Grace Byron is a writer and critic whose work appeared in The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Nation, and Vogue. Her work has explored topics ranging from what the current administration’s policies mean for trans travelers and their passports, gun ownership in the trans community, and the state of trans healthcare.
Her debut novel, Herculine, is about a woman who seeks refuge at an all-trans commune in rural Indiana, only to discover buried secrets that force her to face her own demons and the ones she was running from.
We asked Byron to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know her and the books that shaped her life.
What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?
Hard to recall–but I loved Landon Snow as a kid. It was essentially the Christian version of Harry Potter. I loved how they smelled. There was a lot of discussion of Grandma’s lemon bars, magical trees, and books coming to life. I also loved Narnia and A Wrinkle in Time.
What book helped you through puberty?
Oh god. I had one of those? Multiple, probably. In high school, I finally started reading “non-Christian” books. I loved Gregory Maguire’s Wicked for its vicious gay sex and story of survival. I loved J D Salinger, Harper Lee, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Camus, Nietszche, Wuthering Heights, and The Great Gatsby. But mostly Salinger, I suppose. I tried to write a lot of Salinger-esque pastiches.
What book do you think all teenagers should be assigned in school?
Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard.
If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?
Beloved by Toni Morrison, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Political Fictions by Joan Didion.
What books helped guide you while writing your book?
A litany. “The Tourist” by Carmen Maria Machado, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin, A Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin, Devotions by Mary Oliver, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters, Pnin by Nabokov, Speedboat by Renata Adler, Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler, Nevada by Imogen Binnie, Paradise by Toni Morrison, No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Boy Erased by Garrard Conley, Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz, Assata’s memoir, Zami by Audre Lorde, and “The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link. I hope including a book of poems and two short stories isn’t cheating.
What books are on your nightstand now?
Mostly things for work since I’m primarily a critic. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (writing this in August), Luigi: The Making and the Meaning, and This Year by John Darnielle.