Ivan E. Coyote

Rae Spoon

A powerful collaboration between two extraordinary performer-writers on matters of gender and identity.

Gender Failure

Rae Spoon has six albums and a Polaris Prize nomination, and they have been published in the anthology Persistence. Now the transgender artist presents a coming-of-age story about growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family. At first the narrator faithfully attends church with their family. Upon discovering the music that becomes their means of escape, things begin to change. Their father's schizophrenia causes their parents' marriage to unravel, leading them to take comfort in their siblings and in the awareness that they are not the person their parents think they are.

First Spring Grass Fire

Goodbye Gender

From non-binary writer and musician Rae Spoon: a rollicking yet introspective young adult adventure about screwing up, finding yourself, and forging a new life on your own.

Green Glass Ghosts

Transgender indie electronica singer-songwriter Rae Spoon has six albums to their credit, including 2012’s I Can’t Keep All of Our Secrets. This first book by Rae (who uses "they" as a pronoun) is a candid, powerful story about a young person growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family in rural Canada. The narrator attends church events and Billy Graham rallies faithfully with their family before discovering the music that becomes their salvation and means of escape. As their father's schizophrenia causes their parents' marriage to unravel, the narrator finds solace and safety in the company of their siblings, in their nascent feelings for a girl at school, and in their growing awareness that they are not the person their parents think they are. With a heart as big as the prairie sky, this is a quietly devastating, heart-wrenching coming-of-age book about escaping dogma, surviving abuse, finding love, and risking everything for acceptance. Rae Spoon lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Rae Spoon

Books

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