Thomas Page McBee

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Thomas Page McBee (born 1981) [1] is an American transgender journalist, television writer, and amateur boxer. He was the first transgender man to box in Madison Square Garden, [1] which he discusses in Amateur . His first book, Man Alive , won a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. [2] [3]

Contents

Personal life

McBee was born in Hickory, North Carolina, in 1981 [1] and grew up outside of Pittsburgh. [4]

McBee has noted that he "knew [he] wasn't a girl before [he] knew much of anything." [5] However, he also did not resonate with men's "jockeying power dynamics or aversion to hugs." [5] In his late-twenties, he realized that although he "didn't connect with the cultural expectations of Being a Man, [he] knew that [he]'d grown up and become one." [5] He began hormone replacement therapy when he was 30 years old and at 31, he received a new birth certificate from North Carolina Vital Records, an experience he described as feeling like he had been "born again". [5]

As of 2022, McBee lived in Los Angeles with his wife, Jessica Bloom. [6] [7]

Career

Aside from writing, McBee was a senior editor at Quartz and taught at City University of New York. [8]

He has also served as an advisor at West Virginia University's Graduate School of Journalism. [8] [7]

Writing

McBee has written regular columns in The Rumpus ("Self-Made Man"), [9] Them ("Amateur"), [10] Bitch , [11] Pacific Standard ("The American Man"), [12] and Teen Vogue . [13] His writing has also appeared in The New York Times , T Magazine, Esquire, GQ, Glamour , Playboy, The Atlantic , VICE , [14] and other publications.

TV

In 2019 and 2020, McBee wrote episodes for Netflix's Tales of the City and Showtime's The L Word: Generation Q. [15] He has also appeared on the documentary film No Ordinary Man and the mini-series The Art of Intersection. [15]

In 2021, McBee was a supervising producer on The Umbrella Academy , where he architected a storyline in which Elliot Page's character transitions to male, mirroring the actor's real-world transition. [16] In 2022, he served as a writer and co-producer on the fourth season of The Umbrella Academy.

He is currently developing several film and television projects, including a television adaptation for Amateur. [6]

Amateur (2018)

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man was published August 14, 2018, by Scribner.

The book received a starred review from Publishers Weekly , [17] as well as positive reviews from Kirkus, [18] The New Republic , [19] Buzzfeed, [20] Booklist , [21] The Rumpus, [22] The Guardian , [23] Los Angeles Review of Books , [24] and Shelf Awareness . [25] [26]

Amateur was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, [27] nominated for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, [28] and shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize.

Man Alive (2014)

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man was published September 9, 2014, by City Lights Publishers.

The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, [29] Kirkus Reviews , [30] Lambda Literary Foundation, [31] and Library Journal . [32]

Man Alive won a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. [2] [3]

Awards

YearWorkAwardResultRef.
2019 Amateur Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction Finalist [27]
Wellcome Book Prize Shortlist [33] [34]
2018 The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist [35]
2015 Man Alive American Library Association Over the Rainbow Project ListTop 10 [36]
2014 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction Winner [37]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Thomas Page McBee". centre de cultura contemporània de barcelona. 2019-04-05. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  2. 1 2 "Winners of the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Announced". Lambda Literary. 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  3. 1 2 bent (2014-06-03). "Full List of 2014 Lambda Literary Award Winners". IndieWire. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  4. ↑ McBee, Page (2011-03-15). "I want to be more than just a man or a woman". Salon. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  5. 1 2 3 4 McBee, Thomas Page (2012-08-07). "Trans, but not like you think". Salon. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  6. 1 2 "Thomas Page McBee". Thomas Page McBee. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  7. 1 2 "Media Innovation Center | Thomas McBee". West Virginia University. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  8. 1 2 "Thomas Page McBee". Catalyst. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  9. ↑ "Thomas Page McBee". The Rumpus.net. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  10. ↑ "Thomas Page McBee". them. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  11. ↑ "Thomas Page McBee". Bitch Media. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  12. ↑ "Articles by Thomas Page McBee". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  13. ↑ Page McBee, Thomas (2019-03-26). "What Kendrick Sampson Had to Unlearn in Order to Be a Man". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  14. ↑ "Thomas Page McBee". VICE. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  15. 1 2 "Thomas Page McBee". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  16. ↑ Geall, Lauren (23 June 2022). "Netflix's The Umbrella Academy S3: fans are praising the show for its handling of Elliot Page's storyline". Stylist. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  17. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee. Scribner, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-1-5011-6874-1". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  18. ↑ "Amateur". Kirkus Reviews. 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  19. ↑ Livingstone, Jo (2018-08-28). "A Trans Memoir Explores Masculinity In Extremis". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  20. ↑ Rebolini, Arianna (2018-08-31). "35 New Books To Get Excited About This Fall". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  21. ↑ Amateur. July 2018. Retrieved 2022-01-14– via Booklist.
  22. ↑ "What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Pride". The Rumpus.net. 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  23. ↑ Guest, Katy (2018-10-26). "Amateur by Thomas Page McBee review – a trans boxer's life lessons". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  24. ↑ Glazner, Greg (2015-01-04). "Becoming a Man: A Memoir of Sex, Gender, Trauma, and Transformation". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  25. ↑ Wheeler, Dave (2018-08-14). "Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man". Shelf Awareness. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  26. ↑ Wheeler, Dave (2018-07-13). "Review: Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man". Shelf Awareness. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  27. 1 2 Boureau, Ella (2018-03-06). "30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  28. ↑ "The Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 announces shortlist". Baillie Gifford Prize. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  29. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee. City Lights, $15.95 trade paper (172p) ISBN 978-0-87286-624-9". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  30. ↑ "Man Alive". Kirkus Reviews. 2014-09-28. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  31. ↑ Kellaway, Mitch (2014-09-15). "'Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man' by Thomas Page McBee". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  32. ↑ Roberto, K. R. (2016-06-01). "Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man". Library Journal. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  33. ↑ Flood, Alison (2019-03-19). "Wellcome prize shortlist celebrates books about masculinity and mental illness". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  34. ↑ Filgate, Michele (2019-03-19). "Awards: Wellcome Shortlist; Blue Peter Winners". Shelf Awareness. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  35. ↑ "The Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 announces shortlist". Baillie Gifford Prize. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  36. ↑ "Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  37. ↑ "Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man (City Lights/Sister Spit)". IndieBound.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
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