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A review by trinityforever
The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard by Tom Léger
5.0
I really enjoyed this body of work as a whole for many reasons, some of which being that, as the editors highlighted in the preface and epilogue, these stories give subjectivity to trans narratives rather than making trans people objects of obstacles for character development. Narratives are also not necessarily about or centered around the detail that the narrator or protagonist is trans, it's incidental and ancillary to many of the plots.
Transness is properly conceptualized not as substantive, but methodological, it is a lens, a vantage, a perspective.
I also really resonated with the editorial intent underscored in the publisher's note at the end of the text, this text has the profound capacity to elucidate a generation of trans authors and writers and poets and to internalize the refrain 'know thy work and do it'.
I was grateful to have this text loaned to me by another trans author I highly respect, and it has led me to more seriously consider my poetic and literary perspective as a tgirlie thinking a whole hellofalot about gender and race and class and privilege and community and conflict and reconciliation. More than any other text recently this collection has inspired me to begin writing anew and to ask myself 'what's next?' and to be the one to write my response.
My personal favorite pieces:
I Met a Girl Named Bat Who Met Jeffrey Palmer - Imogen Binnie
To the New World - Ryka Aoki
The Café - R. Drew
Other Women - Casey Plett
Runaways - Calvin Gimpelevich
Transness is properly conceptualized not as substantive, but methodological, it is a lens, a vantage, a perspective.
I also really resonated with the editorial intent underscored in the publisher's note at the end of the text, this text has the profound capacity to elucidate a generation of trans authors and writers and poets and to internalize the refrain 'know thy work and do it'.
I was grateful to have this text loaned to me by another trans author I highly respect, and it has led me to more seriously consider my poetic and literary perspective as a tgirlie thinking a whole hellofalot about gender and race and class and privilege and community and conflict and reconciliation. More than any other text recently this collection has inspired me to begin writing anew and to ask myself 'what's next?' and to be the one to write my response.
My personal favorite pieces:
I Met a Girl Named Bat Who Met Jeffrey Palmer - Imogen Binnie
To the New World - Ryka Aoki
The Café - R. Drew
Other Women - Casey Plett
Runaways - Calvin Gimpelevich