The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You

The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You

Authors

S. Bear Bergman

Publisher

Arsenal Pulp Press, Limited

Publication Year

2009

ISBN

9781551522647

Pages

192 pages

Genre

memoir

Format

novel

Item Type

Nonfiction

Annotation

Alternately unsettling and affirming, devastating and delicious, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You is a new collection of essays on gender and identity by S. Bear Bergman that is irrevocably honest and endlessly illuminating. With humor and grace, these essays deal with issues from women's spaces to the old boys' network, from gay male bathhouses to lesbian potlucks, from being a child to preparing to have one. Throughout, S. Bear Bergman shows us there are things you learn when you're visibly different from those around you—whether it's being transgressively gendered or readably queer. As a transmasculine person, Bergman keeps readers breathless and rapt in the freakshow tent long after the midway has gone dark, when the good hooch gets passed around and the best stories get told. Ze offers unique perspectives on issues that challenge, complicate, and confound the "official stories" about how gender and sexuality work.

Grade Level

9-12

Diversity Topics

LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Transgender; transsexual; transgender adult; female to male; girl to boy

Main Character

boy

Race/Ethnicities

White

Family Formation

mother and father

LGBTQ+

girl to boy transgender

Awards

Rainbow List, 2011 Young Adult/ Crossover Non-Fiction

Keywords

short stories; identity; personal essays

Diversity Impact

direct

The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You

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