Behind the scenes of cross-publishing trans joy!

Hi friend,

This is a special issue. Last month, I was honored and thrilled to bring the theme of trans joy to the September issue of Speak the Sojourner, a literary magazine put out by Hinton Publishing. Traditionally publishing writers and artists from underrepresented communities in the Pacific Northwest, Hinton graciously allowed me to open the call for submissions to all trans creators.

I couldn't have been more proud of the resulting mosaic of glorious visual art interspersed with beautiful, tender, and deeply personal writing. StS is a paid, subscriber-only publication, so I'm delighted to have their permission to share some of the pieces with the Amplifying Trans Joy community!

So in this issue, we're doing things a little differently. You'll find a selection of featured voices published in the special trans joy issue of Speak the Sojourner. You'll also get an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at some of the inspiration behind the creations!

You might say we're combining our usual community joy tapestry with the creative features (if you filled out the usual contributor form, stay tuned for next month!). I hope you will be excited, however, for a reappearance of our newest regular feature, Trans Tarot, created by last month's guest editor Marco!

As I said in my StS editor's note:

I’ve long held that the world has a lot to learn from trans people about joy ... In this time when hope and positivity can seem fleeting, paling in comparison to the undertow of chaos and despair, it's powerful to be reminded of ever-present sources of joy we can all connect with, no matter what our identities—and yes, even the fleeting things—that render life vital and worth savoring. 

I hope you come away feeling inspired to lean into and notice the joy in your own life. (And as the veil grows thin this time of year, can we channel some ancestral trans joy?? 💀✨)

With care and solidarity,
Jin (he/him)

All pieces shared with permission from the creators themselves, and from:

💜

Rose Lehmann (she/her), with an excerpt from "Pretty Coffee Girl":

I was invited to join some friends for a camping trip approximately five minutes after coming out as a woman. I wouldn't be the only queer person present, and our entire circle would be loving and supportive. With zero days on HRT and only a cursory idea of how to do my makeup and hair, I slapped together some outfits that would have better suited a Halloween-morning ensemble than a hot, summer day at the lake. It's a testament to how safe I felt in that group that despite the sea of MAGA flags surrounding us in neighboring campsites, I felt secure in being myself for the first time in ... ever. I knew I wasn't passing to any onlooker, and I didn't care.

The youngest among us was six or seven years old, the little cousin of a friend, practically glowing with his big smiles and keenness to join in any games we brought to the table. He was eager to talk and just as eager to listen. Let's call him Brayden.

The first morning after arrival, I put on a forest-green blouse under a decaying black dress, hair pulled up and back with a black band, and big honking steel-toe boots. It didn't occur to me how much my outfit made me look like a disheveled Starbucks barista on a smoke break. 

After getting to know Brayden, he popped the kind of question I had been expecting to get sooner or later: "Why is your voice so deep?"

I just shrugged and simply said, "Oh, it's always been this deep."

"Oh," he said, "okay." He then turned to the nearest person in our group and, grinning, asked them, "Have you met the pretty coffee girl?"

I wanted to outright melt with joy.

Behind the piece: "Based on a true story of being/feeling seen at a crucial moment of coming out."

💜

Arthur Bird (he/they), with "Lavender Fair":

How is it that the purple faggot’s flowers,
Could see me before I saw myself,
And lay claim to me,
The lilacs, lavender, pansies and hydrangeas… 

They reached for me before I was me,
And found me,
In flowered skirts and sandboxes,
In alleyways and dirty backwoods.

They showed me,
What life could be like,
When the people who love them,
Love me,

The people who are not moved to pluck their blooms,
For want of letting them remain until after pollination,
Because they can love something,
Without wanting to own it,

Because it is in their nature to love,
That which is not,
And never will be,
Theirs,

Fragrance given freely,
And in abundance,
Just because,
They are around to smell it,

Blossoms unfurling,
Spreading like supple, hairy legs,
For any eyes that want to,
Caress them.

I will forever be in their debt,
These purple blooms,
For teaching me gay love,
With the graciousness of flowers.

Behind the piece: "The natural world has always held me in a way I haven't felt held by most people. In this work, I am found first by the flowers that represent queerness, then I am found by queer people who appreciate the natural world. The love that the flowers have given me prepared me to receive queer love ... I wrote this while I was recovering from postpartum depression. When I was finding my way out of it, I wrote this. I was reconnecting with myself, and in doing so, I uncovered aspects of my gender that did not fit into "Mother." I looked back through the many versions of myself that I had been and wove them into a new version of myself that was more true than I had ever been. This is a snapshot of me learning to be who I am, incorporating the identities of parent, queer, scientist, artist, trans, punk, and on and on... letting them all coexist in my body, instead of sifting and separating."

💜

Dayze Dream (they/any/all), with "Joy Guides My Transformation":

Behind the piece: "whether i can see who i am becoming or not, i let joy shape me. i allow the butterflies in my stomach to guide me like a compass towards my next choice, my next path, my next experiment. the flutters i feel in my gut help me discern what excites me and what i want to invite more of into my life. in Tagalog there’s a word for this fluttery excitement: kilig. sometimes it’s nervous and sometimes it’s giddy, but it’s always at the core of my aliveness. kilig led me to my queer exploration. my joy is my transness, my transness is my joy. embracing who i am and being open to change has allowed the butterflies to communicate so clearly with me."

💜

Sorren Briarwood (he/him), with "Trans(Formation) Agenda":

we, who have glimpsed our trueshapes through the window of the moon, 
who have forged our own fangs, sharp as starlight,
who have surrendered ourselves to fullness. is it
our strange song you fear? 
or the unstitching of your own shadows, straining at the soles of your shoes? 

run with us awhile. we’re calling you. 
we flow together; mercury, meltwater, midnight mist. 
ours is a hallowed lunacy, a wild togetherness, a riotous howl, 
church of overlapping-pawsteps, of righteous-fury, of shared-everything, 
of the everchase for that brighter future shining just up ahead like the constellation of a leaping stag.
call us moontouched, moonstruck, monstrous-mad,
but keep your wolfsbane to yourself. 

or let your darkness liquify. crystallise into something
sparkling and alien and new.

Behind the piece: "Considering how to capture trans joy on the page, I thought back to some of the first things I was passionate about; wolves and fantasy. As a transgender person, all my joy is arguably trans joy, including that I felt as a child for my favourite things, so it felt natural to draw on the lexical fields surrounding those subjects. One of the things I have always loved about wolves is their sociability and family-oriented nature, which perfectly mirrors my favourite thing about being transgender—the strong and loving community. Werewolves were, unsurprisingly, also a childhood love, and watching the trans people I adore transform into their best and most powerful selves is a continued gift. I will always cherish our willingness to be unflinchingly authentic."

💜

mei eyre (he/they), with "16 open tabs, 2007-2011":

Recently searched: 

• how to have short hair as a girl 
• wikihow tomboy 
• are tomboys girls or boys yahoo answers
• nike hoodies 
• kingdom hearts ii gamestop 
• hair dye 
• bleaching hair with lemon juice 
• two girls kissing 
• how to clean search history 
• virus on computer 
• mulan halloween costume 
• mens boxers 
• quizlet 
• can i be a boy? 
• transgender 
• how to start testosterone

Behind the piece: "This piece centers the exploratory trans experience as a young person through search history. For me, I feel a lot of nostalgia and joy when I think about that young person exploring questions about himself that felt taboo. What is gender when you feel the inbetween? 2007-2011 was a major period in my life as a child growing up with unrestricted access to the internet, and sites like yahoo answers and wikihow were my first exposures to what gender could be. In a way, this piece is a letter to my younger self."

💜

Yoshi Das (he/him), with "To Fly":

To be surrounded by people I chose 
who chose me, 
who went out of their way to show up, 
to love me, 
to play and laugh with me, 
to be with me. 

To hear my closest people chatting and laughing, 
clapping and singing, 
throwing playful insults and quick wit at one another 
as if our whole lives we’ve known each other. 

To see 15 personalities blend into a network of love and possibility, an orchestra of fun facts, comebacks, and overlapping voices riveted, smiles that reach the eyes, 
affectionate glances, 
wide and glistening with every absurd, chaotic line spoken. 

To feel warmth flood my heart, my skin tingling with excitement, 
laughter so big and free it hurts my stomach, 
uncontrolled joy in the midst of people who would never dream of tempering it, who fly me a thousand miles in the air with feet that never once leave the ground. 

To fly.

💜

iso iso (he/they), with "Finally Comfortable":

💜

Noah Fuego (they/he), with "Love in Mundane Moments":

I made my bed this morning. 
Pulled the sheets tight, 
smoothed the wrinkles with slow hands —
like someone was tucking me in. 
Not out of discipline, but devotion. 

I took a longer shower. 
Let the water run hot, until my shoulders drop.
Didn't rush through the conditioner. 
Traced the scars on my chest,  
flat now, 
not to check if it healed — 
just because I could. 
Washed my body like it was worth caring for.
Because it is. 

I stood at the kitchen sink 
eating toast with peanut butter — 
Coffee in one hand, 
sunlight on my back, 
nowhere to be but here. 

I washed the dishes 
and didn’t scurry through it. 
I wasn't angry at the mess. 
I just cleaned, 
knowing I deserve a soft place to come home to. 

I folded the laundry 
and held the warmth for a second longer.
The way the socks lined up — 
a small offering to myself. 

I went to the grocery store 
and bought the kind of fruit 
I usually save for someone else. 
Just for me.
I bought flowers 
without waiting for someone else to bring them.
Cut the stems, 
dropped them into a thrifted vase, 
and let color bloom 
just for me. 

I spoke aloud to no one. 
Called myself “mijo” 
in the same tone my abuela used 
when I was brave, but afraid. 

I sat on the porch 
and let the sun find my shoulders. 
No distractions. 
No performance. 
Just me. 

There’s no grand gesture. 
Just small rituals that say: 
I stayed. 
I’m still here. 
And I deserve to be loved 
even when no one else is watching. 

Some days, 
I forget to love myself in poems. 
But I always come back 
through a hot shower, 
the dishes, 
the laundry, 
the mirror, 
my breath. 

Mundane moments. 
Sacred anyway.

Behind the piece: "I started noticing how much of my self-love shows up in things nobody would ever clock as meaningful. Nothing dramatic or grandiose. But for a long time those small things felt impossible, or like they came easy for others, not me. Trans joy, for me, mainly sits in the quiet moments. It's saying my own name out loud when no one's around and actually hearing it land right on my body. It's looking in the mirror and not flinching, nor checking for what's wrong, but just looking, and admiring what's changed. I wanted this piece to sit in that ordinariness on purpose. Trans joy doesn't need to explain or justify itself to be real. Sometimes it's just a soft place to come home to, and knowing I'm allowed to build that for myself."

💜

Bios (A-Z):

Arthur Bird is a 35-year-old transgender, genderqueer single father of two. He is a psychology major at the University of Washington, focusing his studies on the long-term effects of trauma.

Sorren Briarwood is a writer of speculative fiction and hopes to work in as many mediums as he can before he is a skeleton (or for longer, provided he can find a way to hold a pen without muscles.) For more of his work, visit sorrenbriarwood.com.

Yoshi Das is an Indian, disabled, trans musician and poet who loves animals, psychology, music, poetry, and baking. He's the kind of person who wears his heart on his sleeve, well known for a laugh that fills any space he enters. Listen to his newly released EP, "Revolution."

Dayze Dream is an intentional handpoke tattoo artist based on Duwamish lands, aka Seattle. Find them at sleepydayze.com or on IG.

mei eyre is a Black and trans poet, educator, librarian, archivist and menace to the seattle area. he writes about spirits, being queer, and untold history. 

Noah Fuego is a transmasc, queer, Puerto Rican writer living in Seattle, writing toward softness, survival, and ordinary miracles. Their work has also appeared in the Queer Joy Anthology (Spread Queer Joy Campaign).

If you like Iso Iso's work, find him on Bluesky or Cara, where he post OC and more horror-inclined art. Hopefully a short comic soon, too!

Rose Lehmann has been writing fiction for thirty years and is just now trying to get some of it published, so wish her luck. She used to live in a big city, and now she lives in a tiny farm town with her wife, her son, her mother-in-law, and two dogs.

*

Do you want to be a future featured artist/writer/creative? Would love to have you via the contributor form!

ATJ's newest recurring feature is written by Marco (they/them), who started us out last month with a brilliant invitation into birth cards. They will be pulling a card each month specifically for our community!

This month's card is XX: Judgement.

Interpretation:

This month's pull (from Cristy C. Road's Next World Tarot) is Judgement. Even in a joy newsletter, I don't think that's a bad draw! In tarot, Judgement often gets read as something harsh, but in my experience, it comes through as discernment: deep listening, reflecting on what we value, and shedding what no longer serves us.

Road recognizes this card as those moments where justice prevails, and ends her description with an invitation I love: "Hold onto the admirable mindset that honors love and respect over policy and imperialism." Road paints the card as a Black Lives Matter protest street at sunset, pigeons on the signs, banners everywhere, and a Brown person with golden hair looking up into the orange sky.

To me, it reads like a community waking up together. With elections coming up, the timing is solid: Voting, especially for and with our trans community, is discernment in practice! Wishing you all deep listening and light hearts this month.

As always this was a wonderful issue and it made me so happy to see it in my inbox <3 —ATJ Reader

Are you enjoying ATJ? Reply to this email with thoughts, nice words, and love notes! With permission, your words might be featured in an upcoming issue!

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Thanks for supporting and reading!!!

I’ll leave you with this…

Happy Gender-Euphoria-Exploration Day, I mean Halloween! Wishing you sweetness and delightful romps through autumn.

See you next time, friends!