Being Non-Binary Is Like...

This book contains some of the struggles of a young non-binary person looking for (and trying to self-define) their place in the world. Small moments of life are woven alongside these questions about gender and how 21st-century America reacts to gender diverse people, because while the speaker is dealing with coming out and growing into themself, there is more to their life than just their gender. They struggle to connect with a grandfather sinking into dementia ("Silent Memory Castle"). They rail against discriminatory social norms ("The excretory system doesn't have a gender. // But here we are." ("Being Non-Binary is Like Outing Yourself Every Time You Go to the Bathroom")). Like Carl Philip's "Politics of Mere Being," the speaker (and poet) comes from "a self for whom gender... [is] never outside of consciousness - that would be impossible - but they aren't always at the forefront of consciousness." In simply living, they show how non-binary people are just that: people.

Beks Roen (they/he) helps trans/aspec folks and allies who feel isolated and powerless to find chosen family through queer fantasy and Shakespeare.

They run Roguish Goblin Stories, an online queer art library where enbies and aspecs are the main characters.

Roen's work can be seen on their Substack, in The NonBinary Review, Querencia Press, Beyond the Veil Press, Anodyne Magazine & more.