www.lettersformybrothers.com

www.lettersformybrothers.com

Letters for my Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect Edited By Megan M. Rohrer, M.Div. & Zander Keig, M.S. In today's fast paced world, the internet can provide quick answers to personal questions. But when an individual raised by society to live, breathe and look at the world with female eyes transitions to male, some of the most enlightening, helpful and profound advice can only come in retrospect. Letter for my Brothers, features essays from respected transmen mentors who share the wisdom they wish they would have known at the beginning of their journey into manhood.
Featured Contributing Authors Jamison Green ‡ fAe Gibson ‡ Cristopher Bautista ‡ Chase Ryan Joynt ‡ Malcolm Himschoot ‡ Lou Sullivan ‡ Reid Vanderburgh ‡ Aaron H. Devor ‡ Aaron Raz Link ‡ Patrick M Callahan ‡ Elliott Anthony Brooker ‡ Zander Keig ‡ C.T. Whitley ‡ Raven Kaldera ‡ Tucker Lieberman ‡ Lyle Blake ‡ Keith Josephson ‡ Evan Anderson ‡ Matt Kailey

Boston reading, Thurs. July 8

Tucker Lieberman, a contributor to Letters for my Brothers, will read briefly from the book at the TranScriptions open mic this Thursday in Boston.

TranScriptions is a transgender-inclusive space for queer-themed creative expression. Maggie Cee of The Femme Show is Thursday's feature performer, and we are also expecting to see Adhamh Roland who is visiting from the West Coast. This is a great place to meet friendly, artsy, activist folk. Feel free to say hello to Tucker and ask him anything about Letters for my Brothers!

The event is Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. at Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St., Jamaica Plain (Boston), Mass., 02130. It is near the Stony Brook stop on the Orange Line. $5 to $10 sliding scale. For more information, see the TranScriptions webpage or the optional Facebook RSVP.

Letters for my Brothers Reading Videos

See video from the reading at San Francisco's Lou Sullivan Society by several of the Letters For My Brothers authors.


Zander Keig:


Max Valerio reads Lou Sullivan's letters:


Christopher Bautisa:


Lyle Blake:

$300 Raised for NCTE

Royalties from the sales of Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect enabled us to send our third royalty check for $100 (for a total of $300) to the National Center for Transgender Equality. %20 of the proceeds for Letters For My Brothers will be contributed to NCTE.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people.

By empowering transgender people and our allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation's capital and around the country.

Thanks to all who bought books this first month! You have helped us to prove that creativity can make a real difference in the world!

Letters for my Brothers:Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect

Edited By Megan M. Rohrer & Zander Keig
4th Edition

In today's fast paced world, the internet can provide quick answers to personal questions. But when an individual raised by society to live, breathe and look at the world with female eyes transitions to male, some of the most enlightening, helpful and profound advice can only come in retrospect. Letter to my Brothers, features essays from respected transmen mentors who share the wisdom they wish they would have known at the beginning of their journey into manhood. Buy your copy on this website and not only will you receive free shipping, but $5 from each sale will be donated to LYRIC.     Join us on facebook

Featuring Writing By:
see author bios
Jamison Green ‡ fAe gibson ‡ Cristopher Bautista ‡
Chase Ryan Joynt ‡ Malcolm Himschoot ‡ Lou Sullivan ‡
Reid Vanderburgh ‡ Aaron H Devor ‡ Aaron Raz Link ‡
Patrick M Callahan ‡ Elliott Anthony Brooker ‡ Zander Keig ‡
C.T. Whitley ‡ Raven Kaldera ‡ Tucker Lieberman ‡
Lyle Blake ‡ Keith Josephson ‡ Evan Anderson ‡ Matt Kailey


Get the paperback:

Get the ebook:

Letters for my Brothers is full of needed wisdom for and from transmen.  It will benefit those who are contemplating transition with uncertainty, and it will comfort those who have long lived in their true gender.  It is an act of generosity and contains a great deal of love.

Andrew Solomon, National Book Award Winner

Letters for My Brothers is one of those books that I agreed to read, but wasn’t really sure I wanted to review. It’s not that I didn’t expect it to be good, or that I felt obligated, or anything negative. Instead, it’s that I didn’t expect to relate to it, and I was concerned that disconnect might be hard to keep out of a review. After all, when you’re going one way on the gender spectrum, it’s almost impossible to fathom anybody wanting to go the other way.

Anonymous

Much to my surprise (and delight), I found that connection early on, and realized that many of the themes and concepts being expressed are universal.  You don’t have to be FTM (female-to-male) to appreciate the struggles and triumphs of the authors here. Heck, you don’t even have to be transgender to appreciate them – we all have at least one significant aspect of our life that we struggle against and worry about, as well as a few secrets that we keep from those we love (as often to protect them as ourselves). On top of all that, the central theme of body image is one of those things that we never really stop thinking about, no matter who we are or how old we get.

Sally Bibrary, Book Review Blogger

[Letters for My Brothers] is the first of its kind, as far as I know, and I think editors Megan Rohrer and Zander Keig have put together something important and necessary. I remember how terrified I was when I was first gathering information about transition, and even when I “officially” started my transition. I think this book will definitely outlast me (there are days when I think the leftovers in my fridge will outlast me, but this book definitely will). And trans people still need books — they represent our shared experiences and are tangible records of our existence.

Matt Kailey, author of the award-winning blog Tranifesto

…there’s a lot of wisdom, comfort and inspiration to be found in these pages and any newly transitioning trans-man will want to read them at least once if not more and hopefully will also be inspired to go out and find some real-live brothers to connect with.

Ami B. Kaplan, author of Transgender Mental Health Blog

There’s wisdom in here, real honesty, feelings that aren’t shared casually.

Jamison Green, author of Becoming a Visible Man

May these stories serve as a mirror for the men who have gone unrecognized since birth. For there is no greater joy than when the soul finds its own reflection.

Dhillon Khosla, author of Both Sides Now: One Man’s Journey Through Womanhood

Wide-ranging, fearless, and provocative, Letters for My Brothers is an indispensable and instructive collection of perspectives that is unafraid to explore the imperfections, joys, and difficulties of transitioning to male. It is a necessary inclusion in courses both introductory and advanced that are invested in the complexities of transition and in rethinking embodied experience through the epistolary form.

Yetta Howard, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University

For my Sociology of the Body course this past spring 2013, my students read Letters for My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect. This wonderful book not only allowed students to grasp how gender is socially constructed, but exposed them to a topic that most knew little about. By reading the life experiences expressed through the letters, my students were able to see that although people have many differences, we have more similarities. In the end, my students learned that we all struggle with wanting to be accepted, loved and validated. It’s about the human experience.

Michelle Dietert, Associate Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University Central Texas

I finally bought Letters for My Brothers yesterday, and haven’t put my kindle down. As someone who is barely scratching the surface of transition right now, I can’t thank you and all of the contributors enough for this blessing of a book.

I found this to be an excellent read. A must for any transman, especially those early in transition or even just questioning. I found myself wanting to send copies to people that I know. I dislike reading books more than once, but this one I will read and reread. It’s like having a big brother on your shelf!

I read your book when things are going wrong for me and I feel like the world is against me. It reminds me that I have brothers out there that are going through the same thing and came out the other side okay. Thanks man.

As Zander’s father, not only am I very proud of his achievements, I enjoyed reading the book very much. Besides each story being interesting, together they have helped me understand Zander’s journey much better. I highly recommend it.

Letters For My Brothers Authors

Evan Anderson is a pseudonym. While the story is real, the names and birth date of the author has been changed in order to protect the privacy of the author’s family.

Cristopher Marc Bautista is a student studying at both Stanford and Oxford University. He is an English major emphasizing in creative writing and graphic novels.

Lyle Blake, has been active in the LGBT community since 1980. He has lead workshop discussions on maturity, leadership, and body image at conferences across the USA, with an emphasis on reaching out to men of color. He is a co-founder of Gender Identity Foundation for Transmen (www.thegift-foundation.org); a participant and supporter of Transfigurations, the award-winning photo-documentary by Jana Marcus (www.janamarcus.com/docus/docus.htm); and a participant and supporter of the Transgender Oral History Project by Martin Rawlings-Fein (www.feindesign.org/oral-history.html). He is honored and blessed to be included in this distinguished list of authors and activists.

Following his BA Honors degree in Drama from Edge Hill University, Elliott Brooker (aged 22) is currently a post-grad student studying an MA in Theatre Studies at Manchester University UK, focusing on Queer theory and Transgenderism within sociological and community performance. From attending the ever-growing community groups in England, (the Trans Resource Empowerment Centre 'TREC' and the Trans-guy support group 'MORF') he has become an active and very proud member of the Transgender community in the North West. He hopes to further his studies into a career lecturing within the arts, while creating opportunities for Transgender and Queer identified people to use, create, and enjoy performance through active community participation. Living at home with his loving and dedicated family, Elliott owes much to the support, kindness and understanding of his parents Lynn and David, Martin and Char, and his loving and brilliant brother Phil, without which his letter would have been a very different story.

Patrick Michael Callahan born and raised in Northern Michigan currently living in San Jose, California. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honors) in Philosophy from Michigan State University and my Master of Science degree in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. I am currently the Director of Security and the Public Information Officer for the Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs (TCOPS International) www.tcops-international.org I am also a member of the 7-Point Star Group which is a think-tank organization studying the intersection of the LGBT community and public service organizations (police, fire, EMS) as both service providers and as consumers.

Aaron H. Devor, PhD, has been a member of the LGBTQ community for more than 40 years and has been studying and teaching about gender and sexuality for more than twenty years. He is internationally recognized for his books Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989) and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997) as well as numerous scholarly articles and lectures delivered to audiences around the world. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Sex Research, a Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and a nationally-award-winning teacher. He was one of the main authors of version 6 of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's (WPATH) Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders and is a member of the workgroup preparing for version 7. His present research focuses on the life of transgendered philanthropist Reed Erickson (1917-1992) and the Erickson Educational Foundation (1964-84) through which Erickson provided unparalleled leadership in building early support, education, advocacy, and research about transsexualism as well as providing invaluable support to the early gay rights organization ONE Inc. Dr. Devor is the Dean of Graduate Studies and a professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. http://web.uvic.ca/~ahdevor/

fAe gibson is an advocate, activist and artist. He was featured in a documentary, Gender Redesigner, chronicling five years of his transition from female-to-male. This film by his good friend Johnny Bergmann was shown at film festivals all across the United States and Europe in 2007, it aired on the LOGO channel and is now available on Outcast Films (http://www.outcast-films.com/films/gr/index.html). fAe has been an active participant in LGBT communities all over the country, including New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Pittsburgh. At the turn of the century, fAe was performing as Sir-Lix-A-Lot in New York City. He was a featured drag king on MTV’s Sex 2K: Drag Kings (2000). After moving to Pennsylvania from NYC, fAe joined the Distinguished Iron City Kings drag king troupe in Pittsburgh, where he slashed and hacked at gender boundaries. While living in San Francisco, he hosted and stage-managed Gender Pirates, a variety show that raised money for the annual San Francisco Trans March. While on the west coast, he was also a member of the band Sex Combs. Look ‘em up on Youtube.com for some sonic fury! fAe remains busy with new musical and performance projects. Currently, he’s pushing for change from his farm in rural western Pennsylvania speaking at schools, universities and to various groups about his experience as a trans-man. www.myspace.com/gender_redesigner

Born in Oakland, CA, in 1948, Jamison Green began fighting for civil rights for gender-variant people in 1968, and started his medical transition to male in 1988. He led FTM International from March 1991 to August 1999, has appeared in a dozen documentary films, and now serves on the boards of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, TransYouth Family Allies, and the Transgender Law & Policy Institute. In 2009 he received the Association of Gay & Lesbian Psychiatrists’ 2009 Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to LGBT mental health, the Transgender Advocacy Award from the National LGBT Bar Association, and the Vanguard Award from the Transgender Law Center. He holds an MFA in English, and he is the author of the prizewinning book Becoming a Visible Man (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004). His next book, The FTM Guide to Sexual Health, is forthcoming from Cleis Press.

Malcolm Himschoot is an ordained Christian minister, a Euro-American trans man living in Colorado with his wife and two young children.

Keith Josephson uses a pen name to protect his privacy. Contact him at: keithjosephson57@gmail.com

Chase Ryan Joynt is a writer, performer and film-maker currently based in Toronto, Ontario Canada. You can read more of his writing in zines, on websites and can follow him on Twitter @ChaseJoynt as he chronicles his quest to write a book, finish a film and find his abdominal muscles.

Matt Kailey is an author, speaker, and storyteller focusing on transgender issues. He is the author of Lambda Literary Award finalist Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press, 2005), the editor of Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices (Johnson Books, 2007), and the winner of the Poets & Writers, Inc. Writers Exchange Award for fiction. His short stories and essays have been published in various anthologies and collections, and he has appeared in five documentary films, including Matt Kailey: A Conversation. Kailey lives in Denver, Colorado, where he plays bass in the garage band Mixed Message, blogs at www.tranifesto.com, and continues to make mistakes, thus garnering more wisdom to impart. He can be reached through his Web site at www.mattkailey.com.

Raven Kaldera is a queer FTM intersexual shaman. He lives with his MTF wife Bella and his FTM partner Joshua on a little homestead in central Massachusetts, and is an activist for everything that he is and does, as well as being a shaman for the Third Gender Tribe. He is the author of 21 books and innumerable articles, including Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook. His "hub" website is www.ravenkaldera.org, and all his other websites can be found linked off of that one. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

Zander Keig is a post-op trans man living in San Diego, CA with his wonderful wife Margaret. Zander has been engaged in and invigorated by his many community organizing, public speaking, diversity training and mentoring projects in the LGBT community since 1987. You may connect with Zander on Facebook and LinkedIn. Zander Keig is a co-editor and featured writer in Letters For Our Brothers.

Tucker Lieberman has published essays in Zeek, Whosoever, and Fresh Yarn and in several anthologies including Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal Press, 2006). His flash fiction has appeared in Glossolalia and his poetry in Snakeskin, Ariga, and Flutter. He studied Journalism at Boston University and Philosophy at Brown University where he won the 2002 Casey Shearer Memorial Award for Creative Nonfiction. He recently co-edited the literary zine Never Hit By Lightning (Lulu, 2009) and co-organizes TranScriptions, an open mic in Boston. After a fifteen year career working for major museums and zoos, drag queens sent

Aaron Raz Link to the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, making him the only known historian and philosopher of science ever to graduate from clown school. He is author of What Becomes You, a memoir of change in two voices with Hilda Raz. The book was published by the University of Nebraska Press in Tobias Wolff's series American Lives, and was a 2008 Lambda Literary Award finalist in both Gay Men's and Trans categories. Currently, Aaron lives beneath a small shrine to Erving Goffman in Portland, Oregon. He teaches creative writing, curates exhibit and performance projects, and is at work on a book about comedy.

Megan M. Rohrer received a master of divinity at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where Megan is currently a candidate for the Doctorate of Ministry degree. In addition to serving as the Executive Director of Welcome serving the homeless and hungry, Megan is currently researching gay and trans youth from 1964-70 in San Francisco’s Tenderloin with the GLBT Historical Society. Megan is the creator of Wilgefortis Press and publishes books about queer, disability and poverty issues, the author of Queerly Lutheran and the co-editor of Letters For Our Brothers.

Dylan Scholinski was born Daphne Scholinski. As a young girl growing up in the Chicago suburbs, she played first base in Little League and preferred drawing to playing with dolls. When she was 15 years old she was locked up in a mental hospital diagnosed as "an inappropriate female", and spent the rest of her high school years undergoing extreme femininity training. At 18, her insurance ran out and she was discharged. Now 43 years old, Dylan resides in Denver, CO and is a distinguished artist, author, and public speaker . Dylan has appeared on 20/20, Dateline and Today to discuss his experiences and has been featured in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Recently his award-winning book (The Last Time I Wore a Dress: A Memoir - Penguin/Putnam) was listed in the Top 10 Must Reads in Out Magazines first Transgender Issue. His work not only portrays the anguish of his hospital years but also his ultimate triumph. Dylan is the founder/witness for the Sent(a)Mental Project : A Memorial to GLBTIQA Suicide. He spends much of his time working in his studio, public speaking, creating zines - such as Freedom of Depression, Please Forgive Me For Judging You, Sent(a)Mental - and frequently opens his studio to a variety of Denver Metro youth to provide safe space to explore and discover ways of expressing and empowering themselves without bringing harm to themselves or others.

Lou Sullivan could be called the father of the contemporary trans male movement. The creator of FTM (now FTM International), Lou wrote letters to thousands of transmen across the globe before he became the first trans man to die of AIDS in 1991. Photos of Lou’s transition, additional letters to David and video interviews of Lou before his death are currently on display in Man-i-fest: FTM Mentorship in San Francisco from 1976-2009, curated by Megan M. Rohrer in partnership with the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco and available online at Out History.

Reid Vanderburgh is a therapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon. Reid began transitioning in 1995, and started taking hormones in 1997, at the age of 41. With a B.A. in Psychology from Portland State University in 1998, Reid received a M.A. in Counseling Psychology (specialization Transpersonal Psychology) from John F. Kennedy University's Graduate School for Holistic Studies in 2001. Reid is the author of Transition and Beyond: Observations on Gender and Identity.

Cameron Thomas Whitley (C.T.) grew up in Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005 with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Ethnic Studies. Currently, Cameron is a PhD graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. Between graduating and entering MSU in the fall of 2009, Cameron spent time engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention and education in the Virgin Islands and working as a financial officer in New York City. Cameron’s past research has focused largely on the intersections of sex, gender and sexuality; however his current interests are in environmental sociology, specifically regarding social attitudes around climate change, water quality and conservation, social movements and the social and political positioning of animals for corporate gain. When not engaged in research, Cameron enjoys being outdoors, photography, daily yoga, exploratory creative writing, social activism, chai tea lattes, and travelling around the world with his wife and twelve year old yorkie mix named Pal. Cameron has had pieces published in Visible: A Femmethology and Gendered Hearts as well.

Call For Submissions

Locusts and Honey: Resilience and Resistance in Anti-Oppression Ministry and Our Personal Lives

Edited by: Megan Dowdell and Megan Rohrer

In a world where survival requires more than bouncing back from crises and adversity, there lies a dialectic between resilience and resistance among individuals, communities, and religious movements. Written by and geared toward faith leaders, this book places life stressors, safety and health in the context of oppression, white supremacy and religious-cultural history. Its contributors help us to identify the dynamics of stress and resilience and promote cultures of resistance in ministries and activism. A set of reflections on cultural norms and messages, work and relationships, stress and health, and the problems of poverty and policy, this book brings hope to each of us who have ever felt burnt-out or wondered what makes ministry and activism truly livable.

Submissions Due: February 28, 2011

Publisher: Wilgefortis (http://wilgefortisbooks.blogspot.com)

Royalties: 20% of the proceeds will benefit Catalyst Project, a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area committed to anti-racist work in majority white sections of left social movements (www.collectiveliberation.org). 30% of the proceeds will be divided among the contributors.

Word Count: 500 - 5000 words

Criteria:
Please submit a 1st person essay that describes the lessons of resilience and resistance in your life, ministry and/or activism. How have you bounced back from crises or adversity? Writing should develop readers’ understanding of stress and resilience or cultures of resistance.

Priority will be given to essays that fit the themes of: cultural norms and messages; work and relationships; stress and health; or poverty and policy. Content must be original, true, in English, and in narrative form (or see Diversity Accommodations below). We are looking for essays that are poignant, heartwarming, inspiring, and/or humorous. Unpublished material preferred; some previously published material may be accepted. We will not publish material that has been or will be published in a mass market anthology or widely circulated in a magazine. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Additional materials may also be submitted: (electronic submission preferred) art, audio, video or pictures that illustrate/illuminate your story are welcome and encouraged.

Each submission must include the following:
Author's full and legal name
Author's mailing address
Author's phone number(s)
Author's email address (if applicable)
Story title
Story wordcount (approximate ok)

Choose one of these submission methods:
Email (preferred):
streetvicar@gmail.com
Mail: Megan Rohrer
631 Ofarrell #214
San Francisco CA 94109

Diversity Accommodations Available: In order to represent a full spectrum of voices, submissions do not need to be typed or fully written before they are submitted. If you are interested in working on a submission and would prefer to record your story or work with the editor through an interview story to come up with a story together please contact Megan Rohrer (streetvicar@gmail.com).