Literature about transgender individuals is in its infancy.
But the good news is there is a small group of emerging authors who are writing children’s literature that centers on transgender characters, hoping to fill the void they felt as young readers. As one author wrote “My goal was to write stories that would have helped me feel less alone at that age.”
The course will not be smooth; change never is, but eventually transgender literature, to have sustainability, must be judged on the same merit that all literature is subjected to. No matter the genre, the best of literature must exhibit quality of writing, authenticity of voice, offering readers pathways into a story that encourages readers to engage with the characters.
Ideally, transgender literature will become one more island added to the sea of print readers swim in, addressing the journey that the best of fiction explores—the quest, the challenge to find and be your own self.
A character I just met said it most succinctly—People who read for plot, people who suck out the story like a cream filling in an Oreo, should stick to comic strips and soap operas…. Every book worth a damn is about emotions and love and death and pain. It’s about words. It’s about people dealing with life.
