Tar Hollow Trans

Grover debuts with a stirring exploration of Appalachian queer identity. Writing about her transness and experience of living in the region, Grover rejects the portraits of Appalachia that have been put forth by writers such as J.D. Vance. Her version, rooted in the aughts, comes alive with anecdotes about mall goths and Evanescence fan pages, laid against careful analysis of what made that early virtual world sacred. Though Grover's verbose prose can betray her academic background, she balances it with accessible personal reflections, and her research begets a unique study of underappreciated elements of Appalachia, including an investigation into the region's traditional funerary practices. Throughout, Grover wrestles with the complicated nostalgia she feels for the place, even with all the faults she describes: "I long for community because it feels older than society and modernity, older than capitalism, or at least my awareness of it." Her words will resonate with anyone who has a similarly thorny relationship with home or has also grappled with being "desperate for the freedom and creativity of a time before the rampant drive of metropolitanism seeped into everything, before I became inundated with—implicated in—discourse." This is a unique, fascinating collection.

~Publishers Weekly

Intelligent and sharply perceptive. There is an exciting restlessness to Grover's thinking, and these essays take many unexpected and surprising turns. She writes inquisitively and insightfully about her identity and experiences as a trans woman, and about Appalachian folkways and artifacts and myths.

~Carter Sickels, author of The Prettiest Star

Tar Hollow Trans is a revelation. Sweeping, with stunning images and an enduring voice, this is a story that needs to be known: that of trans girlhood in rural Appalachia, told like a whispering, wonderous gospel. Heartfelt, haunted by home, and above all else, searching, this book marvels and creates the miraculous. I couldn't put it down, and it will live in me forever.

~Alison Stine, author of Trashlands

Tar Hollow Trans is all at once a complex archive of identity, a sharp meditation on form, a haunting history of place, and a love letter to the particularities that comprise a life. Grover offers beautiful prose and intelligent reflections on transness, Appalachia, family, and more with the kind of thoughtful nuance these themes deserve. I loved being immersed in these essays.

~Raechel Anne Jolie, author Rust Belt Femme

A book that courses like a river through place, time, and identity, Tar Hollow Trans is as finely crafted as it is necessary. Stacy Jane Grover has captured not just the deep feeling of Appalachian queerness, but the breadth of insight that comes from a life spent on the margins.

~Samantha Allen, award-winning journalist and author of Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States