verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, performer and all-round LGBTQ+ icon. Their stage shows Burgerz and Overflow explored the joy and traumas of being a trans person in public spaces. Travis is now releasing their much anticipated memoir None of the Above. All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog I once replied to a casting director: “When I played a witch in a school play; I was 13.” He nodded, as if that was an answer that made sense to him, so he could move on. He looked at the figure in front of him, saw the shadow poking through my jaw, and could draw the lines of where a witch once was, or could be.

The rich, white donor lady leans in. She nods, as if to say, go on, don’t stop, tell me, how exactly you know. The writing in this memoir is truly remarkable and life-changing. Travis gives us room to question the society we live in where gender has been so structured up to the point that it is difficult to navigate a safe and comfortable world if you don't identify as 'male' or 'female'. As well as a writer, Alabanza is also a performance artist, and in 2017 they became the youngest recipient of an artist residency at the Tate. Their debut show, Burgerz, won the Edinburgh fringe total theatre award in 2019. So, when did you know, uh … ?” asks a donor to a very popular LGBTQ+ charity in the UK, at a private dinner celebrating volunteers. The “uh” is followed by a grand gesture of her hand, pointing up and down to my outfit and makeup.

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Fellow judge Irfan Master said the book stood out for its “craft, courage and connection”, while Yaba Badoe, also judging, said “every teenager” should read the book.

Despite how many times I have had to withstand questioning about when exactly I knew, I still wish I could pinpoint an answer that felt honest, even if just for the rare time it is asked from a place of safety and comfort; even if it is just so I know myself. Sometimes I wish for the more out and out, retro bigotry – at least then I know where I stand Alternately wry, witty and wounded . . . Alabanza has a crisp, contemporary writing style . . . Alabanza lifts the lid on our potential for empathy, alliance and complicity * * Irish Times * * Travis Alabanza writes about gender and its possibilities with such generosity and ease even the most provocative suggestions start to seem obvious, despite their challenges to society at large. This anti-memoir, which is at times both profound and funny, will make anyone question the stories we tell about ourselves, how we tell them and even who the telling is for -- SHON FAYE, author of THE TRANSGENDER ISSUENone of the Above is a well-crafted and considered work of literature . . . [Alabanza's] analysis of how gender is experienced in the world is nuanced, ambiguous and often unexpected in its conclusions. The book is also very funny’ Her honesty felt refreshing: at least I did not need to decipher what she may have meant, or how she truly felt. Sometimes I wish for the more out and out, retro bigotry – at least then I know where I stand. I wish you would not say ‘proper’ as a qualifier before trying to split up me and my other sisters and siblings. You may think it is a natural thing to split people up, that it is already embedded within the thing itself, but that shit is done to us externally. Eventually that stuff seeps into us. It affects how we think, how we treat other people, how we treat ourselves.