A.M. Kirsch

  Jennie’s awkward teenage life is upended when she discovers she’s not a boy. With her parents divorced, her father missing, and finding herself falling in love with Gabby, she’s got enough to deal with already. The only way out of spiraling anxiety is to learn about gender identity and become Jenny Heckenlaible. With help from her girlfriend, school counselor, doctor, and mother, she charts a path to self-discovery and gender euphoria while secretly blogging about what led to her revelation and everything it took to become a Heckenlaible. Jenny’s transformation spans four years, from her gender awakening to becoming a visible advocate for her trans community. “I think the world will be a better place when all the dinosaurs are dead.” What happens when a teenager’s unexpected outburst forces her to confront her true self? Fifteen-year-old high school student Eric is an aspiring doctor hiding inside baggy clothes and fighting depression when she finds her world turned upside down. ...

I've started a new series on Substack —comfort food—based on family and teaching. It’s a mix of biography, memoir, medicine, and human anatomy called “On the Mysteries of…” because I dive into my favourite mysteries in each area. In “On the Mysteries of the Brain Part 2,” I ask, “What Killed Amy Winehouse?”  Here’s the running list in case you want to jump into any one of them: On the Mysteries of Writing On the Mysteries of the Brain On the Mysteries of the Brain Part 2 On the Mysteries of the Brain Part 3 ( Interlude: On Taking Leave of My Senses ) On the Mysteries of the Senses

Sorry if you visited here recently and found it bereft of anything new. Substack  had me swamped  keeping up with revisions to two major works ( The Transformation of Jennie Heckenlaible   and   Murder of an Uncommon Man ), sharing chapters of   Can't You Wait Until I'm Dead?  with friends, and continuing a series of essays that began in 2015 (under the heading of   On Reflection ). Come on over to Substack to find it all and subscribe (for free) to get a new essay every couple of weeks. If you want to jump into one topic in particular, here's what you can find: On Imagining   Dear London   On Leaving America   On Becoming Vegan   On Cats and Bats   On Losing My Religion On Book Bans and Reading Habits On Finding Joy On the Risks of Activism On Trans Visibility in a Culture War On the Joy of Cancer Screening On Listening to My Gut On Life Lessons from Four Gregs On Racism and Riots On Our Aging Machines On Listening to My Back ...

An unexpected call from Riverton, Manitoba, in 2007 forced Janet Berg to confront her father Daniel's life and death. A farmer found him dead in a field with a shotgun, and the forty-year-old scientist needed to explain why. From her home in Seattle, half a continent away, she sifted through musty boxes and her memories to piece together what happened to Daniel during his last twelve years of estrangement. Poring over scribbled notes, emails, police reports, and her father’s well-worn Bible, she uncovered a life that ended in one of two ways. The key to solving his murder lay in two crime scenes involving the same suspects and victim. As she placed the final pieces of the puzzle, a call from Riverton confirmed her suspicions: the killer had taken her next victim, and a second family was helpless to stop her. Janet’s memoir chronicles the search for her father’s killer and her own identity. Available from: Indigo Barnes & Noble Amazon Smashwords ...and other  retailers Audiobook...

(My 2002 photo of the Palace of Westminster) Back in July, a YouTube video  from Letters Live   popped up in my subscriptions featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, inviting everyone to write a letter to London . As you may have read here or on Substack , I love to write letters. What you may not know is that I also love to enter free contests. I’ve never won anything outside of work, but it doesn’t stop me from dreaming.  I thought about what I wanted to say to London for about a month, and it all came together one Sunday, flowing out in something unexpected. It wasn’t to the calibre of a noteworthy or award-winning letter, like those on Letters Live , but it was honestly all I had to say to London on August 24, 2025. There were over 3000 entries and five shortlisted, so if you want to read the sort of thing Benedict Cumberbatch and the people at Letters Live were looking for, you can find them here . Here's what poured out of me on August 24: Dear London, I have loved you from...

It's that time of year to choose your three  favourite reads  of the last 12 months on BookDNA (give it a go yourself).  Here are mine :  https://bookdna.com/bboy/2025/f/am-kirsch Find  my  best memoirs  about surviving dysfunctional family, gender identity crisis, and murder https://bookdna.com/best-books/dysfunctional-family-gender-identity-and-murder If you missed my 2024 reading list :  https://bookdna.com/bboy/2024/f/am-kirsch The  top 250 reads of 2025  from all readers:  https://bookdna.com/bboy/2025   My top ten of the last twelve months: Ollie in Between by Jess Callans  Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick It Rhymes with Takei by George Takei Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin The Redemption of Daya Keane by Gia Gordon Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli The Children of Men by P. D. James In Transit: Being Non-binary in A World of Dichotomies by Dex E. Anderson Rethinking Normal:...

I met my life partner in 1986, having had little dating experience, and wondered what it was like for others to find love and friendship. Working on the July issue of Angles  gave me the opportunity to interview several generations of women to find out.  I interviewed Nancy Kato o n May 13   in New Westminster, and we spoke about community advocacy, coming out late in life, the social scene in Vancouver in the 2000s,  meeting her partner,   and sharing community events through a newsletter.  I interviewed  Sandy McCartie o n May 16   by video from Powell River. We spoke for over an hour about how we met our mutual friend, Margaret Cormier, the discreet lesbian social group Gazebo Connection, the social scene in Vancouver in the 80s, volunteering with a hospice society, loss of a partner, and the queer community in Powell River.  Interviews by email with  Mandy Randhawa and  Jasmine Ruff rounded out the generations. Background resear...

I took on the challenge of writing and delivering a TED-inspired talk at my former employer when I noticed that they were looking for speakers at their professional development day. It was entitled "Teaching in Two Genders: Lessons from a Polytechnic’s First Trans Instructor" and had a Q&A afterwards. I tried to capture video of it , but even after I set up two cameras to capture the moment, one conked out within the first few minutes, and the second wasn’t at a great angle (there were two lights above the screen). Fortunately, my backup plan was a microphone pinned to my dress shirt, connected to a smartphone strapped to my back.  I used the audio to narrate the slideshow and posted it to YouTube so you can imagine that you were in the room! Like many TED talks, it has a dramatic black screen start, insightful video, a Venn diagram, and an action summary. If you prefer poorly lit video of me from two camera angles, here's your version . See below for a summary of th...

Angles Newspaper was published by the Vancouver Gay Community Centre Society from December 1983 to May 1998 and gave voice to Vancouver's 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Advertising revenue declined and shifted to a newer publication (Xtra! West) , leading to Angles' final issue. Or so the founders thought. The VGCC Society (later adding an L to its name) became  QMUNITY , and their communication coordinator,  Olivia Scholes, found the budget, time, and motivation to bring the publication back.  The first new issue was a 45th-anniversary "archival recreation of Vancouver's oldest queer community newspaper," but Olivia soon assembled a team of volunteer contributors, writers, editors, and artists to officially relaunch the paper . I'm volunteering as the managing editor and section editor of Features and Columns as we build the team. Download the PDF  and look for our July issue soon. Enjoy! [Math nerds might wonder where "45th anniversary" comes from: The VGCC...

Hello from a hopeful trans woman:  Get to know a she/they enby girl and read some gripping stories Becoming Trans: Stories by A.M. Kirsch   has several levels of access: Free subscribers get chapters and previews of my serialized second memoir (running title:  Can’t You Wait Until I’m Dead? Memoir of a Mid-Life Transition in a Culture War ) Annual subscribers and paid monthly subscribers get the text of Murder of an Uncommon Man and the audiobook Founding subscribers get the fictionalized version of the memoir I'm currently working on (running title: The TRANSformation of Jennie Heckenlaible) Subscribe (and get your friends to subscribe) to help me reach a larger audience and build acceptance of the trans community.

It's that time of year to choose your three favourite reads of the last 12 months on BookDNA (give it a go yourself): https://bookdna.com/bboy/2024/f/am-kirsch Find my best memoirs about surviving dysfunctional family, gender identity crisis, and murder https://bookdna.com/best-books/dysfunctional-family-gender-identity-and-murder  ...and the top 250 reads from readers: https://bookdna.com/bboy/2024   My top ten of the last twelve months: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers Yours For the Taking by Gabrielle Korn Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition by Lucy Sante Some Strange Music Draws Me In: A Novel by Griffin Hansbury She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender Roaming by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki Horse Barbie by Geena Rocero ...and my twelve-month reading list (reverse chronological order): The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli You Should See Me in...

  I had a guest commentary published in one of my hometown newspapers: https://www.greeleytribune.com/2024/03/23/a-m-kirsch-a-second-letter-to-our-children/ It all started when I came across an opinion column in the paper where the writer said, “Feminism seemed to elevate girls and women. But somewhere in the past four decades, it’s turned into a gnarly, twisted movement aimed at destroying natural-born women and tearing apart their Godgiven counterparts. It’s become a dark, maniacal, diabolical movement to destroy our sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, cousins, uncles and neighbors. The agenda of modern-day feminism is demonizing the male sex, somehow making our sons ashamed of being boys. Itʼs encouraging our schools to put doubt about our childrenʼs sexuality into their brains. Encouraging boys to become girls at young ages and vice versa and teaching sexuality to children is unwarranted. Our society has a virus, and it isnʼt COVID. Young ladies and gentlemen, do not trust m...

Find my favourite reads of the last 12 months on BookDNA: https://bookdna.com/bboy/2023/f/am-kirsch Find my best memoirs about surviving dysfunctional family, gender identity crisis, and murder https://bookdna.com/best-books/dysfunctional-family-gender-identity-and-murder  ...and the top 100 reads from 884 authors: https://bookdna.com/bboy/2023   Here's my twelve-month reading list FYI :-) The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Khan, Sabina Pageboy A Memoir by Page, Elliot The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons Snorkelling Adventures Around Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands by Sara Ellison Ban This Book. A Novel by Gratz, Alan Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliff We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib Rescue Me by Teichman, Michelle L. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood Menopause Manifesto by Jenn Gunther Frankissstein by Winterson, Jeanette Being Huemann. An Unrepentant M...