Note: if you have a link to a major trans literary hub or website or text that I’ve missed, please don’t hesitate to email me at info@thetransfemininereview.com.
Major Trans-Forward Publishers
Topside Press – Defunct.
Metonymy Press – At this point, probably the oldest and best established indie trans press.
Arsenal Pulp Press – Another leading indie publisher of transfemme fiction.
LittlePuss Press – Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick’s press.
instar books – Jeanne Thornton’s press.
Cipher Press – Another small indie press that works with a lot of trans authors.
DopplerPress – The publishing arm of BigCloset TopShelf.
River Furnace – Contains the entire (free) archive of the defunct Trans Women Writer’s Collective, as well as some newer material.
Mags Inc – Currently the distributor for all major publications from Reluctant Press, Sandy Thomas Advertising, and a whole host of other classic TG/TV fiction presses.
Trans-Focused Internet Fiction Sites
Trans Reads – A small but growing repository of free trans texts, including some of the most important ones, like Nevada, Detransition, Baby, Peters’ novellas, all three volumes of the Trans Studies Reader, and much more.
Fictionmania – The classic, with nearly 50,000 stories to sort through if you’re willing to suffer through the early internet aesthetic for it.
TGStorytime – A newer but still classic archive with thousands more stories. Be forewarned that the majority of the progressive trans writers jumped ship for Scribblehub in 2020 after some Drama.
BigCloset TopShelf – The last of the ‘big three’ free online archives, so to speak. While the stories are often higher quality than the former two, this one suffers from an overabundance of Kindle advertising and an obtuse interface.
Amanda’s Reading Room – The fact that this is the literary output of a single person can be overlooked by the sheer volume of fiction available (they’ve been at it for almost twenty years)
Crystal’s Story Site – The OGs remember this one. It’s cursed as hell but it’s got some of the classics.
TG Comics – This was never one of my haunts when I was in early transition, but some people swear by it.
Sites with Large Bodies of Trans Fiction
Scribblehub – Favored site of the self-pub generation. To find the transfemme fiction, either sift through the ‘Gender Bender’ category (there’s a lot of weird isekai LitRPG stuff) or use the ‘Male to Female’ tag (a bit outdated at this point but what can you do).
Archives of our Own – While it’s primarily a fanfiction site, there’s a large quantity of underground original work to be found too. If you don’t mind fanfic, you can go to the ‘Trans Female Character’ tag for full listings. If you only want to read original fiction, filter it also by ‘Original Work(s)’.
Kindle Unlimited – The quality is extremely variable, but there are oodles of books that you can read under the ‘Transgender Fiction’ or ‘Transgender Romance’ tags if you’re willing to wade through some schlock. At $12 a month, you’ll probably get your money’s worth even if you’re only reading 2-3 books a month (or if that money would be going to a bookstore anyway).
Various Erotica Sites – Not gonna link them, but… yeah. When there’s a ‘Transgender & Crossdressers’ category, there’s a way. Just remember that they call this genre ‘Tranny Porn’ for a reason.
Secondary Transliterary Infrastructure
The Trans Literature Database – A librarian’s attempt to catalogue trans literature. Hopefully they find this website!
Transcendent Books – A Substack that sends out occasional updates about new releases and reviews some buzzy books.
Y/A and Middle Grade Trans Masterlist – Ray Stoewe’s personal project, rather similar in aims to what I’m doing here.
Writings on Other Topics – Trans historian Zagria Cowan has compiled a very useful list of trans non-fiction writers whose transness is not obvious from their work.
Trans Fiction Library – Harry Josephine Giles’ personal cataloging project
Key Overview Texts & Literary Criticism
“The Empire Strikes Back: A Post-Transsexual Manifesto” (1987, Sandy Stone) – This essay is frequently cited as the foundational text of Trans Studies, and one of its key components was a critical reading of prominent trans literature at the time, namely Conundrum by Jan Morris.
Petticoat Punishment in Erotic Literature (2001, Peter Farrer) – Infuriatingly more than half of Peter Farrer’s scholarship, namely his excellent website petticoated.org which provided indispensable scholarship and insight into the early-most developments of the contemporary trans literary movement, seems to have completely vanished into the ether in the seven years since his death. If anyone has a copy or backup, please let me know.
“How, Then, Might the Transsexual Read?” (2014, Alexander Eastwood) – It’s more about trans readers than trans writers, but it’s an interesting early motion towards theorizing a trans literary lens.
“Rise of the Gender Novel” (2015, Casey Plett) – Plett’s vigorous critique of the ‘gender novel,’ a genre of novels by largely cis men which feature grotesque and sexualized trans bodies and lives.
“The Coming of Age of Transgender Literature” (2018, Peter Haldeman) – mm yes the New York Times, a newspaper that has never done anything wrong for trans women. This is a pretty good article though, gives a window toward the publishing landscape at the time.
“Girls Like Us” (2020, Mckenzie Wark) – Wark’s groundbreaking analysis of the developmental history of trans fiction. Essential reading if you want to understand the history of contemporary trans lit.
Essays Against Publishing (2020, Jamie Berrout) – Jamie Berrout’s seminal critique of the publishing industry and the place and role of trans writers within it.
“Transgender and Transgenre Writing” (2021, Trish Salah) – Salah’s overview of contemporary trans literature for the Cambridge Guide to 21st Century American Literature.
“The Troubled Golden Age of Trans Literature” (2021, Eli Cugini) – Let’s be honest: calling 2021 the ‘golden age’ of trans literature was probably a little premature. That being said, the critiques here of the way trans novels are read, published, marketed, and criticized was definitely an influence on the creation of this website.
“Notes on Nevada: Trans Fiction and the Early Internet” (2022, Imogen Binnie) – A much better thinkpiece from the Nevada buzz rush. Binnie’s observations about trans literary history are very useful.
Morbid Obsessions (2022, Alison Rumfitt & Frankie Miren) – An examination of the usage of the horror genre to explore trans and sex working bodies.
The Transfeminine Review 