#transgender authors

[duckprintspress]

Meet Some of Duck Prints Press’s Transgender Authors!

Today, March 31st 2024, is Transgender Day of Visibility! We’re celebrating by shining the spotlight on 11 trans authors who’ve published with us, and three more who are contributing to projects that are in the pipeline. Duck Prints Press works with many trans creators, but we never disclose such information without explicit permission – there are way more than 11 trans folks working with us, but the people highlighted in this post all opted in to be included: they’re here, they’re trans, and they’re happy for y’all to know that about them!

Most of these authors have published more than one work with Duck Prints Press; we’re mostly highlighting one story each for this post, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to read!

Aether Beyond the Binary is our most recent anthology (Kickstarted in January, expected to go up for sale in late spring or early summer). About half the contributors are transgender or genderqueer, including four who volunteered to be included in this post!

S. J. Ralston, who contributed the story Razzmatazz, about a dystopian Hollywood where robots of long-dead stars are forced to make movies, and about the non-binary mechanic who services them.

Kelas Lloyd, who contributed the story True, about a non-binary teen going to a remedial camp to help them learn to channel aether.

Catherine E. Green, who contributed the story To Hold the World Close, about an established non-binary couple working together to try to take down a corporation that’s trying to control access to the world-wide aether network.

Zel Howland, who contributed the story Flower and Rot, about a world where channeling aether causes human bodies to sprout plants, and about the people who sprout fungi instead.

Meet the other contributors, too!

All of our anthologies have had trans contributors; highlighted here also is And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” contributed to by Adrian Harley (a character study of modern-day Benedick’s coming out as a trans man) and Nickel J. Keep (a wlw historical story about the characters returning home after serving in World War 2).

You can read about all the contributors to Aether Beyond the Binary here.

And other works by our trans authors…

Of Loops and Weaves by Catherine E. Green: a trans woman works on a knit for her crush.

Sarisa by N. C. Farrell: a bigender he/she mecha mechanic navigates the challenges of a new pilot arriving on the ship. (N. C. Farrell also contributed to our anthology She Wears the Midnight Crown.)

Whispers of Atlantis: A Tale of Discovery and Belonging by Neo Scarlett: a family subjected to bullying because of their mixed elvish/human heritage seek a new places to live.

Chrysopoeia by Zel Howland: what happens when a witch is trapped with her personal demon…

Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley: one of only four novels Duck Prints Press has released so far, Many Drops Make a Stream introduces the shapeshifter Droplet as she and carpenter Azera search for Azera’s kidnapped friend.

A Shield for the People by Puck Malamud: a trans Jewish man uses his powers to protect the common people from the creatures of the night. (Puck Malamud also contributed to our anthology Add Magic to Taste.)

This Treatment for Chronic Pain has an Unbelievable Side Effect! by Xianyu Zhou: a man gets more than he bargained for when he participates in an experimental treatment plan for his chronic pain… (spicy!) (Xianyu Zhou also contributed to our anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers.”)

LA Photographs Itself by YF Ollwell: a steamy erotica story set in 1970s LA, about an encounter between a photographer and a trans actor.

And we’ve got upcoming projects featuring even more trans authors!

Our next anthology, Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica is slated to Kickstart in April or May and includes several trans authors, including YF Ollwell, Cedar McCafferty-Svec, and Alex Bauer! Cedar also has a story coming to the Duck Prints Press Patreon this coming week. Meet all the contributors to Many Hands.

The third installment in our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… series, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” also includes creators who chose to participate in this post: May Barros, who is an artist, and Xianyu Zhou!

So come check out Duck Prints Press, an indie press that works with fancreators to publish their original works, and support some awesome trans creators this Transgender Day of Visibility!

[dreamy-conceit]

God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason he made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine: because he wants humanity to share in the act of creation.

— Julian K. Jarboe

[quintonli]

tell me how it ends x

devout: an anthology of angels x

chrysalis and requiem x

[brandyschillace]

I turned in the book manuscript for INTERMEDIARIES, the forgotten history of the first transgender clinic 1918-1933.

It follows the story of Dora Richter, the first transgender woman to undergo complete MTF surgery (not Lili Elbe; she was third!) It’s taken me two years of blood, sweat, and tears. A lot of tears, actually.

The Nazis raided the Institute for Sexual Science; they burned the library. They banned the books that remained. They attacked, arrested, and ultimately killed trans and homosexual people along with disabled people, minority groups like the Roma people, political opponents, and 6 million Jews. (One commenter suggested 11 million people over all, and really, that estimate may still be conservative).

The news today, 2023, reads a lot like news in 1923 with the rise of hatred against LGBTQ, attacks on reproductive rights, and increasing racism and antisemitism. The Nazis rose throughout the 1920s, coming into power 1930-1933.

The world said never again; we must now be the ones to stop a slide into hatred and violence. Before it’s too late.

Here is a preview of the book; it will be available for pre-order this winter (I hope), coming out in 2024.

[tssarinahavok1]

It's about to get creampie ⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

[makingqueerhistory]

Reintroduction!

I realized I hadn't reintroduced myself since I changed my name, so here we go!

Harper-Hugo Darling

(they/them)

Balancing both fiction and nonfiction, I’ve been writing professionally since 2015. I live with my wife and three cats in Edmonton, where I watch drama videos and knit dopamine blankets. My heart belongs to speculative fiction, gory details, and queering as a verb.

I am the founder and head writer of Making Queer History, and my work has been featured in And/Both, Bustle, Hungry Zine, and Daily Xtra. It has also been mentioned in Vice, Slate, and Harper's Bazaar. Through my writing, I have been paid to speak at universities and conferences throughout Canada.

I was raised on Tamora Pierce and find myself endlessly inspired by authors such as Kat Howard, Elana Dykewomon, Akwaeke Emezi, Vivek Shraya, and Victor Hugo. All of my work is looked over and loved by my wife.

If you want to keep up with me as an author, you can do so here!

[uncanny-tranny]

"If men got periods/needed abortion/got ovarian or breast cancer, those resources would be handed out like candy! They'd be more plentiful than ATMs!!"

You mean perisex cis men. You mean perisex cis men. Say what you mean.

I'm a trans man. I avoid all medical care because ninety percent of my doctors have not treated me properly because I am a trans man. I am acutely aware that doctors would be more than happy to not provide me care on the basis of my being trans, even if it costed my life.

Every time I so much as think about the doctors, I'm reminded of men like Robert Eads - of how my care is at the whim of the opinions a doctor has about my life. And because of my own past negative experiences, I hesitate to open my patient portal to schedule an appointment. When I have gotten a good doctor, it's not been the rule, it's the exception. I have a doctor right now who I'm lucky to see, who actually treats me like a human being. I'm celebrating that a doctor finally treats me like a person.

If you want to group all men as being the same, I hope you're willing to have that blood on your hands. Because that care is routinely kept away from men, and it's a real, tangible, systemic issue.

I don't talk about this because I see being trans as this negative thing, but because I want to continue living and I want my trans siblings to live. I understand the frustration that people have who say this - it's another systemic issue that also costs lives. However, I am alarmed at the trend of... forgetting or perhaps erasing that this is still an issue for men, that we literally aren't treated the same as somebody like a cis perisex woman. No doctor has ever treated me like one, and of that I know for a fact. And this is a simple fix - be clear about who you mean when you talk about a group of people or a specific phenomenon. That applies when you are talking about any group of people because, generally, these overgeneralizations will be useless because it can't apply to everyone, and might just hurt a group of people you may not even be intending on hurting.

[color-picked-pride-flags]

Trans flag color picked from Sebastian Solace

[carrieemberlyns-blog]

[mxjackparker]

... nice

Working Guys: A Transmasculine Sex Worker Anthology is now 69% funded! 122 people have contributed so far, towards sharing the experiences of transmasc sex workers! Help us get to 100% so we can get this book published!

[kooldewd123]

At the start of each Animorphs book, before the first chapter begins, there is a page. On it is a simple acknowledgement. Two names. The first name is Michael - Katherine Applegate's husband and co-writer on the series. The second name is that of a boy. This name belongs to their son. Or, should I say, belonged to their son. Because they don't have a son anymore. They have a daughter. Every time I pick up an Animorphs book, I can't help but linger on this page as I quite literally hold her deadname in my hands. It's a peculiarly beautiful feeling. Peculiar because the context behind that name makes it seem all the more personal. I feel like I've violated her privacy simply by knowing it, even though it's openly out there for anyone to read. But beautiful because dammit, doesn't this represent this series's relationship with the queer community so well? Animorphs is often regarded as a queer (and especially trans) narrative, despite the fact that such subtext was completely unintentional. Applegate did not write Animorphs to be queer media, but she's embraced the fact that it has became so in the hands of the fans. How perfectly fitting is it, then, that she unknowingly dedicated the entire series to a trans woman?

[theabigailthorn]

finally watched all of Hazbin, definitely cried a bit at Episode 7 and sent Morgana a tearful message

[clowningcrows]

is it horribly cringe to pick your new chosen name based off of your favorite book character (who is also ftm autistic!!) or is that like…. okay

[brandyschillace]

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate Trans Authors and Trans Characters this Transgender Awareness Week!

Happy Transgender Awareness Week everyone!! We asked our rec list contributors for their favorite books with trans characters or by trans authors, and the result is this list of 20 awesome books, all with trans characters (though some open to interpretation) and most by trans authors! This adds to the list of 11 books we did for Transgender Awareness Week last year. The contributors to this list are: Linnea Peterson, S. J. Ralston, Nina Waters and Shannon.

May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

Acting the Part by Z.R. Ellor

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa

An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

Dreadnought by April Daniels

The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist by Ben Barres

Fine: A Comic About Gender by Rhea Ewing

Deadendia: The Watcher’s Test by Hamish Steele

Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier & Val Wise

The Pirate and the Porcelain Girl by Emily Riesbeck

Kim & Kim by Magdalene Visaggio & Eva Cabrera

Submerged by Vita Ayala

Rules For Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Prospects by KT Hoffman

Brooms by Jasmine Walls

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Free From Falling by E.L. Massey

What are your favorite books by trans authors and/or starring trans characters?

You can see all our favorite books with transgender characters by visiting our related shelf on Goodreads.

See a book you need to buy? Shop our affiliate shop on Bookshop.org to browse these and more books there!

Want to contribute to these lists? Patreon backers at all levels can join our Discord and become reccers with the Press!

[enbeemagical]

lemme try this again

Hey Tumblr! I'm writing a book. It's 102k words (and counting) of pure queer fantasy and a year's worth of emotions.

It's about a queer kid finding community and support, and then stepping up to defend the people they love. And it's about falling in love and finding yourself, and it's about trust, and connection, and responsibility, and trying to do good in the world. It is also about gay.

Blurb thing:

Destiny has always been alone, self-isolating so that no one will find out about her magic, the same power that she watched a little girl dragged away for nine years ago. Then she meets Vida, a beautiful fae whose kiss sparks something inside her, and Destiny chooses to follow her.

She's not expecting Vida's family to be a werewolf pack. Or that they'll be so welcoming— she was told werewolves are monsters, after all. She's definitely not expecting them to become her own family.

But when Destiny begins to change, it's the wolves who accept him for who he is. And it's the wolves who are the first to see Destiny's magic and swear to protect them, no matter what. And it's up to Destiny to decide what that looks like.

Even if it means changing the world.

(yes the pronoun shifts in the almost-last paragraph were intentional)

And now a quote:

“Don’t you ever want to do something you’re not supposed to? Love the wrong way, be the wrong person, want the wrong things?”

If this sounds like your cup of tea, rb and let me know! I'm not sure when I'll start posting it, there's still a few edits I need to get done, but encouragement will definitely make that happen sooner~