We are excited to collaborate with meTamorphosis to host Book Club every other month. meTamorphosis Book Club meets in-person and virtually on Zoom, respectively. Books are selected by the community.  Writer and bookseller Lyss will host the meeting this month. Book club picks will be 10% off 30 days in advance of the meeting day, to give you time to read it. And plan on grabbing a drink and a snack from the café when you come to the meeting!

May’s Pick: Stag Dance by Torrey Peters 

In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.

In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.

Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In “The Chaser,” a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, “The Masker,” a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.

Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.

About the Guest Host:
LYSS is an anti-Zionist Jewish, non-binary writer and poet. They are a recent graduate from University of Pittsburgh where they studied Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and Creative Writing. They have been published or are forthcoming in Dyke Diaries, In Parentheses, and Querencia Press. Some of their favorite genres are poetry, queer fiction, horror, memoirs and essay collections. You can find them sharing all their big feelings about books on Instagram: @librarysoflyss.

About the organizer:
AMARI ONYX LAINE is a Black trans poet & multi-form artist from California. Their poetics centers the reality of being alive in their body. Poems and community sustain their existence, which inspired the creation of meTamorphosis. They uplift QTBIPOC books via @trustyourwings.books on Instagram and study poetry at the University of Pittsburgh.

meTamorphosis is a local queer & trans led event series committed to uplifting emerging LGBTQ+ writers by curating inclusive community readings in Pittsburgh, PA. meTamorphosis celebrates queer & trans people’s commitment to ongoing transformation and embracing change to become who they know themselves to be.