UO Book Club: Meet the Writers of Transitions
We catch up with the writers of Transitions: Our Stories of Being Trans - a book that recalls the experiences of eight new and exciting writers and gives a voice to the trans community.
What did you choose to write about and why?
Harry: For Transitions, I wrote an essay on adolescence, gender-fluidity, and language.
My upbringing is a little unusual - I was born in the U.S. but grew up mostly in Japan, while attending a tight-knit Catholic English-speaking school in central Tokyo. Because of this, I felt twice removed from the people around me: linguistically, because I didn’t speak to anyone outside of the English bubble I grew up in, and lexically, because I didn’t know how to explain what ‘being non-binary’ meant to my friends.
In both cases I lacked the words to explain myself; these English-Japanese and queer-heteronormative divides layered over each other to create a distinct sense of otherness I struggled to externalise. Language, in this way, is intrinsic to the way we exist - it distorts the way we see the world and the world sees us.
Ed: My autobiographical story in Transitions is about the little ways my mental health affects me every day. I have anxiety, and even little things can lead me into a tailspin some days. Being trans and having wobbly mental health is just normal to me, so I wrote about it, just woven in amongst all the other everyday things.
Ezra: n my chapter, I chose to write about Isaac - a stranger I had encountered and someone I saw my younger self in - because I wanted to make sure I focused on the little bits of joy trans people can bring into the world around them. Honestly, I didn’t really know I was going to write about him at all - I just started typing and the memory came back to me. It made me think of the prompt - trans everyday - in terms of what actually seeing trans people living normal, real everyday lives would have done for me when I was his age. I wanted to express how important it was for us, especially trans youth, to see that there is an everyday for them.
Where have you seen good portrayals of trans characters?
Harry: One of my recent favourites is Feel Good, a bitesized Netflix series starring a fictionalised Mae Martin performing stand-up in London and falling into a romantic relationship that is ★spoiler alert★ not healthy. Their ongoing struggle with addiction, mental illness, and gender identity is as devastatingly funny as it is dark.
I think the trick to finding good trans representation is pretty simple: find work by directors, filmmakers, writers, and artists who identify as trans. These are most likely the creators who can do justice to the vibrancy and subversiveness inherent to trans culture and community, without watering it down into straight-adjacent cliché.
Ed: The number of new autobiographical stories and memoirs is going up, and these are always good places to find real trans and non-binary people such as Juliet Jacques’s Trans: A Memoir, and Jamie Windust’s In Their Shoes. I’m loving Meredith Russo’s If I was Your Girl. It’s set in a high school but the story rings true as an adult trying to negotiate friends and more-than-friends when you’re trans.
Sometimes trans characters in fiction can sometimes press on a nerve. It's hard to escape in a book when the characters bring up stuff that you try not to think about too much. Because even though I’m very open about being trans, it’s still been difficult to deal with.
Ezra: Fiction written by trans people! I recommend Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - the protagonist is a trans guy and he falls for a ghost he accidentally summons. Yadriel’s determination really resonated with me, but it was also nice to read about someone like me being loved and loving, rather than have his story be centered around his transition.
What would you like to see in the future of fiction and nonfiction?
Harry:I would love to see more books translated into English - while only 3% of all books translated into English are translations, up to 80% of books (especially in smaller countries) are translated from English.
Ed: I’d love to see a trans storyline deeply woven into a larger narrative, where it isn’t the main focus. Something like an ongoing series, like the Sherlock Holmes books, spanning 30 years of someone’s life. In fiction and in non-fiction, I still want to see a much wider range of experiences on the page.
One problem with capturing trans people in stories is: stories are short, and a trans storyline is long and slow. It's easy to focus on the big events like gender confirmation surgery, or coming out. But those moments are only a tiny bit of the whole experience.
Ezra: I’d like to see more trans people! I want to see us happy and sad, I want to see us struggling, floating through life and experiencing every emotion a person can represent. I’d like to see us grow older and change. When I was a kid, I never saw any of us onscreen do anything except worry about the future. Most of us are living our Trans Everyday, but that isn’t what people focus on. I think it would have helped me as a teenager if I could have had something other than this sensationalised perception of the trans experience.
What are your tips for writing for new writers?
Harry: Read widely, write often - uselessly, for yourself. Observe others and let things pierce you. Don't worry if you lose your words; the important thing is not to let go.
Ed:Write wherever and whenever you can. Fit in 15 minutes here, half an hour there, if that's all you’ve got. Find the little pockets of time. They add up.
Finish it, then put it away. Maybe you hate it now, or you love it and think it’s a work of genius. But you’ll be a much better judge of it after three weeks. Then read it and see what you’re going to keep and what you can cross out.
Ezra: Read a lot! Reading as many different genres as possible can do wonders for picking up some important skills. I’m not a fan of romance, but it can give some really good insight into how to build relationships and poetry is so useful for understanding structure and flow. Find other writers. I’m part of a queer writing Discord server, and it’s been helpful to be able to bounce ideas of each other and have some accountability. Writing can be pretty solitary, but one of the things that makes a good writer is the ability to take on the advice and criticism of others and accept feedback. Surrounding yourself with different ideas and experiences makes for better writing; it becomes less about following the “rules” and more about experimenting with style and finding something that’s interesting and exciting to see.
Harry: For Transitions, I wrote an essay on adolescence, gender-fluidity, and language.
My upbringing is a little unusual - I was born in the U.S. but grew up mostly in Japan, while attending a tight-knit Catholic English-speaking school in central Tokyo. Because of this, I felt twice removed from the people around me: linguistically, because I didn’t speak to anyone outside of the English bubble I grew up in, and lexically, because I didn’t know how to explain what ‘being non-binary’ meant to my friends.
In both cases I lacked the words to explain myself; these English-Japanese and queer-heteronormative divides layered over each other to create a distinct sense of otherness I struggled to externalise. Language, in this way, is intrinsic to the way we exist - it distorts the way we see the world and the world sees us.
Ed: My autobiographical story in Transitions is about the little ways my mental health affects me every day. I have anxiety, and even little things can lead me into a tailspin some days. Being trans and having wobbly mental health is just normal to me, so I wrote about it, just woven in amongst all the other everyday things.
Ezra: n my chapter, I chose to write about Isaac - a stranger I had encountered and someone I saw my younger self in - because I wanted to make sure I focused on the little bits of joy trans people can bring into the world around them. Honestly, I didn’t really know I was going to write about him at all - I just started typing and the memory came back to me. It made me think of the prompt - trans everyday - in terms of what actually seeing trans people living normal, real everyday lives would have done for me when I was his age. I wanted to express how important it was for us, especially trans youth, to see that there is an everyday for them.
Where have you seen good portrayals of trans characters?
Harry: One of my recent favourites is Feel Good, a bitesized Netflix series starring a fictionalised Mae Martin performing stand-up in London and falling into a romantic relationship that is ★spoiler alert★ not healthy. Their ongoing struggle with addiction, mental illness, and gender identity is as devastatingly funny as it is dark.
I think the trick to finding good trans representation is pretty simple: find work by directors, filmmakers, writers, and artists who identify as trans. These are most likely the creators who can do justice to the vibrancy and subversiveness inherent to trans culture and community, without watering it down into straight-adjacent cliché.
Ed: The number of new autobiographical stories and memoirs is going up, and these are always good places to find real trans and non-binary people such as Juliet Jacques’s Trans: A Memoir, and Jamie Windust’s In Their Shoes. I’m loving Meredith Russo’s If I was Your Girl. It’s set in a high school but the story rings true as an adult trying to negotiate friends and more-than-friends when you’re trans.
Sometimes trans characters in fiction can sometimes press on a nerve. It's hard to escape in a book when the characters bring up stuff that you try not to think about too much. Because even though I’m very open about being trans, it’s still been difficult to deal with.
Ezra: Fiction written by trans people! I recommend Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - the protagonist is a trans guy and he falls for a ghost he accidentally summons. Yadriel’s determination really resonated with me, but it was also nice to read about someone like me being loved and loving, rather than have his story be centered around his transition.
What would you like to see in the future of fiction and nonfiction?
Harry:I would love to see more books translated into English - while only 3% of all books translated into English are translations, up to 80% of books (especially in smaller countries) are translated from English.
Ed: I’d love to see a trans storyline deeply woven into a larger narrative, where it isn’t the main focus. Something like an ongoing series, like the Sherlock Holmes books, spanning 30 years of someone’s life. In fiction and in non-fiction, I still want to see a much wider range of experiences on the page.
One problem with capturing trans people in stories is: stories are short, and a trans storyline is long and slow. It's easy to focus on the big events like gender confirmation surgery, or coming out. But those moments are only a tiny bit of the whole experience.
Ezra: I’d like to see more trans people! I want to see us happy and sad, I want to see us struggling, floating through life and experiencing every emotion a person can represent. I’d like to see us grow older and change. When I was a kid, I never saw any of us onscreen do anything except worry about the future. Most of us are living our Trans Everyday, but that isn’t what people focus on. I think it would have helped me as a teenager if I could have had something other than this sensationalised perception of the trans experience.
What are your tips for writing for new writers?
Harry: Read widely, write often - uselessly, for yourself. Observe others and let things pierce you. Don't worry if you lose your words; the important thing is not to let go.
Ed:Write wherever and whenever you can. Fit in 15 minutes here, half an hour there, if that's all you’ve got. Find the little pockets of time. They add up.
Finish it, then put it away. Maybe you hate it now, or you love it and think it’s a work of genius. But you’ll be a much better judge of it after three weeks. Then read it and see what you’re going to keep and what you can cross out.
Ezra: Read a lot! Reading as many different genres as possible can do wonders for picking up some important skills. I’m not a fan of romance, but it can give some really good insight into how to build relationships and poetry is so useful for understanding structure and flow. Find other writers. I’m part of a queer writing Discord server, and it’s been helpful to be able to bounce ideas of each other and have some accountability. Writing can be pretty solitary, but one of the things that makes a good writer is the ability to take on the advice and criticism of others and accept feedback. Surrounding yourself with different ideas and experiences makes for better writing; it becomes less about following the “rules” and more about experimenting with style and finding something that’s interesting and exciting to see.