Full Fathom Five cover art by Chris McGrath (Tor Books, 2014)
Like a lot of trans women of my generation, I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy novels to transport me away from a world where I wasn’t accepted for myself. I chose instead to inhabit worlds where clever downtrodden thieves could shake the foundations of empires, and where great heroes could ride dragons or catapult themselves to the stars. But what I never saw in all of those many alternate worlds of possibility was someone like me. So, I set out to write some.
Now, more years later than I’d care to admit, trans women’s representation in SFF is still in its most nascent stages. When I decided to write this article, listing five SFF books with trans women protagonists, I found that trans women’s representation is limited enough that compiling a list of five books was a challenge. We live in a world today where the gold standard for SFF representation is work that is in some form or fashion “own voices
It’s not like Texas needs more horror right at this moment, what with all the wintry catastrophizing and the Ted Cruzing going on. However, I like to dive into horror when I’m scared and depressed, so now seems as good a time as any to highlight Texas female authors for Women in Horror Month as February comes to an end. Download them onto your Kindle and read them when the lights go out. That’s what I did.
Maryanne M. Wells
Undead Bar Association novels. The first in the series,
Matriculated Death, follows two women as they study hard by day and deal with ghosts and vampires in the law school library by night. Part