Interview with Lucy Sante

Monika: Lucy Sante is a well-known Belgian-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the author of several books, including “Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York” (1991) and “The Other Paris” (2015). Until her retirement in 2023, she was also a professor of writing and the history of photography at Bard College. In 2024, she published her transition memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition”. Hello Lucy! Thank you for accepting my invitation.

Lucy: Thanks for inviting me! I’ve dipped into your blog many times over the past five or ten years, and it has helped me see the great variety of transgender experiences.

Monika: Thank you so much! I am always happy to help my sisters. You are a very prolific writer. What makes someone a good writer?

Lucy: Close attention to language and its nuances; a sense of adventure and exploration about writing itself, quite apart from the subject matter.

Interview with Veronica Zerrer

Monika: Today I am very happy to present to you the story of a charismatic woman and soldier. Veronica Zerrer grew up on a farm in Kansas and retired from the US Army in 1998 having served nearly twenty three years. She relocated to California after gender transition in 2000. She worked in Intelligence, was a Cavalry Scout, and commanded a company in an Armor Battalion. She held numerous staff jobs at the battalion, brigade, and division levels with the Army’s 1st and 35th Infantry Divisions. She is the author of “Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: A Novel” (2022). Hello Veronica!

Veronica: Hello Monika!

Monika: Did you always want to be a soldier?

Veronica: Oh yes. My earliest memories were of playing soldier, either alone or with my friends. I was fascinated by everything military. I read histories of the World Wars, the American Civil War. I used to listen to and enjoy my father’s stories of his service during the Korean war.

Monika: You must have served in many exotic countries.

Veronica: The most interesting country I served in was Türkiye. The most enjoyable was being stationed on Guam. The coldest. Winter in Japan. The best coffee I ever have had in my life was in Germany. I’ve traveled to the Philippines, The Republic of China - Taiwan, Italy, Greece, and France.

Liz Hodgkinson on Bodyshock: The Truth about Changing Sex

Monika: Today I have the sheer pleasure of talking to Liz Hodgkinson, a British prominent author and journalist who has written more than 50 books that have been translated into over 20 languages. She has also written articles for most of the major British national newspapers in London, and for magazines for women. And she is the author of “Bodyshock: The Truth about Changing Sex” (1987), one of the best journalism books on transsexuality, a book that is very dear to me too. Hello Liz! Thank you for accepting my invitation.

Liz: That’s OK. Happy to talk to you.

Monika: We have just entered into a brand new year. Do you have any special commitments for 2024?

Liz: Just to get my new books published!

Monika: Are you working on a new book now?

Liz: I have just finished a new book, titled: "A Mink Coat in St Neots: My Mother’s Flower Shop and the mystery of a Wealthy Russian Princess." It is an extraordinary true story, never before told, and will be published this Autumn by Mount Orleans Press.

Interview with Kyle Mewburn

Monika: Kyle Mewburn is an Australian-New Zealand writer, journalist, traveler, teacher, and transgender activist. She is the former President of the New Zealand Society of Authors (2012-2016). Her books have won many prizes and awards. She lives in Millers Flat, Central Otago, and writes junior fiction books. In 2021 she published her memoir “Faking It: My Life in Transition”. Hello Kyle! Thank you for accepting my invitation.

Kyle: It's my pleasure.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Kyle: I could probably say a few million words about myself. But I think your intro is a pretty good summary. Though I might add I live on a 2-hectare property near a tiny rural community at the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand with my wife, Marion, two cats, two goats, a pair of sheep and 20 chickens.

Interview with Barbara Marie Minney

Monika: I am very excited by the fact that Barbara Marie Minney has accepted my invitation and she is my guest today. Barbara is a transgender woman, award-winning poet, writer, speaker, and quiet activist. She is a retired attorney and a seventh-generation Appalachian. Now based in Tallmadge, Ohio, her first collection of poetry entitled “If There’s No Heaven” was the winner of the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and the Akron Beacon Journal Best Northeast Ohio Books 2020. She is also the author of the "Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge" (2021). Hello Barbara!

Barbara: Hello, Monika! Thank you so very much for this opportunity to be interviewed by you. I have been looking forward to it since you first contacted me.

Monika: Is it difficult to be a poet in the 21st century?

Barbara: Being a poet in today’s world can be very difficult and frustrating, but it can also be very rewarding. Unless you are one of the top echelon poets like Rita Dove or Joy Harjo, you are pretty much on your own insofar as publication, promotion, and obtaining recognition is concerned. This time last year, I felt that maybe I was on the verge of a major breakthrough when I signed a publishing contract with a company located in Chicago. However, those hopes were dashed when the contract was canceled about a month and a half before the manuscript was due to be delivered. That was devastating. I was left with a manuscript but no publisher.

Interview with Jillian Rae Celentano

Monika: Today I would like to present to you Jillian Rae Celentano, LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker), an American author and advocate for the transgender community, a mentor for trans youth, and has organized support groups for transgender children and young adults. Jillian co-authored two published transgender studies at Yale University and is a Community Liaison at the Yale Gender Program. Her book "Transitioning Later in Life: A Personal Guide" was published in 2021. Hello Jillian!

Jillian: Hello Monika! Thanks for having me.

Monika: Given my own experience as well as that of many girls and women that I interviewed, I wonder whether we should be called ‘runners’ instead of transwomen. We run, run, and run away from our feminine self until it catches up with us. The only difference is how long we can run away. Was it the same in your case?

Jillian: I have never thought of it that way, but that does hold a lot of truth. I knew something was different since the age of 5. When I told people I felt like a girl they made it very clear that I was a boy. This made me feel shameful, so I never spoke of it again. So my “running” journey was a 55-year run. But as you said, “she” finally caught up to me. I was so afraid of my feminine side and thought she was the enemy, but when confronted, I found out my feminine side was my savior and was the beginning of my true happiness.

Interview with Claudine Griggs

Monika: My guest today is Claudine Griggs, an American writer and college writing instructor. She earned her BA and MA in English at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and she has worked as the Writing Center Director at Rhode Island College and as a visiting professor of communication skills at Soka University of America.

She is currently a part-time writing specialist at the Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, D.C. Claudine is known for her science fiction stories, including "The Cold Waters of Europa," "Growing Up Human," "Firestorm," "Maiden Voyage of the Fearless," "Death after Dying," "Informed Consent," "The Gender Blender," and "Raptures of the Deep."

One of her stories, "Helping Hand," was selected for The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF 2015 and was adapted as an episode in the Netflix series Love, Death and Robots. Her most recent book, Firestorm, a collection of twenty-three of her short stories, was released in March 2022. Her novel Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was published in June 2020.

Hello, Claudine! I am so happy that you have accepted my invitation!

Claudine: Thank you. It was a pleasure to hear from you.

Monika: You are a very prolific writer. What do you think makes a good story?

Claudine: If I knew the precise answer, I’d probably write more stories like “Helping Hand.” But it’s difficult to predict what will interest a publisher or a producer, so I focus on creating stories that interest me. The most important aspect is the narrative itself. I know that character is important, too, but for me the story carries more weight. I love journeys and optimism along with a bit of the heroic. I also think that humans are a pretty good species, overall, and I often reflect this in my work. And if narrative surprises happen along the way, even better. But again—story, story, story.

Interview with Ashley Adamson

Monika: Today I have a special guest for you. Ashley Adamson is an American speaker and writer on transgender personal growth and advocacy, YouTube vlogger, and transactivist. She is the founder of the Trans Resiliency project and Trans Club - a community dedicated to supporting the transgender community. She has spoken at conferences and for NGOs, including UNICEF, universities, and corporations, and appeared in major media outlets such as MTV, USA Today, and DW. Ashley is the author of Trans Kung Fu: Awakening of Self Acceptance (2021). Hello Ashley!

Ashley: Hello Monika!

Monika: You seem to be a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ashley: Thank youuuuu! I'm glad you see that. I actually have no talents haha! I am just good at teaching myself whatever I need to do and that makes me appear like I have many talents but honestly, I'm just decent at a lot of things. Uhm, I dunno I guess the most important thing in my life's mission is to help thousands of people questioning and/or trans figure out who they are and then follow their path or life's purpose.

Interview with Ian Thomas Malone

Monika: Today I have invited a very special guest. Ian Thomas Malone is an author, comedian, and podcast host from Long Beach, California. Her treatise The Transgender Manifesto is a bestseller in LGBTQ non-fiction and she has contributed chapters to academic books on James Cameron and Star Trek: Voyager. Ian’s debut comedy album, Confessions From My New Vagina, was released in 2021. She is also known for hosting the Estradiol Illusions podcast, covering entertainment and LGBTQ issues. Hello Ian, thank you so much for accepting my invitation!

Ian: Thank you so much for having me and for interviewing so many fascinating members of our community.

Monika: For my blog, I have conducted over 600 interviews with transgender women and I always find it striking that so many of us are stand-up comics and comedians. Is it striking for you as well?

Ian: Definitely. I think humor is a valuable asset for transition. I often see people in the media say that trans people are too sensitive or “snowflakes” and I think that’s so ridiculous. Having a thick skin is pretty much a pre-requisite for transition.

Interview with Louise Croucher

Monika: Today I am going to interview Louise Croucher, a British aspiring writer from London who has recently put down the pen to start her own handmade candle-making business. She is the author of “The Butterfly on Fire: Mind, Body and Soul” (2017), “The Butterfly on Fire: Caterpillar to Chrysalis” (2018), and “Horned Winged Blessed” (2019). Alongside her career as a writer, she is now the founder of The Arlete Way Ltd., a company that promotes better well-being and standard of mental health through a three-week routine that involves a wonderful selection of essential oil gift sets. Hello Louise!

Louise: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Louise: Well, you already know the main points of interest about me! I grew up in South East London, and other than my time living in Japan, I have lived in London all my adult life. A few years ago I moved into my own flat in North West London, and I love it there.

I'm a transgender woman, and write mostly dystopian fantasy. The transgender element is usually incorporated naturally, to show how societies could potentially just treat it as a normality - which is my ultimate goal and outcome.

Monika: Louise is a nice name. Why did you choose it?

Louise: It was what my parents said they would have chosen if they had given birth to a natal girl. I liked it. So that was that! I specifically wanted to go with something simple and perhaps even mundane, so that I could blend in when I have to.

Interview with Katherine Reilly

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Katherine Reilly, a Greek-American author, teacher, educational blogger, and active contributor to humanitarian efforts. She works at a private school in Athens Greece, teaching English to learners of all ages. As an author, she works for an international publisher and can boast multiple children’s books and novels. Katherine is known for her children's book trilogy “The Adventures of Ben & Friday”, her guidebook “The Road to Femininity: A New Life for a New Woman” (2016), and novel “I Can’t Love You” (2018). She is also a TEDx speaker and trainer, organizing Ted-Ed clubs and using her experience to motivate, inspire and assist students in reaching their true potential. Hello Katherine!

Katherine: Hello Monika, it’s so nice to see you again!

Monika: We have not heard from each other since 2017 when we did our first interview and suddenly you told me that you would like to go stealth and remove any links with your transgender past. It must have been a very dramatic moment in your life.

Katherine: Imagine establishing a career only to be threatened with being fired due to trans identity. At the time, I was employed as a teacher at a private school. My employer told me that if word came out that I was a transgender woman; I would be out of a job. I had grown extremely attached to my students who loved me dearly. I was faced with the dilemma of losing my kids, my job, and of course the income to support myself. For a while, I went off the radar, contemplating what my life had become.

Interview with Ella Marques

Monika: It has been three years since my last interview with Ella Marques, a Portuguese-American writer living in Boca Raton, Florida. In 2017 Ella published her biographical book ‘I was born a boy, from Venus. It’s time to be yourself’. Today’s interview has been triggered not only by the fact that I missed her but also her two newly-released books: “Coming home to Venus” and "Eva's world". Hello Ella!

Ella: Hi Monika, It is such a pleasure to be here with you.

Monika: How are you holding up in the pandemic times?

Ella: Business-wise it has been a disaster but from my own personal perspective it has been an incredible year. I usually travel a lot, about every second week and in March we had a lockdown here in the US, so I took advantage to finish my second book “Coming Home to Venus”, then I got the idea to write a fiction novel Eva’s World.

Interview with Hope Giselle

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Hope Giselle, an American activist from Miami, writer, artist, activist, founder of The #AllowMe Movement, and author of the biographical book titled “Becoming Hope: Removing the Disguise” (2018). Hello Hope!

Hope: Hi Monika!

Monika: You describe yourself as an artist and activist. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Hope: I’d like to call what I do “being the change I want to see”. I found my passion by simply inserting myself where I once complained. I found that it was easier to create solutions and art rather than criticize them.

Interview with Lannie Rose

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Elaine Rhodes, a.k.a., Lannie Rose, an American computer engineer, and writer, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Clara University. In her day, she was a regular contributor to the e-zine Transgender Forum, a member of the Triangle Speaker Bureau, the author of “How To Change Your Sex: A Lighthearted Look at the Hardest Thing You'll Ever Do” (2004), “LANNIE! My Journey from Man to Woman” (2007), and “Everything Nice: A Late-Onset Coming-of-Age Story” (2009). Hello Lannie!

 Lannie: Hi Monika! Your website is an impressive body of work, as well as being nicely designed, and I say this as one web designer to another. I am happy to become part of it! 

Monika: Before we get started, could you please explain your name? Are you Elaine, or Lannie, or what?

Lannie: Yeah, uh, well, it’s like this: Early in the Internet days, in the late 1990s, there was a lot of fear about people online tracking you down and murdering you in your sleep, so nobody used their real names. Nobody actually got murdered in their sleep, by the way. 

Anyway, I became Lannie Rose at that time, and it stuck. When it came time to legally change my name, I went from Edward Rhodes to Elaine Rhodes, keeping the same initials, you know?

Interview with Lisa Bunker

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Lisa Bunker, an American writer, known for her debut novel “Felix Yz“ (Viking, 2017), about a boy fused with an alien. Her second novel, “Zenobia July”, about a trans girl getting to live as a girl for the first time in a new school, is due to be published in Winter/Spring 2019, also from Viking. Hello Lisa!

Lisa: Hi Monika! I’m glad to be talking to you today.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Lisa: Well, you covered the basic facts of my current life situation in your intro. I’m finally a full-time author after decades of trying to make that my work. Also, I’m in a wonderful relationship and finally getting to find out what it’s like to love and be loved as the person I actually am. Plus, my children are grown and my parents are gone. So, I guess you could say I’m a person whose dreams have finally come true who then finds herself curiously free to look around for the next thing to do.

Interview with Marissa Alexa McCool

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Marissa Alexa McCool, an American LGBT-rights activist and speaker, multiple podcast host (The Inciting Incident Podcast), author, mother, columnist, and stage performer, the author of “Passing Cars: The Internal Monologue of a Neurodivergent Trans Girl” (2017) and four other books. Hello Marissa!

Marissa: Hello Monika, thank you so much for reaching out to me. It’s a pleasure.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? You are a woman of so many talents and interests. Is writing most important for you?

Marissa: I don’t know if I can rank my interests by importance, but perhaps I can by longevity. But let me answer your other questions first: I’m 32. I graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in English, Cinema and Media Arts, and Anthropology. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota with my husband, partner, and two children. 

Writing is the interest I’ve been pursuing as long as I can remember. I learned to type when I was four years old, and I can remember using a word processor as a young child to create stories involving people I know. As I grew up, I used that imagination in role-playing stories, and I couldn’t imagine pursuing anything else when it came to university focus. I was able to learn from some amazing professors, including Meta Mazaj, Kathy Van Cleve, and Marion Kant, and I don’t know where I’d be without them.

Interview with Rachel Eliason

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Rachel Eliason, a fiction and nonfiction writer, speaker, the author of the biographical book titled “The Agony, The Ecstasy and The Buddha: One Woman's Month in Thailand having a Sex Change” (2017). Hello Rachel!

Rachel: Hello, thanks for having me here.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? When did you decide that writing will be your vocation?

Rachel: I have wanted to be a writer as long as I wanted to transition. For years they were my two secret “W’s” wanting to be a woman and to be a writer.

Growing up in the U.S. Midwest in the 1970s and ’80s, I never heard anyone say the word transgender, and as far as I knew at the time, changing sex was something that only happened in science fiction. So I dismissed those feelings and tried to make the best of my life in the wrong gender.

Interview with Ryka Aoki

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Ryka Aoki, a Japanese American award-winning author, performer, and professor of English at Santa Monica College, known for her book "Seasonal Velocities" (2012), novel "He Mele a Hilo" (2014) and set of poems "Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul" (2015). Hello Ryka!

Ryka: Hello Monika!
Monika: It has been already 2 years since you published your last book. Can we expect any new publication soon?
Ryka: I’ve had some stories and poems published, most recently in Meanwhile, Elsewhere from Topside Press. But my main work is a new novel, currently untitled, which is set in the San Gabriel Valley, in the Greater Los Angeles area. It centers around a traumatized transgender runaway, and a violin teacher bargaining with the Devil to win back her soul. On their journey, they also meet a family of Vietnamese space aliens escaping interstellar war and trying to run a donut shop. I am trying to convey a world of flux, adaptation, sweetness, and loss.

Interview with Fran Fried

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Fran Fried, an American editor, writer, blogger, DJ, music fiend, friend, daughter and, accidental civil rights activist from Prospect, Connecticut. Hello Fran!

Fran: Hi, Monika! Thanks for finding me and thanks for the interview. I’m honored and flattered to be in some pretty good company here! 

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Fran: Well, I’m a writer, an editor, a DJ, a daughter, a sister, a good friend – and, oh, yeah, by the way, I’m trans. I’m out and about in the everyday world, and if you don’t know me, chances are you won’t read me. As far as I can tell, with my friends, being trans is just incidental; first and foremost, to them, as well as myself, I’m Fran. The gender dysphoria is just one facet of an interesting life – a big, honking facet, but still, just one nonetheless.

Interview with Aleana Robins

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Aleana Robins, a former skier, grave digger, performance car driver, small business owner, farmer, artist, radio announcer, blogger, parent of 7 children from Riverside, California, and the author of the biographical book titled “The Shadow of Ally” (2016). She lives in Launceston, a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia. Hello Aleana!
Aleana: Hello and thank you for taking the time. I promise you can ask anything but I will not promise you will like my answer (smiles). Though I would love to say that the start of my journey began in California but I have lived all over the western side of the US. I moved to Australia in 2002 to be with my former spouse.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? The number of your talents and jobs is really awesome …
Aleana: I grew up in a middle-income family with a mother who did not know how to care and a father who was lost in his battles with PTSD from Vietnam. I think in some ways my teenage years while dysfunctional was also a place where I gained so many talents. I have enjoyed playing several musical instruments learned to have a love for music and the arts that have only grown in age. I love skiing and the sound of fresh powder under my skies. I am a proud parent of seven children, I know people think wow a breeder, lol. But I would not change their love and the experiences that come with them in my life for all the Tea in China.