GLR July-August 2025

JFB: We learn from Ovid that none of us is any one thing. I think that switching lanes is exactly what we’re supposed to do as humans. Otherwise, you can get stuck driving behind the same slowpoke all the way to Maine. CC: You have said that Cleavage is more “truthful” than your earlier memoirs. How so? What were you prepared to share that you were reluctant to reveal in years past? JFB: I think some of my work—especially She’s Not There — had an air of apology to it, like, “please love me even though I’m trans; I’m so sorry if this is upsetting.” I’m kind of over apologizing, to tell you the truth. I am grateful for this life and don’t need anyone else’s permission to be happy. CC: Your use of the past tense alarmed me in Cleavage , as in “the life ... was hard.” I assume this doesn’t mean that you’ve stopped writing. So, what are you working on or thinking about working on, and in what genre? JFB: Well, yeah. Don’t let anyone fool you—being trans is hard. For me it was harder before I came out, though I know lots of people for whom the opposite was true. Nevertheless, there is plenty more to come from me. I will continue to write essays for TheTimes and The Washington Post —at least as long as the Post doesn’t consider telling stories about people like me to be anti-American or something. I understand that in the fu ture their opinion page will focus on free markets and personal liberties or some such. Well, I’m happy to write about personal liberty. I’m the fuckin’ personal liberty poster child. CC: You told People: ”It’s hard to be old and to see the world that you have fought for, destroyed.” But you also referenced a new generation of writers, including Torrey Peters. What other writers excite you, and what keeps you optimistic? JFB: I suspect this is trans apostasy, but I’m more interested in stories than authors. The best books I’ve read in the last year are probably Wellness , by Nathan Hill, and The Bee Sting , by Paul Murray. It’s powerful work. My favorite trans authors are Kate Bornstein and Charlotte Clymer. Charlotte, along with Tor rey, is part of a new generation, and it’s interesting to me to watch the discourse shift and evolve over time. CC: You have busted—pun-intended—so many boundaries on and off the page. In closing, the aforesaid trans friend also asked if you might offer some words of hope during these dark times. JFB: Well, first off, these are dark times. But we have seen dark times before. In the short run, there’s nothing wrong with taking care of yourself, protecting your heart, whatever you can, when you’re feeling broken. If possible, try not to let the clowns live in your head. Focus on policy, if you have to, and work for change. But don’t get sucked into the daily ritual of shouting into the void online. Most of all though, walk tall, and be proud; and be happy, as best you can, because if you’re trans you’re a superhero—a precious soul who has had to rise above things that most people can’t understand. Greet each day with auspiciousness and joy and be glad for this life. Oh, how they hate it when we are happy. Let them see your wis dom and joy and grace. They can take lots of things away from us, but they cannot take that. One way or another, this darkness has to give.

words, that they have chosen. I’m not Catholic, but I’d call the pope “Your Holiness.” I’m not a British subject, but I’d call King Charles “Your Majesty.” I don’t know her, but I’d call Cherilyn Bono Allman “Cher.” Because that is the name she has chosen. I don’t have to totally grok pronouns like “zir” or “zem.” Who asked me to pass judgment on anyone anyhow? It’s about respect. CC: Two things in your response to an interviewer with Peo ple magazine teed up two more questions: “[ Cleavage ] jumps around in time,” you said of the book. And: “Things keep threading back, which is the thing I love to do as a writer. I love to weave things together into a mosaic. I think Cleav age might be a little bit of a harder read, but that’s good. It should be hard. I mean, the life that made it, the life that it’s about, was hard.” JFB: I like classical music, and jazz, and (forgive me) the Grateful Dead, because their compositions give artists and writ ers and performers a chance to engage in long thoughts, long forms. I think my writing aspires to music. Something I might have mentioned 100 pages earlier can come back, in a new form, and is experienced in a new way. Because its meaning has been changed by the intervening story. CC: Cleavage jumps around in time, but so does your entire career: educator, memoirist, novelist, collaborator, columnist for The Times. Genre-wise, you keep switching lanes and, in Cleavage , you’re time-traveling. Is this by design?

TheG & LR

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