New review in Literary Hub: Gender Queer

My review of Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe‘s excellent graphic memoir, has recently been published in Literary Hub as part of a review project that seeks to redress omissions in the New York Times‘ books coverage.

The Times has long been notorious for its hostile coverage of trans people — especially over the last decade. The problem has become so pronounced that in 2023, more than 180 of the paper’s contributors signed an open letter condemning its “irresponsible, biased coverage of trans people,” joined by more than 100 organizations. Yet, the newspaper refused to engage with the serious concerns raised.

This anti-trans bias was also visible in the books section during the tenure of anti-trans agitator Pamela Paul, who served as children’s editor from 2011 to 2016 and then as editor of the entire review section from 2016 to 2022. During those years, coverage of books by trans authors was sparse, despite the publication of a number of landmark works, Gender Queer among them, and few — if any — regular contributors were themselves trans (also a broader problem with the Times).

Yet, at the same time, Paul’s hired anti-trans commentator Jesse Singal to write a glowing review of an anti-trans book, and the section published a piece defending anti-trans campaigner J.K. Rowling. Following Paul’s depature as reviews editor, she continues to pen anti-trans screeds.

In response, Sandy Ernest Allen, working with Maris Kreizman, invited trans writers to review books that had been overlooked during Paul’s tenure. These essays were published by Literary Hub as part of a project titled “What Was Lost: A Queer Accounting of the NY Times Book Review, 2013-2022.”

The collection gathers 13 reviews of literary fiction, memoir, history, and other nonfiction works that should have received critical attention in the US paper of record, but did not.

My contribution revisits Kobabe’s graphic memoir in a review essay titled “On the Power of Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, One of the Most Banned Books of Its Era.” (Note: The title isn’t mine. It strikes me as funny to write about an “era” that occurred less than seven years ago, but such is the nature of writing headlines in our current moment, I suppose.)

While researching the book, I discovered that although Gender Queer has been mentioned in the New York Times at least 27 times, it has never actually been engaged with critically. Instead, it appears in articles and podcasts about censorship where it is framed as “controversial.”

But trans existence is not controversial; it is an inevitable part of human diversity, and it deserves thoughtful engagement — not dismissal or avoidance to placate bigots who find our existence distasteful.

If you would like to read my full review, you can find it at Literary Hub.