Imogen Binnies first novel became a staple of trans literature.
Nine years and one new reissue later, what has changed?
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Nevadaopens in New Yorksometime immediately postGreat Recession.
Its author, Imogen Binnie, never intended to write a novel that would cause more than that.
Someone started a website called Have You ReadNevada?
with links to free PDFs of the text.
There was a discussion-based Facebook group called People Who Need to Talk AboutNevadaby Imogen Binnie.
This month, FSG is rereleasingNevadathanks in part to that same word-of-mouth buzz.
Concurrently, Picador will be publishing the novel in the U.K., giving the book its first international release.
How does Binnie feel about this development?
Im fucking stoked, she tells me.
In late March, I drove to rural Vermont to meet her.
she says from across a picnic table in her yard.
Nevadais about a trans woman constantly making terrible decisions.
Its not good trans representation in the sense of what good trans representation wouldve been in 2008.
It was a Very Special Episode.
I first readNevadaon a friends recommendation shortly after I transitioned.
I was taken in by Binnies conversational tone and the punch lines you dont see coming.
Which, also, are constructs.)
The second time I picked it up, two years later, I barely made it halfway.
I reread it again this year and soon realized Marias myopia is the point.
Shes supposed to be kind of a dumbass, andNevadas a masterful work of irony.
Cool, Binnie says when I tell her about my evolving relationship with her book.
It wouldve been fine if youd stopped at hating it, too.
She welcomes most reactions.
So many people still say things like Holy shit!
This book made me realize I could be trans in a way I wouldnt have figured out without it!
Im sorry, random person.
I didnt mean it in the way that it sounded.
I meant it in a much more compassionate way.
Point is, you would have figured it out on your own.
Theres only one reading of her book she patently rejects: Its wildly infuriating when people assume its autobiographical.
It feels like the subtext is that trans people cant write.
I still wasnt good at it, she says.
Later that year, she moved to the Bay Area.
We basically invented subtweeting and soon began writing, and rewriting, the earliest versions ofNevada.
She makes James her project: Maybe what Maria needs isnt staring at her own navel.
Why fix yourself when you’re able to give a shot to fix someone who literally never asked?
It captured something that is truly sad about transitioning, Ess says.
When you do it, you become really good at it and do it exactly once.
Its a really horrifying picture of a trans woman whos stuck.
After all, she did sign a contract with a big-five publisher.
With there being no ethical consumption under capitalism, Im stoked to publish with FSG, she says.
Have the cis people noticed us?
What does it mean?
he says,faux-panicked.
So far, its good.
Weve seen so many cool books.
But sometimes I wonder,How long can that last?
Its less about the money and more about keepingNevadain print, she says.
It contends with a theory held by some Nirvana fans that Kurt Cobain might have been a trans woman.
She says, laughing.
When theyre reading my story, they care about whether it works.
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