Alicia E. Goranson is trying to change the face of trans literature, and she’s doing a good job of it so far. The Boston-area transgendered writer hopes her 2006 debut novel Supervilliainz (Suspects Thoughts) will break the trans community out of the “navel-gazing” of the memoirs and theoretical works that have dominated the trans lit genre.  

Goranson, prefers to identify as “a geek writer who makes awesome fudge,” but uses transgendered woman as a more accessible label.  She was a co-winner in 2004’s  contest which brings media attention to unpublished authors of queer writing and opens doors for publication of their work.  Goranson was picked for Supervilliainz, an action adventure hero-villain epic she refers to as “activism.”

“Supervillainz,” she explains, “ is a slippery little beast designed to squeeze through the barriers erected in our culture to keep trans experiences gross and inaccessible to the public at large. It’s an attempt to show readers that trans characters can be written in a positive, respectful, mainstream-accessible format without the standard tropes of coming-out, transitioning or having them die.”

The novel’s action is set in Boston, a city Goranson calls, “pretty sexual…under its austere glamour.”  She says Supervillainz is “the sort of book you hide in class inside a queer theory tome …[it ] designed to redefine the traditional expectations of trans literature on every level, and leave transpeople with a myth that is entirely our own.”

 “Transpeople need more myths,” Goranson argues.  “Myths make our experiences universal…The characters become the everyman—or everywoman—against the unstoppable force.

“The idea for the novel was to take an epic story and play it straight,” she says.  “I’m big on using fairy-tales and myths as underlying structure for contemporary stories. I think they resonate better with us. I want to re-tell the old fables and myths in modern language because the only reason they’ve stuck around is that they still resonate with us.”

Although she likes mythic stories, Goranson says she doesn’t “believe in good or evil.  I believe in stupidity, lack of empathy and sheer situational desperation. We have choices and consequences. No matter how horrible an act, it brings some relief [for someone]…But it’s comforting for us to dress up these situations as good and evil.”

“At a fundamental level, I’m breaking down these stories about the nature of hero-villain relationships in the context of breaking down the stereotypes and tropes associated with transpeople.”

For her next project, Goranson is already work on a trilogy, the War of the Foxes, since shortly after she started Supervillainz. “It’s about a struggle between two women for a place in the sci-fi/fantasy fandom, as they become increasingly isolated from their current social worlds. While Supervillainz is an epic, War of the Foxes is a folk tale.”

Goranson promises War of the Foxes will be “huge.” “It’ll be grandiose, operatic, everything you liked about Supervillainz, but better. The transgender characters will be less prominent though, as I’m exploring the self-destruction of geek circles.”

She’s also working on a side project she says she hopes to sell to a large publisher. “I’m completely selling out in it—no queers, no activism, just a retiree walking across Cape Cod. I call it my Book of Evil.”

Given a chance, Goranson swears to honor her readers intelligence and emotional attachment to her characters.  “I won’t betray their trust. I won’t have any character raped or do anything squicky, leave any plot holes, or break continuity. I’m far too OCD for that. I’m also a reactionary, but a pragmatic one. I won’t simply talk about how to re-envision a trope or a stereotype; I’ll do it, and I’ll show you how you can do it, too.”

Trans writer Jacob Anderson-Minshall can be reached at jake@trans-nation.org.