The Transfeminine Review's inaugural Reader's Choice Award (2024)

[hermionesviolin]

I almost didn't vote in the TFR [The Transfeminine Review] Choice Awards this year, since I felt like I hadn't read enough (and hadn't loved some of what I had read).  But Bethany was encouraging folks to vote on short stories, since it was pretty tied-up and she hadn't read enough to feel like she could break the tie herself.  So I read a few short stories, felt a couple of them were really good, and voted. (You could vote for up to 3 works in most categories.)

I'd forgotten [until I went to vote] just how many categories there were -- see this post for the list of all 34 award categories, but they included Best Character of 2024 & Best Transfeminine Representation by a Non-Transfeminine Author 2024, for example.

On-brand, the category I was most interested in the longlist for was Outstanding Children’s/Young Adult 2024.  I honestly wasn't sure I'd seen ANY trans picturebooks come out in 2024 -- other than Marley's Pride (about a they/them autistic Black kid and their they/them elder, by a they/them author).  And alas, the closest to a picturebook on the full nominations spreadsheet [relevant tab] was A Kids Book About Being Transgender by Gia Parr. I'm hoping some good trans picturebooks come out in 2025.

Bethany's post about the 2024 winners is here.

Looking through the nomination masterlists especially, I was struck by the fact that I had "book-length work" in my head unless the category explicitly specified otherwise -- like, it didn't occur to me that short stories or essays would be options (not that I necessarily would have nominated "The V*mpire" for Horror or whatever, but it literally didn't occur to me).

I'm definitely gonna be intentionally reading more trans-fem stuff in 2025 in prep for the next Reader's Choice Awards, as well as reading more stuff from the 2024 list.

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2024-published transfem-authored stuff I had read:

Adult fiction:

• The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach -- sff, a sequel which I didn't like as much as I did the first book, though I'm still interested to read the third book in the trilogy when it comes out

Nonfiction:

• A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson
• It Gets Better... Except When It Gets Worse: And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me by Nicole Maines -- I nommed this for Memoir, despite it being the only trans-fem memoir I'd read this year (though not the only trans memoir); Bethany had some criticisms of it (e.g., you can read the thread that's quote-posted here), some of which I very appreciate and some of which are more a matter of taste and with which I disagree
  

YA:

• Lucy, Uncensored by Mel & Teghan Hammond (authors are sisters; Mel is cis and Teghan is trans) -- I voted for this
  
• Girlmode written by Magdalene Visaggio (trans) & illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau (cis?) -- I didn't like this as much as Bethany did, but it won graphic novel
  
• Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia -- there are things I struggled with about the book, many of which are intentional (it's tonally very different from Lucy, Uncensored), and I don't necessarily begrudge it winning Children's/YA

eligible short stories I read before the voting deadline:

• "The V*mpire" by P H Lee -- I voted for this even though I hadn't finished it, and Bethany's writeup of it (it won) makes me feel like I can probably go back and finish it (it's rough!)
  
• "Can You Hear Me?" by Grace Byron
• "Rachel Is at a Protest" by Esther Alter -- I appreciated Bethany's commentary on this