People talk about books as these sturdy, long-lasting objects, but while books are tangible, reading is ephemeral. That community, inasmuch as it can be called one, was never going to last: This is how micro-cultural moments work, how the internet in general works, and definitely how trans internet communities specifically have always worked. I also don’t say this to lament some lost online trans community, as much as digital rot is real and a problem. “What other random weirdos are out there making art we don’t yet know should exist, trans or otherwise?” Trans people are too varied for any book to be The Great Trans Novel, and Nevada is very specifically about young fuck-up white queer trans women - and everyone I know who responded to it usually fell into at least several of those categories. Now, to be clear: I don’t mean to say that Nevada spoke to every transsexual out there. This all happened despite little conventional book publicity, and this moment not only inspired my own writing, but has stayed with me forever when I consider what books can actually do. In 2014, when Sybil Lamb and I toured our own books for Nevada’s original publisher Topside Press, I’ve Got a Time Bomb and A Safe Girl to Love, Sybil would often say to majority-trans audiences: “Anyone know Imogen Binnie?” and the crowd would always cheer. One girl threw the book onto the subway tracks because a scene made her so upset, then she immediately bought another copy. There was even an invite-only group called: “People Who Need to Talk About Nevada By Imogen Binnie.” There was fan art and fan fiction. My Facebook was wallpapered with exegeses of Maria and James H (the book’s other protagonist). They were communal in the most literal of ways.

Nevada crept in under cover of night in 2013 and assumed its position as a classic while everyone's attention was elsewhere.this is one for the ages.These reactions weren’t isolated from each other. Torrey Peters I fully tip my hat to former fellow Maximum Rock N Roll columnist and my sibling in the latter-day queer punk literary revolution I say without hesitation that we do not deserve Imogen Binnie AT ALL.it is truly a joy to watch a master of suspense paint the page with a both-feet-on-the-gas-pedal inner monologue, that is at once, spontaneous, acidic, razor sharp observant, fully embodied and (most importantly) vulnerable.TENS ACROSS THE GODDAMN BOARD.'īrontez Purnell I've told people that Nevada is the On the Road of trans literature, but that's glib and unfair to Imogen Binnie, who is a lot smarter than Jack Kerouac.

It seems simple, but it had revolutionary effects, similar to Toni Morrison's famous declaration that she 'writes for Black women.' remains an original

The scene had a basic premise: trans women writing for other trans women. This is the book that launched the trans writing scene in Brooklyn that changed my own life.

Imogen nevada binnie