate—most human—account of Oscar Wilde's unique and dazzling life—based on extensive new research and newly discovered materials, from Wilde's personal letters and transcripts of his first trial to newly uncovered papers of his early romantic (and...

When you are raised to believe that the person you are is unacceptable, you hide. And you stay hidden. If you are X-Men and Dance Academy star Tim Pocock, you become an expert at hiding - until you can't anymore. Tim Pocock was a born performer. At ten, he took to the stage as a professional...

Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. From the UAE to Bahrain and Oman to Saudi Arabia – a region where four out of five residents are noncitizens – he begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple question:

When indie musician Mike Maimone meets legendary publicist Howard Bragman, neither expects a once-in-a-lifetime love story to unfold. Despite their perceived differences, they quickly build a world together based on music, humor, hard-won wisdom, and the unexpected tenderness that comes from finding your forever person just when you'd given up looking. But when Howard is diagnosed with cancer on the eve of Mike's proposal, the life they had been envisioning together changes overnight.

A best-selling novelist turns to memoir in this compelling story of a son’s love, a mother’s obsession, and the malevolent grip of the past. Indian-American author Manil Suri grew up in a large, crumbling apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai), which his parents, who were Hindu, shared with three...

After author Harlyn Aizley gave birth to her daughter, she watched in unanticipated horror as her partner scooped up the baby and said, "I'm your new mommy!" While they both had worked to find the perfect sperm donor, Aizley had spent nine months carrying the baby and hours in labor, so how could her partner claim to be their child's mommy? Many diapers later, Aizley began to appreciate the complexity of her partner's new role as the other mother. Together, they searched for stories about families like their own.

"An intimate and important memoir of deconstructing and reconstructing faith after abuse ... a spiritual memoir that does not shy away from abuse, queerness, or the multifaceted character of God." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A courageous, vulnerable, and spellbinding memoir that explores...