Join us for The 1891 Book Club on Thursday, October 5. Be part of our discussion led by CWBA Publications Committee Member Amy Petri Beard as we read "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe -- a great pick from a banned books list in honor of Banned Books Week, October 1-7, 2023, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read.
2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, "Gender Queer" is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, "Gender Queer" is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
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