Asian Diasporic Trans, Nonbinary, Intersex & Gender-Expansive Reading Room Book List
This is a growing, non-comprehensive list of trans, nonbinary, intersex, and gender-expansive book titles originally created to be included in the Trans and Nonbinary Reading Room for the 2023 Asian American Literature Festival on August 4-6, 2023. In the wake of the cancellation of the Asian American Literature Festival, we plan to continue to distribute this book list to support those interested in teaching, reading and engaging in Asian/American, Asian diasporic and BIPOC trans, nonbinary, intersex and gender-creative cultural work.
This reading list is a work in progress. For now, we are only publishing the list of authors who have confirmed that they want to be on this list and that their book information is accurate on our Bookshop list and on ReorientingReads.com.
Although this list was originally started to highlight published books (with the idea to crowdsource for self-published zines and chapbooks), we will also include links to websites and/or other cultural work for those cultural workers who do not have books on the ReorientingReads website.
If you are an Asian diasporic trans, nonbinary, intersex, and/or gender-expansive author/artist who wants to be added to the list, please email us at reorientingreads [at] gmail.com. If you know an author you think should be added to the list, please ask the author to contact us.
November 11 Readers & Curators
Individual Books
- Birthright. Button Poetry, 2020 [poetry]
- The Specimen's Apology, Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019 [poetry chapbook]
- Kundiman for Kin: Information Retrieval for Monsters. Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, 2020 [poetry chapbook]
- To Make Black Paper Sing. Spect Books, 2019 [poetry chapbook]
- recombinant. Kelsey Street Press, 2018 [poetry]
- The Heart's Traffic. Arktoi/Red Hen Press, 2009 [poetry]
- Transverse. Futurepoem, 2021 [poetry]
- Mother Tongue. Gold Line Press, 2021 [poetry]
- The Good Arabs. Metonymy Press, 2021 [poetry]
- Knot Body. Metatron Press, 2020 [poetry]
- The Thirty Names of Night. Atria Books, 2020 [fiction]
- The Map of Salt and Stars. Atria Books, 2018 [fiction]
Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi
- The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022 [nonfiction]
- Tonguebreaker. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 [poetry]
- Bridge of Flowers. Flamingo Rampant, 2019 [children's]
- Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 [nonfiction]
- Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2015 [nonfiction]
- Bodymap. Mawenzi House/TSAR, 2015 [poetry]
- Love Cake. Mawenzi House/TSAR, 2011 [poetry]
- Consensual Genocide. Mawenzi House/TSAR, 2006 [poetry]
- Lyric Sexology Vol. 1. Metonymy Press, 2017; Roof Books, 2014 [poetry]
- Wanting in Arabic. Mawenzi House/TSAR, 2013, 2022 [poetry]
- Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency. Hapa Papa Press, 2015 [nonfiction]
- Dream of the Divided Field. Penguin, 2022 [poetry]
- The Year of Blue Water. Yale University Press, 2019 [poetry]
Anthologies
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. AK Press, 2020
- The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities, edited by Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, South End Press, 2011; AK Press, 2016
- We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics, edited by Andrea Abi-Karam & Kay Gabriel. Nightboat Books, 2020
Additional Reads
Individual Books
- When We Were Sisters. One World, 2022 [fiction]
- If They Come For Us. One World, 2018 [poetry]
- Togetherness. Nightboat Books, 2022 [poetry]
- Sorry to Disrupt the Peace. McSweeney's, 2017 [fiction]
- Filipino Crosscurrents: Oceanographies of Seafaring, Masculinities and Globalization. University of Minnesota
- Press, 2011 [theory, nonfiction]
- Gatsby. Artists, Writers & Artisans, 2023 [graphic fiction]
- Made in Korea. Image Comics, 2022 [graphic fiction]
- Virtually Yours. Dark Horse Books, 2022 [graphic fiction]
- Before Houdini. Insight Comics, 2019 [graphic fiction]
- After Houdini. Insight Comics, 2018 [graphic fiction]
- Skip to the End. Insight Comics, 2018 [graphic fiction]
- Skinned. Insight Comics, 2017 [graphic fiction]
- Constellating Home: Trans and Queer Asian American Rhetorics. The Ohio State University Press, 2022 [theory, nonfiction]
- How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures. Little Brown and Company. 2022 [nonfiction]
- Dyke (Geology). Black Lawrence Press, 2020 [fiction]
- Fox Snare [Thousand Worlds #3] Rick Riordan Presents, 2023 [middle grade]
- Tiger Honor [Thousand Worlds #2]. Rick Riordan Presents, 2022 [middle grade]
- The Fox's Tower and Other Tales. Andrew McMeel Publishing, 2021 [science fiction]
- Phoenix Extravagant. Solaris, 2020 [science fiction]
- Hexarchate Stories [Machines of Empire #4]. Solaris, 2019 [science fiction]
- Dragon Pearl [Thousand Worlds #1]. Rick Riordan Presents, 2019 [middle grade]
- Revenant Gun [Machines of Empire #3]. Solaris, 2018 [science fiction]
- Raven Strategem [Machines of Empire #2]. Solaris, 2017 [science fiction]
- Ninefox Gambit [Machines of Empire #1]. Solaris, 2016 [science fiction]
- Conservation of Shadows. Prime Books, 2013 [science fiction]
- Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing. Amistad, 2023 [nonfiction]
Som, Bishakh - Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir. Street Noise Books, 2020 [graphic fiction]
- Apsara Engine. The Feminist Press, 2020 [graphic fiction]
- Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls. The Dial Press, 2023 [nonfiction, poetry]
- For Laika: The Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021 [children's]
- I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 [nonfiction]
- From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017 [children's]
- A Place Called No Homeland. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017 [poetry]
- Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir. Metonymy Press, 2016 [fiction]
- Fairest: A Memoir. Viking, 2020 [nonfiction]
- Unwieldy Creatures. Jaded Ibis Press, 2022 [fiction]
- Dear Twin. Metonymy Press, 2019 [fiction]