Over 275 authors, editors, critics and diehard readers came together over the last month to vote on their favorite transfeminine books of the year. It's my honor to present the 2025 TFR Reader's Choice Awards! Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who voted 🩷

It's hard for me to put a score on this year. On one hand, completely awful year as a trans person living in the US. Economically and socially toxic. One the other, met my two partners, came out at work, got 8 poems published, won an award for poetry, and finally feel like I'm finding community.

I still remember the first dress I ever wore. I would give anything to see it again, to hold it, to just remember how much it meant to me then. I've never seen another one exactly like it. The style is probably a little dated now (it was 30 years ago). But I remember the dress clear as day, forever.

I'm disgusted that hatred against polyamory has hit the point of being trendy. Similar to how trans identity has been weaponized, visibility without protection is dangerous. I would think, unfortunately, that legal protections are unlikely under existing laws due to a historical hated of polygamy.

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈I dream of the day when the world can become a place where transgender people can live proudly and freely as themselves, and where they can love freely As a mascot, I see human love as beautiful and wonderful. I love you all today as well♡

"We spend ourselves nightly & wake still gleaming" This piece by @jonikt.bsky.social hits all the right notes. Possibly the most effervescent work in this anthology, I've been rereading this one frequently for a shot of motivation. It makes me wanna dance! fifthwheelpress.com/anth8-backen...

Poems like this really scratch a particular itch for me. Something about this intimately detailed recounting of a particular moment, whether real or imagined, is almost like slice of life anime; the daily mundane becomes wistfully beautiful when spoken aloud. fifthwheelpress.com/anth8-backen...

We're watching the wholesale burning of every scrap of dignity afforded to trans people in the UK, their rights, their medical services, their employment, their place within society, their bodily functions. It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.

Supporting poetry in print is so crucial, and I cannot recommend fifth wheel press enough for their support of the queer writing community. There are short reviews of several of the works in this on my page for the curious. tl;dr - absolutely worth it. Bonus: I'm featured in it too. :3

Imagine being so wealthy you can do anything you want, having literally no obligations to a second of your time, and deciding what you truly value the most with absolute financial and temporal freedom is ruining the lives of an already struggling group, punching down so far you pull your back.

"What is more human than being baffled and enraged By your own kind?" Absolutely delighted to read this today. An incredibly raw and sincere recounting of a life fought just to be lived. A blistering look at dysphoria and stigma, and the politics of just wanting to exist by @hotpoet.bsky.social

"Still, he’d have loved me at my most disgusting." This work reads like a deeply personal recounting, ripe with details demanding to be taken as history. Fascinatingly sincere imagery. As somebody who has struggled with suicidal thoughts, this tender presentation of that vulnerability hits deep.

Chiitan Knight will continue to spread his message until there are no more transgender people who are subjected to unjustified criticism and slander♡ Let's create a world where we can all love freely🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

One of my very favorite publications to read. Absolutely worth your time to read some back issues and consider submitting.

"meet me in that green space by the river of forever chemicals and bottle caps because i cannot get over your face in the sunlight." This is a beautifully tender work capturing intimacy in every day moments. Put a smile on my face as I read and reread it. fifthwheelpress.com/anth8-backen...

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. While there are far too many of us lost, there are two people I most remember on this day. The first is Sam Nordquist, a trans man killed almost three months after his mother requested a wellness check which the police refused. glaad.org/grief-and-fo...

Gods, I'm tired of her hypocrisy. The turncoat pick-me thinks people on Bluesky aren't real, as if her lack of backbone hasn't allowed the abuse to trickle right down to me and you. Ignoring the abuse made it less frequent? Fuck all the way off. www.advocate.com/politics/sar...

I am so very honored to be a contributor in this collection. fwp puts out some of the best in queer writing and it's an incredible feeling to have my work included in this. Expect some commentary on my favorite pieces from my co-contributors soon. 🖤

Puritanism

“It feels like every day I look at the news and then the headline just reads, ‘Sorry, more things you've lost,’” Hilborn said. A succinct summary of the transgender experience in the US, through the lens of our most vulnerable: the youth. This article hurts. www.advocate.com/politics/tex...

“I am expected to answer in every season—yes I am, no, I don’t want what it makes me, yes maybe my fear has followed.” From “Another Nameless Sea” and “Dear, Dirty Dublin,” two Micro poems, by Jo Bear. theoffingmag.com/micro/anothe...

You can love someone you love even if you don't love yourself🏳️‍⚧️ But if you love yourself, you can love both yourself and the person you love. Your love becomes twofold. So take care of yourself. Your soul is beautiful.

“If everyone who loves trans people cuts off everyone who says the wrong thing, there’s no one left in those people’s lives to help them evolve.” I am so sick of queer media platforming her like she's a champion for us. No politician has ever disappointed me more. www.advocate.com/politics/sar...

Every single Dem that caved and agreed to this deal needs to be primaried and voted out. They are cowards who wasted the last month for a half baked promise vote a month from now.

Today feels like the first positive day in the news cycle for almost a year. Bonkers to wake up and read news and not be further depressed for once.

If you’re wondering what the future of the Democratic Party looks like, watch the young, brown democratic socialist on the TV right now.

Succinct. Powerful. Heart-wrenching. Amazing piece.

Went to an amazing leather party on Saturday. Felt very cute and adored. It's so wonderful just to be in a space full of fellow queers and kinksters. It's a beautiful experience I cannot recommend enough.

The world needs more transfemme puppygirl poets.

Gods I love getting the proofs for upcoming publishings with my work. It's both gratifying and humbling to see my work included among so many talented poets and writers. I'm just a silly girl writing silly things, but it makes me smile to know somebody appreciates those silly things.

Using AI in your work makes you stupider and lazier. That's it. That's the post.

Several reincarnation beliefs suggest that those who are wicked may come back as an animal instead of a human. I am starting to think they have it backwards. Being the kept corgi of an Instagram influencer is a way better proposition than paying rent and having depression.

If other poets could chime in on this, I would appreciate it. How do you write a lengthy poem? I've never completed anything beyond two pages in font size 12, yet I see these incredible, dense works that are near chapter-length. How do you keep it going? Why not settle for something more concise?

Sometimes I feel proud of my work, then other times I read a piece like this and realize I am nothing and nobody. This is trans angst in a far more elegant and violent form than I am even capable of. This isn't a gut punch, it's a disembowelment. Godsdamn. www.palettepoetry.com/2025/06/25/a...

Simple: I don't have enough money. No country is offering us asylum.I don't work in an in-demand tech field, and so job visas are unlikely. I don't have foreign family. I don't have dual citizenship. I don't work for an international company. My only option to leave is money, and I don't have it.

In all the chaos of current reality, I do have some positive personal news: I've had three different works accepted for publication in the last couple of months! Expected publishing dates are in December and January, so I will announce them formally then. It feels good to see my work resonate.

It's unfortunate that the closest big city kink scene to me is so cismale centric. Because in the unfolding apocalypse of transgender life in America, I could use some serious stress relief. It's such a strange feeling that my transition essentially made me a stranger in that scene.

Robin Arble is one of my favorite poets. She has been a huge inspiration to me as I started my journey of sending my poems to publications. Reading this piece, it cuts me to the bone. This is a bone-chilling peak at someone's reality. I hope you are okay, Robin. dialogist.org/poetry/2025-...

"Everything is fraught with terror when one’s life is blessed by saving." Sometimes I write my poems as a vessel for a single line. One I feel is so potent is deserves the decorum of a work crafted to celebrate it. This piece reminds me of that. The line I quoted feels so godsdamn powerful.

So when is a country, any country, going to grant us asylum? The federal government wants us eradicated.

I know I'm talking about this anthology a lot, but it's so good! You are telling me there's a FFXIV Endwalker poem in here?! "the heat death of the universe is inevitable, so why live?" @raynealarcio.bsky.social , I ask myself that question all the time. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

This anthology just keeps delivering. "was that the final finger on my lips that I would get? Was that the last appeal to permanence I’d get? Is this tiny, tiny, tiny scrap of meat all that I get?" @aporianautics.bsky.social demanding I wake up with this one. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

"the memories that sting the worst are the ones i don't have." This piece is absolutely incredible. Such an excellent response to the film, a film which broke me down so tremendously. I wept during the film. I wept after the film. I almost wept to this poem. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

I seriously don't know how to explain to people that it is not in fact a sign of maturity and democracy to peacefully debate whether certain groups of people should be allowed to exist

Just so nobody is mistaken, the NRA is not supporting trans people or their rights. Their entire statement never once mentions us, and uses language they can backtrack with. I do not care that they reposted a tweet about the "tran ban." They lobbied for the politicians who are attacking us now.

Felt this one emerging back into my consciousness today and had to reread it. Gods, it cuts right through my soul. Vivid, almost aggressively so, in its imagery. Unrelenting. Agonizing. "can you blame him for mistaking a stranger's touch for kindness?" www.burningword.com/2025/01/come...

Today is my 2-year HRT anniversary. I can say that nothing in my life has ever been so worth it or rewarding. Every up and down is worth it to look I. The mirror and finally, after 36 years, like who is looking back. To see a reflection that actually should be there. To finally just… be myself. 🖤

Saw that James Dobson died, and I can comfortably say rest in piss bozo, you won't be missed. His "fOcUs On ThE fAmIlY" crap is responsible for traumatizing millions of children, myself included, by convincing parents that any child existing outside his guidelines is bound for an imagined hell.