decided to sandwich my publishing essay with a back-to-back bookstack! i’m trying to get back to publishing these around the first of the month now that i’ve got some more pubs to chat about.

i’ve long felt that trans anger deserves to take up space, and that it’s rarely if ever granted that space. as someone who’s been told to suppress “negative” emotions most of my life, writing with gasoline—a collection of angry poems about the trans experience—felt almost like a manifesto of sorts.

with gasoline is a poetry chapbook which defiantly carves out a space for trans anger in an increasingly hostile world, where trans people often have to conform to a sanitized image of a polite, pliable, and otherwise "perfect" trans person to be accepted by society—if they are accepted at all.

selected works

• “poem for the cishet woman who says including transmasc people in ‘women’s’ issues isn’t relatable to her personally,” “poem after executive order,” “poem from my deathbed,” “poem in which a tech bro thinks i am mentally ill” in en*gendered

• “poem in which i terrify boomers” (as “poem for myself, for i will never do anything for a transphobe again”) in Queerlings

• “poem after a student at my university got on the mic at graduation and said trans people didn’t exist” and “poem as instructions for survival” in Boudin

• “poem for drinking down that gin and kerosene” in Moist Poetry Journal

praise for with gasoline

“A vibrant trans celebration, ‘with gasoline’ is a Molotov thrown at heteropatriachy that ignites a vicious fire. Defiantly calling to attention ordinary and extraordinary transphobia, this collection bares its teeth at the world and refuses to take “no” for an answer. The author’s succinct and biting language gives their anger a beautiful clarity that resonates beside their unending resolve for embodying trans joy. If apathy and despair are getting the better of you in these times, ‘with gasoline’ is the fuel you need to rebirth your phoenix.” —Sarah Klein, author of Mast Cell Mathematics: A Chronic Illness Calculus

“‘with gasoline’ offers an explosive bouquet of occasional poems for uncommon times, whether after cruel executive orders, during frustrating focus group conversations, or perilous moments that demand one’s survival instincts. Their poems’ propulsive engine is fueled by righteous anger, moral clarity, and political courage. raum takes aim at transphobes, billionaires, bootlickers, boomers, and milquetoast liberals alike—in other words becoming “your worst fucking nightmare”—to help us envision instead a future of trans liberation.” —Evelyn Berry, author of Grief Slut and T4T

with gasoline is available for print and digital purchase from kith books.