All About Yves: Notes from a transition

Description

'Rees provides us with their deep insights into contemporary trans and gender diverse history as it's being made . . . All About Yves is the book I wish I'd been able to give my mother when I was transitioning.' Sam Elkin, Transgender Victoria Board Member Was I always trans, part boy beneath my skin, or was it that I landed in a place where 'girl' was a container so small it could break your bones? I learn that a ready smile and sympathetic ear are the only props required to impersonate a woman. The performance becomes so familiar I almost forget that it's staged. What happens when, aged 30, you understand you're transgender? This was the question that confronted Yves Rees, a historian whose life was upended by gender transition in 2018. Then known as a woman called Anne, Yves was forced to grapple with the sudden knowledge that they were not, in fact, female at all. But when you've lived a lie for so long, how do you discover who you really are? And how do you re-learn to live in the world as a different gender? All About Yves tells their moving journey of re-becoming, at the same time laying bare the messiness of bodies, gender and identity. It shares the challenges and joys of being transgender in Australia today, and reveals how trans experiences like Yves' can teach all of us about what it means to be human. 'A book of great heart and gentle intelligence, and one that will mean a great deal to many people.' Fiona Wright, author of The World Was Whole

Dr Yves Rees is an award-winning writer and historian living on unceded Wurundjeri land. At present, they are a Lecturer in History at La Trobe University and co-host of Archive Fever podcast. Rees was the recipient of the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize, awarded for their essay "Reading the Mess Backwards", and was a 2021 Varuna Residential Fellow. Rees has a regular history segment on ABC Radio Melbourne and their writing has featured in the Sydney Review of Books, The Age, Archer magazine, Guardian Australia, Overland, Meanjin, Junkee, Australian Book Review and The Conversation. Rees is trans and uses they/them pronouns. They are the co-founder of the Spilling the T transgender writing collective and volunteer with Transgender Victoria.