{{short description|American novelist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox writer | name = Imogen Binnie | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|43|2022|6|7}} | birth_place = New Jersey, U.S. | alma_mater = Rutgers University | other_names = | occupation = Writer | children = 2 | notable_works = ''Nevada'' }} '''Imogen Binnie''' (born 1978 or 1979)<ref name = Spielberger>{{cite news|url = https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/imogen-binnie-nevada-novel-interview-2022|title = How Imogen Binnie's Nevada Influenced a Generation of Trans Writers|last = Spielberger|first = Daniel|magazine = W|date = June 7, 2022|accessdate = February 5, 2024}}</ref> is an American novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her debut novel, ''Nevada'', which was published in 2013.<ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/trans-literature-for-the-masses "Trans literature for the masses"]. ''The New Yorker'', July 16, 2014.</ref> It is considered a key work in trans literature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Riedel |first=Samantha |date=June 7, 2022 |title=For Readers, “Nevada” Is a Landmark. For Imogen Binnie, It’s a Reminder |url=https://www.them.us/story/imogen-binnie-nevada-reissue-interview |access-date=2026-05-03 |website=Them |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Early life== Binnie was born and raised in rural New Jersey. She attended Rutgers University and graduated in 2002 after majoring in English and psychology. After graduating, she lived in New York City for a time before moving to Oakland, California.<ref name = Spielberger/> She began sharing her work via Fictionmania, a site devoted to sharing user-written stories on gender change. She then moved to creating zines and developing her artistry in writing groups.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Binnie |first=Imogen |date=May 4, 2022 |title=Notes on Nevada: Trans Literature and the Early Internet by Imogen Binnie |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/05/04/notes-on-nevada-trans-literature-and-the-early-internet/ |access-date=2026-01-20 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == Binnie was a columnist at ''Maximum Rocknroll'' magazine for 9 years. Her early writing appeared in two zines she self-published, ''The Fact That It's Funny Doesn't Make It A Joke'' and ''Stereotype Threat''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Queer: A Collection of LGBTQ Writing from Ancient Times to Yesterday |publisher=Head of Zeus Ltd. |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-78954-234-9 |editor-last=Wynne |editor-first=Frank |location=UK}}</ref> While living in Oakland after 2007, Binnie was so tired of explaining to cisgender people why they shouldn't call trans people the slur "trannies" that she created a zine compiling three trans writers' arguments against the slur. She kept copies in her purse to share with people who used the word. She also discovered books during this time that would influence her later writing: ''This Bridge Called My Back'', edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, works by Dennis Cooper and Junot Díaz, and Joanna Russ' essay "What Can a Heroine Do? or Why Women Can’t Write".<ref name=":2" />
Binnie began writing articles for ''PrettyQueer.com'', a site begun in 2011 by the four future founders of Topside Press. This was the first time Binnie received payment for her writing and it came in a lull while she tried to publish her first novel.<ref name=":2" />
=== ''Nevada'' === Binnie's debut novel, ''Nevada'', was published by Topside Press in 2013. The novel's plot centres around Maria, a transgender woman leaving New York after a break up. The novel is intended to primarily address a transgender audience.<ref name="Rejectionist">{{cite news|last1=McCarry|first1=Sarah|date=October 25, 2013|title=A Conversation with Imogen Binnie|agency=The Rejectionist|url=http://www.therejectionist.com/2013/10/a-conversation-with-imogen-binnie.html|accessdate=September 1, 2015|archive-date=August 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150810085644/http://www.therejectionist.com/2013/10/a-conversation-with-imogen-binnie.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=July 16, 2020|title=The trans art of storytelling: 'Nevada' by Imogen Binnie|url=http://www.michigandaily.com/books/trans-art-storytelling-nevada-imogen-binnie/|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=The Michigan Daily|language=en-US}}</ref> Some people credit ''Nevada'' as the first novel in a modern wave of trans literature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Egozi |first=Arielle |date=2024-09-20 |title=8 Books About Women Being Bad |url=https://electricliterature.com/from-sex-work-to-being-trans-8-books-about-being-bad/ |access-date=2025-06-13 |website=Electric Literature |language=en-US}}</ref> Katherine Cross identifies authors like Binnie, Casey Plett, Janet Mock, and Ryka Aoki as the vanguard of trans women authors who created a new tradition of unapologetic, dark and authentic trans narratives. These works tend to discard prior tropes about trans people that were usually employed in works for cisgender audiences, and instead the works showcase the personal experience of being trans and the impacts of transmisogyny.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis |last=Young |first=Andrew J. |title=From "Telling Transgender Stories" to "Transgender People Telling Stories": Transgender Literature and the Lambda Literary Awards, 1997-2017 |date=May 2018 |access-date=June 12, 2025 |degree=PhD |publisher=Temple University |url=https://scholarshare.temple.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/e4477264-468f-4935-8111-782cb5ced0e5/content |pages=63-65, 71 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
At the 26th Lambda Literary Awards in 2014, ''Nevada'' was a finalist for the Transgender Fiction category,<ref>[http://www.out.com/entertainment/art-books/2014/03/07/bianchi-winterson-books-named-lambda-literary-award-finalists "The Lammys Showcase The Best Of Queer Lit"]. ''Out'', March 7, 2014.</ref> and Binnie won both the Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award<ref name="timespicayune">[http://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2014/06/lambda_literary_awards_rain_do.html "Looking for summer reading? Lambda Literary Awards rain down a host of choices"]. ''Times-Picayune'', June 3, 2014.</ref> and the MOTHA award for "outstanding contribution to the transgender cultural landscape."<ref>{{Cite web|title=MOTHA ART AWARDS|url=https://www.motha.net/motha-art-awards|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=MOTHA|language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2021, Picador signed ''Nevada'' for publication in the UK for the first time, citing it as a "genuinely ground-breaking book, which has trenchant and inspired things to say about the trans experience".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Picador signs Binnie's 'ground-breaking' classic on trans experience {{!}} The Bookseller |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/picador-signs-binnies-ground-breaking-classic-trans-experience-1274280 |access-date=November 30, 2021 |website=www.thebookseller.com}}</ref> This same year, MCD announced it would reissue the book for wider distribution than the original run.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MCD {{!}} We're Reissuing Imogen Binnie's NEVADA! |url=https://www.mcdbooks.com/news/nevada-announcement |access-date=November 30, 2021 |website=MCD |language=en}}</ref>
=== Short stories === Binnie has published several short stories, including "Gamers", in ''Meanwhile, Elsewhere'' (Topside Press, 2017)<ref>{{Cite web|title="Meanwhile, Elsewhere" Envisions a New World for Trans Readers|url=https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/meanwhile-elsewhere-book-review|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=Bitch Media|language=en|archive-date=December 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207085553/https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/meanwhile-elsewhere-book-review|url-status=dead}}</ref> and "I Met a Girl Named Bat Who Met Jeffrey Palmer" published in the Lambda Award winning collection, ''The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard'' (Topside Press, 2012).<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 30, 2012|title='The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard' edited by Tom Léger and Riley MacLeod|url=https://lambdaliterary.org/2012/09/the-collection-short-fiction-from-the-transgender-vanguard-edited-by-tom-leger-and-riley-macleod/|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=Lambda Literary|language=en}}</ref> An essay by Binnie is featured in ''Videogames for Humans'' (Instar, 2017).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Videogames for Humans|url=https://www.instarbooks.com/books/videogames-for-humans.html|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=www.instarbooks.com}}</ref>
In much of Binnie's writing, her characters are not explicitly labeled as trans at the beginning of the story, which lets her explore how readers of art forms interpret stories through their own experiences. The unpublished short story "If You Leave" is a retelling of Andie Walsh's story from the film ''Pretty in Pink'', casting Walsh as a punk rock trans girl who overcomes class and gender prejudices to find love. Andrew J. Young cites this short story as an example of a technique that trans and queer people use to read mainstream works through a queer lens. The technique has a long tradition because mainstream works frequently have not depicted or prioritized a queer audience.<ref name=":1" />
=== TV writing === Binnie was a script writer for ''Doubt'', a short-lived American TV drama which premiered on CBS in 2017. She wrote the August 5, 2017, episode "I'm In If You Are."<ref name="DoubtBustle">{{cite news|last1=Hawkins|first1=Kayla|title='Doubt' Season 2 Won't Happen, But It Broke Important New Ground While It Lasted|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/doubt-season-2-wont-happen-but-it-broke-important-new-ground-while-it-lasted-75299|accessdate=October 12, 2017|publisher=Bustle}}</ref>
In 2020, she was a script writer for ''Council of Dads'', an American TV drama which premiered on NBC. She wrote the May 28, 2020, fifth episode "Tradition!"
Most recently, Binnie co-wrote and was the executive story editor for teen drama ''Cruel Summer''.<ref name=":0" />
In May 2022, Binnie appeared on the podcast ''Gender Reveal'', hosted by Tuck Woodstock.
==Personal life== Binnie is a transgender woman.<ref name="Spielberger" /> She credits Camp Trans for saving her life: it was the first time she could spend time in person with a trans community. She met Julie Blair and Red Durkin there, who connected her later to Topside Press. Binnie moved from New York to Oakland in 2007 but felt out of place in the queer community there: while there were many trans people, she did not know many trans women, and the community wasn't always inclusive.<ref name=":2" />
{{As of|2022}}, Binnie lives in Vermont, where she works as a therapist.<ref name="Spielberger" /> She and her wife have two children.<ref name="Spielberger" />
== See also == {{div col}} * Akwaeke Emezi * Emily St. James * Jeanne Thornton * Mira Bellwether * Mirha-Soleil Ross * Roz Kaveney * Torrey Peters {{div col end}}
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Binnie, Imogen}} Category:1970s births Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American screenwriters Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:American LGBTQ novelists Category:American LGBTQ screenwriters Category:American transgender writers Category:LGBTQ people from New Jersey Category:LGBTQ people from Vermont Category:Living people Category:Novelists from New Jersey Category:Rutgers University alumni Category:Transgender novelists Category:Transgender women writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American transgender women Category:American LGBTQ women writers