The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You
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
STARS Citation
Bergman, S. Bear, "The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You" (2009). Diverse Families. 1323.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1323