This Body I Wore\, hailed as "ach ingly beautiful" by the New York Times Review\, chronicles the budding tra ns communities of the late 20th century\, and the light it sheds on today' s struggle for trans equality. Reading followed by Q&\;A discussion.&nb sp\;
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\nBook Des cription
\nLong before L averne Cox appeared on the cover of \;Time\, far removed from drag and ballroom culture\, there were countless trans women living and dying as m en\, most of whom didn&rsquo\;t even know they were trans. Diana Goetsch&r squo\;s \;This Body I Wore& nbsp\;chronicles one woman&rsquo \;s long journey to coming out\, a path that runs parallel to the emergenc e of the trans community over the past several decades. \;
\n&ldquo\;How can you spend your life face-to-face with an essential fact about yourself and still not see it?&rdquo\; This is a question often asked of trans people\, and a questi on that Goetsch\, an award-winning poet and essayist\, addresses with the power and complexity of lived reality. She brings us into her childhood\, her time as a dynamic and beloved teacher at New York City&rsquo\;s Stuyve sant High School\, and her plunge into the city&rsquo\;s crossdressing sub culture in the 1980s and &rsquo\;90s. Under cover of night\, crossdressers risked their jobs and their safety to give expression to urges they could neither control nor understand. Many would become late transitioners\, th e Cinderellas of the trans community largely ignored by history.
\nGoetsch has written not a tr ansition memoir\, but rather a full account of a trans life\, one both unu sually public and closeted. All too often trans lives are reduced to befor e-and-after photos\, but what if that before photo lasted fifty years?
\nDiana Goetsch is an American poet and es sayist\, author of eight collections of poems\, the &ldquo\;Life in Transi tion&rdquo\; blog at The American Scholar\, and the acclaimed memoir T his Body I Wore. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker\, Poetry\ , The Chicago Tribune\, The Los Angeles Times\, The Washington Post\, Best American Poetry\, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Her honors include fe llowships from the National Endowment for the Arts\, the New York Foundati on for the Arts\, and the New School\, where she served as the Grace Paley Teaching Fellow. For twenty-one years Goetsch was a New York City public school teacher\, at Stuyvesant High School and at Passages Academy in the Bronx\, where she ran a creative writing program for incarcerated teens.\n
\nPraise for This Body I Wore \;
\nA Best Book of 2022 &ndash\; The Washington Post
\n2023 N otable Books List &ndash\; American Library Association
\nA Must-Rea d &ndash\; The New York Times\, The Chicago Tribune\, The Bay Area Reporte r
\nA Best Book of the Year &ndash\; Cosmopolitan
\nA Best Aud iobook of 2022 &ndash\; Kirkus Reviews
\nA Best Book of the Month at Glamour
\nA Best debut of 2022 &ndash\; BookPage
\nA Most Ant icipated of 2022 &ndash\; Lit Hub\, CNN\,
\nThe New York Public Libr ary &ldquo\;Book of the Day&rdquo\; (August 9\, 2022)
\n\;
\ n&ldquo\;[An] achingly beautiful memoir . . . Goetsch has a poetic sens ibility that illuminates without simplifying . . . \;This Body I Wore& nbsp\;tenderly sketches out a history of the budding trans communities tha t developed in the late 20th century . . . Here is an excavated history th at endures in the only way it could: in the fleeting memories of those who survived\, who endured and who now\, like Goetsch\, thrive.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Manuel Betancourt\, \;The New York Times Book Review
\n< p> \;\n&ldquo\;Rarely does a book arrive so on time\, blowing o ut the noise . . . A hilarious personal history of the full life as a tran s woman. It&rsquo\;s never pedantic or even inspirational\, which is exact ly why it is.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Christopher Borrelli\, \;The Chi cago Tribune
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;Goetsch is an impeccable writ er . . . As trans people\, especially children\, are now under constant an d increasing attack by state governments\, it&rsquo\;s an especially urgen t read.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Jenny Singer\, \;Glamour
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;Exquisite . . . The hard-won wisdom [of] \;This Bod y I Wore \;offers a new generation of trans and nonbinary youth a guid ing hand from a previous generation.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Catherine Hol lis\, \;BookPage \;(starred review)
\n\;
\n&ldquo \;Goetsch fashions a brilliant and tapestried story of her late-in-life ge nder transition . . . A gorgeous self-portrait that defies categorization. The result obliterates binary confines around gender with breathtaking fi nesse.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Publishers Weekly
\n\;
\n& ldquo\;Enthralling . . . Told with unique eloquence and tenderness . . . H ope blooms within these pages . . . A mesmerizing memoir [that] will appea l to fans of Melissa Febos and Roxane Gay.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Alana R . Quarles\, \;Library Journal \;(starred review)
\n\;\n
&ldquo\;Rich\, compelling . . . Often lovely and emotionally affect ing . . . A valuable memoir enriched by years of personal and societal ins ight into the fraught subject of gender identity.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\; Kirkus Reviews
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;An important and beautiful memoir.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Emily Firetog\,Lit Hub
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;[This Body I Wore] not only chronicles [Goetsch&rsquo\;s] own transition but beautifully weaves together the story of the trans communi ty over the course of her lifetime.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Jasmine Ting a nd Gretty Garcia\, \;Cosmopolitan
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;In T his Body I Wore\, Diana Goetsch the poet is present in every line of prose . The writing is spacious\, beautiful\, precise\, and poignant. The reader floats through the sentences\, entranced. &lsquo\;Magnificent&rsquo\; is not an overstatement.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Thomas Peele\, Pulitzer Priz e&ndash\;winning journalist and author of \;Killing the Messenger
\ n\;
\n&ldquo\;One of the most honest\, unflappable\, importa nt books I&rsquo\;ve read in a long time. Diana Goetsch writes with lyrici sm and grace about her struggles and triumphs with family\, love\, and gen der identity. Everyone should be required to read this book.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Ann Hood\, author of \;Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life\, Love\ , and Food
\n\;
\n&ldquo\;Lyrical\, harrowing\, and wise. This Body I Wore\, the story of one woman doing everything she can to avo id becoming herself\, is a universal and profound meditation on the price of authenticity.&rdquo\;
\n&mdash\;Jennifer Finney Boylan\, author o f \;She&rsquo\;s Not There \;and \;Good Boy
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\n&ldquo\;A book that many will cherish and few will forget. Some of u s need another world\, a world of the spirit\, before we can live or becom e ourselves in this one\, and Diana Goetsch has now shown us why.&rdquo\;< /p>\n
&mdash\;Stephanie Burt\, author of \;Don&rsquo\;t Read Poetry< /p>\n
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\n&ldquo\;This Body I Wore \;is startling\, humo rous\, haunting\, and truly illuminating. I had chills when I began readin g it and was floored by the end. A pitch-perfect memoir.&rdquo\;
\n& mdash\;Laurie Gwen Shapiro\, author of \;The Stowaway
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