Riding SideSaddle*
A queer novel, in fragments of memory…
Writing: Fiction & Otherwise
Books
Jump Start Sass
Get up to speed with Sass in a weekend…
Plays
Script: My Body, My Gender
I was asked to write a more modern trans Vagina Monologue
Script: JANE/EYRE
We are merely telling the [queer] story.
Script: 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products
This play weaves myth and storytelling with every day rituals
Script: Missa Populi
This ain’t grace, this all fucked, this old thing…
Related ‘writing’ Articles
Trans Vagina Monologue: My Body, My Gender
in
transition
I was invited to write and perform my own Vagina Monologue for the 2018 It Grows Wild production.
Read the script »Rejecting Maleness: An Apology to the Revolution
Interviewing a trans man, the reporter writes: But surely the revolution is in re-defining what feminine or female attractiveness means rather than rejecting femaleness?
Is your gender part of the revolution?
Chosen Family (Thank You)
in
transition
Yesterday, I shared an article about my impending surgery, and a request for help — both social and financial — as I go through this. I was embarrassed to ask, and not sure what to expect, but your response has been swift and overwhelming. I can’t thank you enough, but I’ll keep trying.
Mia’s Medical Upgrade
in
transition
Denver Health has started offering vaginoplasty in addition to their other trans medical services. While I’ve been on the waitlist for various surgeons around the country, Denver Health called me this week to give me a date: September 10, less than two months away.
Essential Knowledge: The Book
The book is a compromise we’ve grown used to, for the sake of efficiency. The book is a clever marketing ploy to make you care. Do you care? The book is kompromat, to be used against us when the time comes.
—Miriam Suzanne
JANE/EYRE
We are not here to flatter egotism, or prop up humbug; we are merely telling the [queer] story. We value what is good in the book; but we believe in the existence of other, and more vivid kinds of goodness.
Read the script »Sex, Love, & Romance
I don’t have many guy friends, but my guitarist is one. Parting, I lean in for the cheek-kiss but he plants a good one right on my lips.
—Allison Washington
(Mis)Gender
in
transition
Reflections on the instinctive act of gendering, how it can go terribly wrong, and what happens next.
Shifting Nouns
in
twined fragments
on
Medium
I’ve seen myself in the mirror. I find me… disorienting. What do they see that I don’t? Why aren’t they laughing at me?
—Miriam Suzanne
Mothers, Fathers, Husbands, Wives
in
twined fragments
on
Medium
Mother finds me at her wardrobe, in her pumps and pearls. What are you doing? Being a mommy. Are you, then? She clips on the earrings (they pinch!), reaches for her lipstick.
—Allison Washington
Body & Gender Fragments
in
transition
I wasn’t born in the wrong body. I was born, a body. Without my body, I don’t exist.
Denver Quarterly: Adaptation
This month’s Denver Quarterly features side-by-side excerpts from my novel, Riding SideSaddle*, and the Buntport play 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products which was based on it.
Justice [Under Construction]
I’m still reeling from this year of insults, a traumatizing campaign turned traumatic election. I’m not sad about a contest lost, but what those results mean for real people around me. 2016 is over, but 2017 is going to be even harder.
Some Clarifications on Trans Language
in
transition
There’s a lot of language that gets thrown around, but much of it comes loaded with over-simplified baggage and misconceptions. Here are a few that have been on my mind – from gender identity to biological sex, transition, passing, and visibility.
2016 True West Award
An award I’m happy to share with my amazing collaborators in Buntport Theater & Teacup Gorilla.
Some Kind of Resistance Tour, 2017
It’s been a month since our country pseudo-elected a bigoted blow-hard for president. I’m heading to DC to protest his inauguration in January, visit friends, and go on a mixed-media resistance tour…
Miriam: A How-To Guide
in
transition
There are some questions that come up again and again if you are trans. A few of those questions are terrible, but most of them are well-intentioned. I’m lucky to have a supportive community around me, so I thought I’d write down my most common answers to help ease your stress about getting it right, and ease my stress about answering the same questions over and over.
SitePoint: Jump Start Sass
I’m excited to release Jump Start Sass, a book I co-authored with Kitty Giraudel. Digital coppies are available from SitePoint, wih print edditions sold by O’Reilly.
10 Myths at Buntport
I’m excited to be part of Buntport Theater’s 40th original full-length production — based on my novel, Riding SideSaddle*, and featuring a live score by Teacup Gorilla. It’s been a wild month pulling it all together!
Read the script »Huckleberry Roasters: Installation
Riding SideSaddle* has gone vertical! Check it out on the walls of Huckleberry Roasters Larimer Cafe (2500 Larimer St, Denver) From October 10 through November 13.
Michigan Quarterly: Interview
An interview with the insightful Ryo Yamaguchi at Michigan Quarterly Review.
Riding SideSaddle* [a novel affair]
Join us for the official release of my first novel — with live music and special guests!
The Post-Obsolete Book (again)
The Obsolete Book in a Post-Obsolete World as Represented by an Obsolete Book About Dance is a reflection on the obsolescence of obsolescence, and a performable website in the spirit of Michelle Ellsworth. This summer it also became a gallery installation, when I was invited to install & perform in the Electronic Literature Organization conference gallery.
Stratified Design
Exit Strata asked me to design the cover of their next issue, PRINT! VOL 3.
…focussed on issues of translation, transmutation, and language forms across media, as well as the textual/visual/sonic/physical (etc) manifestations of these transmissions as they travel between and betwixt our minds… The biggest tension is between that of the printed page and that of the new virtual realities…
There’s only one way I know to make all that happen.
(re)Thinking on Your Feet
Fuck the Muse pt.7: Sometimes you have a great idea for a project, or one aspect of a project, and you throw everything at it, but the idea turns out to be a dud. You can’t ditch the project after putting so much into it, but neither can you force it through. The only way forward is to take a step back.
Explosive Growth
Fuck the Muse pt.6: Last week we compiled our curiosity shopping lists, preparing to push out from our seed in every direction. We have the list to guide us: now it’s time to go shopping.
Get Curious
Fuck the Muse pt.5: Now that you have a seed worth exploring, you are ready for step 2 of the creative process. The goal of this phase is explosive growth, following your curiosity out from the seed in every direction. What is the content? What materials will you need to build this artwork? What already exists, and what will you need to build? What will be your inspirations? What will be your constraints?
Starting from a Seed
You can’t start working until you know what you are working towards. That doesn’t mean knowing all the answers, it means knowing the questions that will guide you. I refer to those guiding questions as the "seed" of a project.
Creative Modes and Cycles
Cycles have become the core of my creative process. Thinking in cycles means I always know where I am and where I’m going, even when I feel overwhelmed by the size of a project. If I’m stuck, it’s time for a new mindset. If my last move was to zig, my next move is to zag.
➡ Battlefield Notes
The Operating System has asked to cross post my creative process mini-series. We started with a brief introduction to my work.
Ordinary Tools of Thought
Kirby Ferguson argues that the three basic techniques of remixing (copy, transform, combine) form the foundation of all creative process. He refers to these techniques as the "Elements of Creativity"…
Fuck The Muse
We think of creativity as sudden, sexy, inexplicable moments of inspiration — ignoring the hard work that makes those moments possible.
A Font Family for Susy
The first drafts of the "GreenMud Susy" fonts are kerned, complete, and roughly in place.
A Whirlwind of Digital Humanities
After submitting on a whim, I was invited to perform last weekend at the SLSA conference in Milwaukee. This was not a reasonable thing to do, but I did it…
➡ Collaboration, Queer Art, and a Multi-Media Novel
"Collaboration doesn’t have to be a social activity. Successful collaboration is knowing when to bring people together and when to send them home with individual assignments."
Electronic Literature and the Nonhuman
I’ll be in Milwaukee this weekend for a brief appearance at the SLSA 2012 jurried elit event – performing the Post-Obsolete Book.
Grab Your Writing by the Nasty Bits
The Boulder Writer’s Workshop has invited me to teach a class on writing, creative process, and multimedia collaboration