In the contemporary moment, transgender life is widely associated with structural oppression, rejection, and violence. Despite this, the work of trans artists and writers is often joyful and liberatory, more invested in pleasure than loss. Looking at some of that work, we’ll consider what unique forms joy takes in trans lives and trans art, and how those forms might lead us toward emergent thought, insight, and resistance in our own writing.
T. Fleischmann is the author of the book-length essays Syzygy, Beauty (Sarabande Books) and Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through (Coffee House Press). A nonfiction editor at DIAGRAM and contributing editor at EssayDaily, their recent work can be found in the On Civil Disobedience series from Green Lantern Press and the anthology Feminisms in Motion from AK Press. They live in Chicago.