Thomas Page McBee

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer THOMAS PAGE MCBEE—author of Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man—for a discussion of his latest book, Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man. He will be joined in conversation by ANDREAS NEUMANN-MASCIS, psychologist and founder of The Meeting Point.

About Amateur

In this groundbreaking new book, the author, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience boxing—learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body—McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes, and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a new way forward, a new kind of masculinity, inside the ring and outside of it.

In this graceful, stunning, and uncompromising exploration of living, fighting, and healing, we gain insight into the stereotypes and shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.

Praise

“Until I read this book, I didn't realize how tired I was of reading about masculinity as cold, hard, and fixed. Amateur is a warm hug. It’s also an invitation to everyone who's ever struggled to accept failure, searched for a sense of belonging, or said ‘Ugh, men’ in an exasperated tone to think harder and be kinder. I want the world to read it.” —Ann Friedman, New York Magazine columnist and co-host of Call Your Girlfriend

 “Amateur is a brutally honest look at the problems with masculinity, laced through with hope, and joy, and possibility. Thomas McBee confronts fears and realities with grace, toughness, and poetry. A beautiful book.” —Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave and How to Grow Up

"Thomas Page McBee's Amateur takes a classic, well-worn subject—a man whose fight with other men is ultimately a confrontation with the self—and completely revitalizes, renews, and enriches it. McBee grapples with enormous issues such as masculinity, identity, transformation, and loss with great depth and intelligence, and in doing so, explores so many of the tough questions we should all be asking ourselves. Though slim and sharply concise, Amateur enlarges the world by opening up greater, more hopeful realms of possibility. I am a better man for having read this book." —Isaac Fitzgerald, founding editor of Buzzfeed Books, co-host of #AMtoDM and coauthor of Pen & Ink and Knives & Ink