"As a nonbinary person, one of my favorite things about reading nonfiction from other nonbinary people is being able to recognize the similarities between our narratives and gain a greater understanding of myself, to feel a sense of literary community and be able to say, 'Hey, that's me! I didn't know other people felt that way too!' Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir is no exception, weaving a richly detailed story of gender and sexuality full of self-discovery, poignancy, and some of the most moving metaphors about gender I've ever read. (One of these metaphors that compares gender to a landscape is so poetically brilliant that I nearly burst onto tears, finally having a perfect way to describe how I feel.) Kobabe writes so precisely and personally that this memoir often feels like having an extended conversation with a close gender-variant friend, traversing everything from childhood to relationships to navigating being nonbinary throughout adult life. A must-read for anyone who doesn't neatly fit into any gendered boxes."
Publisher Oni Press
Publication Date 2019-05-28
Section Graphic Novels / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Archived Staff Suggestions / Nat M.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781549304002
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.
"It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." — SLJ (starred review)
