Blog

The ‘undecidability’ of life
Freedom and despair in Will Eaves’ ‘Murmur’, about Alan Turing. The novelist directs our moral scrutiny not at the innocent man but at the state that victimizes him. The state destroys him, politically and existentially.

Trans and nonbinary kids talk about identity with Daniel Radcliffe
Sharing Space is a video series with the Trevor Project. Each of us has allyship and activism that we can do because of who we are. There’s something each of us can do especially well to make a real difference.

Butler on ‘imagining alternate futures’
Judith Butler’s 2021 interview in The Guardian. So-called gender-criticalism is ‘a regressive and spurious form of biological essentialism,’ Butler says. This interview is one I keep coming back to.

Unbox to see which bills House Republicans will propose in 2025
In their rules package, they express an agenda. These bills will attempt to regulate trans people, immigrants, and more.

What Rude Magic Is This (A Poem)
With the background of how I wrote it. I didn’t know what to do with three poems I lost and half-forgot. Now I hear Jacob’s epiphany as a kind of rude magic. The poems come back to me.

No one knows ‘exact role’ of hormones in sex development, doctor once said
‘Dr. Cutter issues warning in administering hormones’ to minors. Don’t worry. It was a long time ago. Dr. Irving Cutter was the dean of the Northwestern University medical school. He advised parents to feed their kids better before seeking hormone treatment.

95 books I plan to read in 2025
Here’s my New Year’s reading resolution. I scanned the 3,000 titles on my ‘to be read’ list and selected the ones I’ll prioritize in 2025.

Trans women frenemies mirror each other’s needs in this novel
June Martin’s debut novel ‘Love/Aggression’ showcases a tragedy of queer housemates. If you’ve had a housemate situation with a queer friend, you’ll recognize the pattern. A real-life incident feels this rude, this chaotic, this intense.

New year’s resolution: I’ll pare down my reading list — to just 50 books!
Transforming my ‘to be read’ list into an achievable goal. I’ve put effort into identifying those books, so I’d prefer that my list be useful. The point is to consult the list. If it’s enormous, it isn’t practical.