I put a call out recently, asking for suggestions. I’m looking for ambiguously gendered narrators or authors for a study, for myself. Gender fluid, androgynous, butch, trans, agender or simply narratives that push against the notion of what someone can or can’t do based on their biological sex or cultural gender roles. My first three novels all had ungendered narratives, that is until the publisher and editor made me add genders, but even now, I’d say they’re still open to interpretation. That’s become a passion of mine, pushing back on the gender constraints in fiction. In life.

Here’s a list of authors, in no specific order, that friends suggested. Do you know all these? Have you read anyone else I should look for? Any ideas?

1. Shannon Brazil
2. Eileen Myles
3. Claire Rudy Foster
4. Melissa Febos
5. Carter Sickles
6. Carmen Machado
7. Zach Ellis
8. Cooper Lee Bombadeer
9. Michele Tea
10. T Kira Madden
11. Paul Lisicky
12. Billy Ray Belcourt
13. Greg Mania
14. Garth Greenwell
15. Mark Doty
16. Kate Milliken
17. Jennifer Finney Boylan (wrote Good Boy: my life in 7 dogs)
18. Tomaz Jerdowsky
19. Corinne Manning
20. Genevieve Hudson
21. Meredith Talusan
22. Samantha Irby
23. Man Alive by Thomas Page McBee.
24. Amateur by Thomas Page McBee.
25. Nevada by Imogen Binnie.
26. Little Fish by Casey Plett.
27. Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg.
28. Real Queer America by Samantha Leigh Allen.
29. Domi J Shoemaker,
30. Lynn Breedlove,
31. Ivan Coyote, (see their Wiki profile for a huge list of related articles too)
32. Bear Bergman,
33. Kate Bornstein.
34. Sub Rosa by Amber Dawn,
35. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon,
36. Paul takes the form of a mortal girl by Andrea Lawlor,
37. Boys Like Her by Taste This.
38. Toni Amato “Pinned Down by Pronouns”
39. Tegan Qinn
40. Rae Spoon
41. SD Holman

Throw out more suggestions if you have any – please! I’m looking at adult fiction and prose mostly. I know that YA authors seem to have no problem with playing around with gender in their books but it’s not yet crossed out of Sci-fi or YA.