Every trick in the book

Ten books written by transgender, genderqueer, or otherwise genderbending authors on my list to read this year.

Darrell Licata, Pizza

If you’re in your thirties, chances are that you remember the Pizza Hut program to reward students for reading with personal pan pizzas. More than twenty million kids participated in the program every year (and I just learned the program still exists, celebrating its forty year anniversary).

Much of the criticism of the program has been rooted in fatphobia (an expert on motivation was quoted saying that the only thing we’ll get out of the program was “fat kids who don’t like to read.”)

The more apt criticism is that a corporation was leveraging public schools to widen its consumer base. 

All the same, I loved reading toward a tangible goal (perhaps the Pizza Hut kids grew up to be Goodreads kids?). Today is the first day of a different kind of reading program, the Trans Rights Readathon where readers are pledging to read books by trans authors to raise money for trans organizations.

Last year, this decentralized fundraiser raised over $200,000 for trans justice organizations. This year, I’m participating to raise funds for GLITS whose mission is to build community and challenge the systemic oppression faced by trans people and sex workers.

Here’s the gist. I’m asking you to upgrade to a paid subscription to my newsletter, and in turn I will donate every single dollar raised this month. The best part is that my day job offers a triple match, which means that your $8/month subscription turns into a $24 donation and your $100/year subscription turns into a $300 donation.

Here’s ten books written by transgender, genderqueer, or otherwise genderbending authors on my list to read this year:

1. Love the World or Get Killed Trying by Alvina Chamberland

2. Raving by McKenzie Wark

3. Little Fish by Casey Plett

4. Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan

5. Manywhere by Morgan Thomas

6. The Terrible We by Cameron Awkward-Rich

7. trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer

8. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor

9. Girlfriends by Emily Zhou

10. People Collide by Isle McElroy

I will to try to read as many of these ten books as possible during the readathon. Again, you can donate to the readathon with a few bucks by signing up for a paid subscription to simultaneously support my writing and raise money for trans organizations. If you’re not into donating through Substack, you can always Venmo me at @dizzyzaba

One more thing! Drop a comment or reply to this email if a) you were a Pizza Hut kid, b) you have read any of these books, or c) you have opinions on whether I should write a review after I finish reading. Do people like reviews? Idk, you tell me!