Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer

In the autobiographical Gender Queer, Bay Area author and illustrator Maia Kobabe embraces the nonlinearity of eir journey to self-identification as nonbinary and asexual. Flummoxed by eir peers’ shared understanding of gendered “rules” and markers, Kobabe describes eir school-age years as a period of feeling alienated from eir assigned gender as a girl. E identifies with Alanna the Lioness, Tamora Pierce’s androgynous heroine, who is part Joan of Arc, part King Arthur. E fantasizes about having a penis, collects snakes, and delights when e is mistaken for a boy. In a 2020 interview published by the nonprofit organization Geeks Out, Kobabe explains:

“I spent a lot of time not knowing what I was, not having a label for how I felt. I can’t tell you how many countless pages of journal entries I wrote asking, “Am I gay, am I bi, am I a lesbian, am I a boy, am I a girl, am I neither, am I half and half” etc. This questioning took up a huge amount of my mental space, and I definitely wanted to hold the readers in that period of uncertainty, in that undefined grey area.”

As of this writing in May of 2023, Gender Queer is the most challenged book in America. We encourage you to explore the book more fully in person but have limited the images we show here to protect the integrity of the book.

Find it at Drew