Katherine Packert Burke! Jurassic Ruby! Good links!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. If you’re able, please support disaster relief mutual aid on the ground in North Carolina and other impacted areas this week, as well as continuing to support families and mutual aid efforts in Gaza. (Not to jump the gun on Links & Stuff, but Margaret Killjoy is currently writing and recording about disaster compassion in North Carolina, which I recommend checking out.)

This week on Gender Conceal, I spoke with Katherine Packert Burke about her debut novel, Still Life! (Great book for fans of Nevada; Detransition, Baby; and Merrily We Roll Along.) Katherine has clearly thought a lot about trans lit and autofiction — Emily Zhou talks about this at length in her really thoughtful review of Still Life — but I also enjoyed distracting Katherine with discussions of Killer Car Lesbians, Susan’s Place, Drake, Gossip Girl, Joe Rogan, etc. (I felt very seen when she said that 2 Trans 2 Furious sounded like it was designed to be an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader lmao.)

Next week on Gender Reveal, we’ve got an interview with Colby Gordon, father of the field of Early Modern Trans Studies… and if you’re worrying that this topic could be overly dry or esoteric, DO NOT FEAR! Colby is SO fun and SO smart in a very accessible way, and I could chat with him all day! (If memory serves, we kind of did… I seem to remember extensive pre- and post-recording chatting.) Really really excited for y’all to hear this one.

Next week’s episode also features a very long list of upcoming trans books, which I’ll be posting here shortly for your pre-ordering convenience. And it will also include a grant-related announcement, so keep an eye out for that!

Meanwhile, we’ve got some deadlines looming:

• TWO DAYS LEFT to fill out the patreon survey and possibly win a prize! Thanks to the 300+ people who have already completed it :)

• THREE DAYS LEFT to submit a pitch for our Sex and the City anthology! Or, you can skip the pitch stage and submit a completed essay/artwork/comic/story/game/etc anytime before October 21.

• One month until our Boston live show, and we’re already halfway to sold out, so grab those tickets soon maybe

Okay, let’s do Links & Stuff:

• Good hat

• Good trail etiquette

• Good way to Google stuff without getting AI results(!!!)

• Good essay by JP Brammer on people-pleasing

• Good queer advice from Maddy Court (as usual!)

• Not a good quote but INCREDIBLE content... I've been thinking exclusively about this headline for eight hours. What does it MEAN!!!!

• Finally… I know this is paywalled but it is worth paying Defector because my favorite content has returned: Kelsey and Chris are attempting Bake Off challenges again(!!!!)

That’s it for this week. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb. She’s been LOVING outside!

Photo: Ruby lurking in the ferns 

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective

PS: If you need me for the next few days, I will be watching Grimace and the Philly Phanatic fight to the death