Trans: A Memoir is an often gripping (and sometimes lagging) memoir, in which Juliet Jacques documents her struggles with gender dysphoria, anxiety and depression, and ruminates on her experiences while undergoing sex realignment surgery. “Brave and moving, Trans is necessary reading for anyone who cares about gender, power, freedom and desire. Juliet Jacques deals with the forces of cruelty and ignorance with a hard-won clarity and calm. A vital voice in our turbulent times.” – Olivia Laing, author of The Trip to Echo Spring.
I am a writer and filmmaker based in London. I have published two books, Rayner Heppenstall: A Critical Study(Dalkey Archive, 2007) and Trans: A Memoir(Verso, 2015), with my third, a volume of short stories entitled Variations, out on Influx Press in June 2021. I have also contributed to volumes published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, And Other Stories and others.
I write short fiction, as well as journalism, essays and criticism on literature, film, art, music, politics, gender, sexuality and football. My work has appeared in The Guardian, for whom I documented my gender reassignment in a series entitled A Transgender Journey (2010-12) as well as London Review of Books, Granta,Sight & Sound, Frieze,Art Review,New York Times, The Washington Post,TimeOut, New Humanist, Five Dials, New Inquiry, The New Statesman, Berfrois, Schirn, Mal, 3:AM and many other places.
I have made two 16mm films – Approach/Withdraw (2016), co-directed with artist Ker Wallwork, and You Will Be Free(2017). I have also directed a documentary entitled Revivification: Art, Activism and Politics in Ukraine (2018), as part of a residency with the Izolyatsia platform for cultural initiatives in Kyiv. I co-wrote NADA: Act III with Jasmina Cibic, and acted in Female Human Animal (Josh Appignanesi, 2017) and the Superflux short film Our Friends Electric(2017).
I also founded and host Suite (212) on Resonance 104.4fm – a radio programme that looks at the arts in their social, cultural, political and historical contexts, funded by Patreon subscriptions.
I teach a course on queer fiction at City Lit in London, and also teach on the Contemporary Art Practice MA at the Royal College of Art; I have also given guest lectures and workshops at Brunel, Central Saint Martin’s, Studio Voltaire, Birkbeck, the University of Sussex, The American University of Central Asia (Bishkek) and elsewhere. I completed my PhD in Creative & Critical Writing at the University of Sussex in July 2019.
I was included on The Independent on Sunday Pink List of influential LGBT people in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and appeared on a panel at the PEN International Congress in 2014. My Transgender Journey column was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for blogs in 2011, and Trans: A Memoir was runner-up in Polari LGBT Literary Salon’s First Book Award for 2016. In 2019, Val McDermid chose me as one of ten British LGBT+ writers for an International Literary Showcase. I have presented my work across the world, speaking across the United Kingdom, in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, in the USA and Canada, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, Australia and elsewhere.
Juliet Jacques Trans A Memoir Movie
My archives are held by the Bishopsgate Institute in London, and my agent is Holly Faulks at Greene & Heaton.
Juliet Jacques Trans A Memoir Summary
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