Author | Imogen Binnie |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Literary fiction, Transgender literature |
Publisher | Topside Press |
Publication date | April 2, 2013 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 262 |
ISBN | 9780983242291 |
Nevada: A Novel is the debut novel from author Imogen Binnie, released by Topside Press in 2013. Nevada follows the story of Maria Griffiths, a trans woman living in Brooklyn, who embarks on a road trip headed towards the West Coast where she meets James, a Walmart employee questioning his gender. The novel was not an initial success, but gained an online following and was reissued in 2022. In the years following its release, it has been credited by literary critic Stephanie Burt as having starting a transgender literary movement [1] and inspiring authors such as Torrey Peters and Casey Plett.
Binnie has said that in writing a story about a transgender protagonist, she wanted to resist the risk of explaining "The Trans Experience for cis people," which she says often happens with transgender memoirs. Because Nevada is a work of fiction, Binnie said she approached writing it as a transgender story written for trans women. "One of the questions I was trying to answer with Nevada was, what would a story about trans women that was intended for an audience of trans women — what would that look like?" Binnie told blogger Sarah McCarry in an interview about the book. [2]
Binnie told W magazine that she was inspired by interactions she had in both online and offline transgender communities saying: [3]
Everybody who was like 'This is how to be trans' was doing it in a way that didn't resonate, so I wrote a book about somebody who was trying to tell somebody else how to be trans and it didn't resonate.
In an interview with Niko Stratis for Autostraddle , Binnie stated that while she shares similarities with the characters of Maria and James, Nevada was not meant to be autobiographical. Binnie remarked that two details about Maria—her red hair, and her enjoyment of Poison—were deliberately added to distinguish the character from herself. [4]
Nevada was originally released by independent transgender literature focused publisher Topside Press in 2013. It was published under a Creative Commons license so that PDF copies could be distributed freely. [5] In 2017, Nevada went out of print due to Topside Press disbanding. During this initial release it had sold about 10,000 copies. Fans of the novel continued to circulate copies of the novel and created a website where digital copies could be downloaded. [6]
In June 2021, it was announced that Nevada would be reissued in Fall 2022 by MCD Books' FSG Originals due to its enduring popularity. [7] Later that summer Binnie retweeted that Nevada would be published in June 2022 by Picador, making it available in the UK for the first time. [8] [9] On August 24, 2023, French publisher Gallimard published a French language translation of Nevada. [10]
Maria Griffiths lives in an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with her girlfriend, cisgender lesbian Steph. She has been working at the same bookstore in Manhattan for the past six years, during which she came out as a transgender woman. On a Sunday in October, over brunch, Steph confesses to Maria that she cheated on her with a mutual friend, a transgender man named Kieran. Maria processes the events of that day over the course of the week, ultimately deciding to break up with Steph. As she goes to work on the day of her decision, Maria sees Kieran; he admits that he and Steph never actually had sex, and the two made up the story to goad Maria into discussing her feelings with Steph. Steph ultimately breaks up with Maria before Maria has the chance to break up with her.
Immediately after the breakup, Maria visits the apartment of her close friend Piranha, another trans woman whom she had met on the way to Camp Trans. While there, she discovers that Piranha has been using heroin, partly as a way of coping with her chronic pain, as well as her pain being a likely contraindication for getting bottom surgery. The following day at work, Maria is fired for repeatedly showing up late, as well as taking breaks without her manager's permission. Following a difficult conversation with Piranha about their friendship, Maria visits a bar, where she makes the decision to drive as far away as possible from New York. After seeing Piranha for the last time, Maria buys heroin using the money she had been saving for her bottom surgery, and begins heading west in Steph's car.
One month later, in Star City, Nevada, James Hanson works at the local Walmart. James has been questioning his gender, and uses marijuana to avoid thinking about both his gender identity and how it would affect his relationship with his girlfriend, Nicole. Maria arrives at the store James works at, and immediately realizes that he is likely transgender. After purchasing a Miranda Lambert CD, Maria asks James if he would like to spend time with her. The two smoke marijuana in Steph's car (which has now been reported stolen) outside of James' apartment, where Maria stays for the night. The following day, James asks Maria if she is transgender, which prompts Maria to ask James whether or not he is trans as well. Over breakfast, the two decide to go to Reno for the day.
On the car ride to Reno, James brings up the concept of autogynephilia to Maria. Maria dissects the concept for James, and criticizes the work of J. Michael Bailey for promoting it. The two arrive at a restaurant, where they make plans to visit a casino. While at the restaurant, Maria gives further criticism of Kenneth Zucker, and recalls calling into a show on NPR to excoriate him on air, but getting too nervous to say anything. After arriving at the casino, James steals Maria's heroin while she's in the bathroom. Maria abandons James at the casino. The book ends with Nicole giving James a ride home; the fates of the main characters are left unclear.
Maria frequently lapses into long inner monologues throughout the book, reflecting on gender, heteronormativity, and social conditioning, [11] as well as referencing other queer women authors by name, including Michelle Tea and Julia Serano.
Noah Berlatsky, writing for the Los Angeles Times, wrote that the book challenges traditional linear narratives about gender transition and life in general, writing "it’s a road-trip novel that refuses to go anywhere, in which people aren’t locked into linear narratives." [12]
Lily Meyer has pointed to themes of class in Nevada, writing that "...Nevada is as much about class and labor as it is about transness and gender." Maria's occupation as a bookseller is described as a dead end job that contributes to her feeling of being "stuck". In addition, it explores the intersection of class and gender. Maria is unable to afford gender affirming care such as electrolysis due to her low wage. [13]
Nevada received a negative review in magazine Publishers Weekly , [11] but inspired other trans women writers, like author Casey Plett, who said the book was "very bleak and it ends in a tough way," [14] but ultimately made her feel that "nothing was off-limits" to write about. [15] Torrey Peters, another trans woman and author, has cited it as a major inspiration of hers. She would go on to write Detransition, Baby , an acclaimed 2010s transgender novel. [16] The book was also nominated for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for transgender fiction. [17]
In 2022, transgender academic, Stephanie Burt, credited Nevada as having "changed the landscape of trans fiction—in part because it made no concessions to tourists." and argued that the book had become central to "the invention of the trans novel" in the 2010s. [1]
Nevada was listed as one of The Atlantic's "Great American Novels" in 2024. Writing for the novel's inclusion on the list, critic Lily Meyer called Maria "a great character" and said that getting to know her through the text of the book "is worth doing again and again". [18]
On January 17, 2023, director Jane Schoenbrun announced a casting call on their Twitter account seeking actors for a film adaptation of Nevada. [19] Binnie endorsed the call with a retweet. However, in May 2024, it was announced that Schoenbrun had left the project due to creative differences. [20]
Joanne Rowling, known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of Harry Potter, a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. The Casual Vacancy (2012) was her first novel for adults. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.
Leslie Feinberg was an American butch lesbian, transgender activist, communist, and author. Feinberg authored Stone Butch Blues in 1993. Her writing, notably Stone Butch Blues and her pioneering non-fiction book Transgender Warriors (1996), laid the groundwork for much of the terminology and awareness around gender studies and was instrumental in bringing these issues to a more mainstream audience.
Julia Michelle Serano is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, transgender and bisexual activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books, such as Whipping Girl (2007), Excluded (2013), and Outspoken (2016). She is also a public speaker who has given many talks at universities and conferences. Her writing is frequently featured in queer, feminist, and popular culture magazines.
Andrea Jean James is an American transgender rights activist, film producer, and blogger.
Susan O'Neal Stryker, best known as Susan Stryker, is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and sexuality and trans realities. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona. Stryker is the author of several books and a founding figure of transgender studies as well as a leading scholar of transgender history.
Joy Ladin is an American poet and the former David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She was the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution.
Casey Plett is a Canadian writer, best known for her novel Little Fish, her Lambda Literary Award winning short story collection, A Safe Girl to Love, and her Giller Prize-nominated short story collection, A Dream of a Woman. Plett is a transgender woman, and she often centers this experience in her writing.
Ryka Aoki is an American author of novels, poetry, and essays. She teaches English at Santa Monica College and gender studies at Antioch University.
Imogen Binnie is an American transgender novelist and screenwriter who made her debut with the publication of Nevada in 2013.
Kai Cheng Thom is a Chinese-Canadian writer, performance artist, mental health community worker, youth counsellor, and former social worker. Thom, a non-binary transgender woman, has published five books, including the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (2016), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (2017), a children's book, From the Stars in The Sky to the Fish in the Sea (2017), I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World (2019), a book of essays centered on transformative justice, and Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls (2023).
Gwen Benaway is a Canadian poet and activist. As of October 2019, she was a PhD candidate in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto. Benaway has also written non-fiction for The Globe and Mail and Maclean's.
Transgender literature is a collective term used to designate the literary production that addresses, has been written by or portrays people of diverse gender identity.
Torrey Peters is an American author. Her debut novel, Detransition, Baby, has received mainstream and critical success. The novel was nominated for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Detransition, Baby is a 2021 novel by American author Torrey Peters. It is her debut novel and was published by One World. The novel was met with critical success and praise for crafting a tender exploration of gender, parenthood, love, and trans life.
Little Fish is a novel by Casey Plett, published May 1, 2018 by Arsenal Pulp Press. Centring transgender characters in Plett's hometown of Winnipeg, the book won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction in 2018.
Topside Press was an independent publisher of trans and feminist literature based in Brooklyn, New York that operated from 2011 to 2017. The press published fiction, memoirs, short story collections, poetry, and non-fiction by trans authors, for trans readers, and about trans characters. It is often credited as an important contributor to the "trans literary renaissance."
Bryn Kelly (1980–2016) was an American writer, artist, performer, and community organizer. Kelly has shown work at New Museum and performed in conjunction with Visual AIDS and in Art in the Age of Aquarius at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was a member of the Femme Collective, participated in Baltimore's 2012 Femme Conference, and was a cofounder of Theater Transgression, a transgender multimedia performance collective. Her writing and writing performances have appeared in Original Plumbing, Manic D Press, the National Queer Arts Festival, PrettyQueer.com, and EOAGH, A Journal of the Arts, amongst others.
Jane Flannery Schoenbrun is an American filmmaker. They worked as a producer before making their directorial debut in 2018.
Robyn Gigl is an American lawyer, writer, and LGBTQ+ activist. She is author of a series of legal thrillers centered on transgender lawyer Erin McCabe, including the novels By Way of Sorrow (2021), Survivor's Guilt (2022), Remain Silent (2023), and Nothing but the Truth(2024).