On February 27, Linfield’s Nicholas Library hosted author Zoë Bossiere for a Reading at the Nick. Bossiere is a gender queer nonfiction author who shares their gender-fluid journey through their book “Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir.”
The memoir depicts the period of their childhood where they lived as a boy after moving from Virginia to Toussand, Arizona. Bossiere, to start, read a segment of their memoir titled “Boy Scout.” This chapter covered their initial decision to shed their female gender and start as someone new. Bossiere grapples with their childhood body dysmorphia and the outside perception of their gender.
“I closed my eyes envisioning the boy who would get up from the chair… shedding the girl he used to be like an old skin,” Bossiere writes, describing their first masculine haircut.
Bossiere discussed this chapter and the lack of literature and media in their youth that they could relate to. They cited Mulan and Joan of Arc as the characters they could see some semblance of themself in.
“But the problem is that they ended… in this tragic phase. You can get burned or you can get married, and… neither character is allowed to continue living as a man,” Bossiere said.
Bossiere wrote this book with the hope that kids like them would be able to read and relate to their story. They wanted to show that there are more options than many trans narratives suggest. By doing this reading, Bossiere was able to make this connection and share this message here at Linfield.
“It was nice to hear Zoe’s perspective on their experience with transness as a kid… I felt some of myself in them,” Ellie Raetzman, a Linfield student, said.
In the second half of their reading, Bossiere read their chapter titled “Bully Box.” The chapter discusses their friendship with a girl named Sage. The pair both went to Desert Skies Middle School, and Sage was one of few people who knew that male was not their birth gender. Bossiere once again finds themself grappling with their gender identity with the added complexity of sexuality.
“Liking Sage wasn’t gay, not exactly, because I was a boy,” Bossiere writes.
The section ultimately ends with the pair laughing and enjoying each other’s company, leaving their relationship ambiguous.
After completing their reading, Bossiere stuck around to answer a couple of questions related to them as a writer and their book. They teased that they are currently working on another nonfiction novel that will cover their experience with pregnancy and the gendered nature of it.
They hope that this new book will also be a resource for genderqueer adults who may be grappling with their gender identity when pregnant.
The next Reading at the Nick is April 29, in the Austen Reading room. Linfield will be hosting authors Justin Gardner and Rose McLarney.
