Gender Quake

About the Book

Gender Quake is a book of revolutionary poems that explores what it means to be a transgendered individual in America.  Joelle Ruby Ryan, a self-styled 6’6” transgender warrior, bares her soul in this collection of poems which is at turns humorous, poignant, searing and deeply passionate.  From the ashes of loneliness, rage, and despair, Ryan charts an emotional trajectory which jolts readers into confronting their own shared humanity with differently-gendered people.  Ryan covers topics as diverse as feminism, porn, passing, violence, activism and the urgent need for solidarity across lines of identity and difference.  While the book explores the darkest corners of a life marred by pain, discrimination and self-hatred, it also repeatedly calls upon hope, love and justice as the primary correctives for imagining a better world.  Gender Quake will shock you, educate you and most of all move you to join the fight for a gender revolution. 

“So World, take note: the Gender Quake is ready to activate, and the whirl is gonna be blissful, and divine, and unstoppable.”

About the Author

Joelle Ruby Ryan holds Master of Arts degrees in English and Women’s Studies.  Currently, she is a doctoral student in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, where her research focuses on gender/sexuality studies and film/media studies.  She has taught university classes in English Composition, Women’s Studies, American Studies and Ethnic Studies.  She is the founder of New Hampshire Transgender Resources for Education and Empowerment (NH TREE) and the co-producer of two autobiographical videos: A Transgender Path and TransAmazon: A Gender Queer Journey.  She is a frequent speaker on issues of gender, identity and social justice in classes, community groups and regional and national conferences.  She can be reached via the web at www.transpride.org.