Thomas Page McBee’s Lambda Award–winning debut memoir, Man Alive, was named a best book of the year by NPR Books, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. His “refreshing [and] radical” (The Guardian) follow-up, Amateur, was shortlisted for the UK’s Baillie-Gifford nonfiction book prize and the Wellcome Book Prize, named a best book of the year by many publications, and translated into multiple languages. In the course of reporting the book, Thomas became the first transgender man to ever fight in Madison Square Garden. His essays and reportage appear in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and many other outlets, and his work has been supported by residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He is also a television writer/producer, and his recent work architecting the transition story for Elliot Page’s character on The Umbrella Academy was nominated for a GLAAD award. He lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and dogs.
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Praise for Amateur
*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
*Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award
*Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize
One of The Times UK’s Best Memoirs of 2018, BuzzFeed’s Best Nonfiction of 2018, Autostraddle’s Best LGBT Books of 2018, and 52 Insight’s Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018
“Brave, honest and touchingly human…a beautiful book that will resonate…with anyone anywhere in the world who is determined to become a better, kinder human being.”
—The Guardian
“There have been a slew of new books that have reckoned powerfully with manhood and masculinity and their intersections with race and sexuality. Among the best I’d rank How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, by Alexander Chee, Air Traffic, by Gregory Pardlo, Amateur, by Thomas Page McBee, and Heavy, by Kiese Laymon. They are very different books, but all exhibit the two qualities that Orwell said made him a writer: 'a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts.'”
—The New York Times
“In an age when identity feels so splintered and fractional, McBee’s empathy with men feels refreshing, but it’s his determination to be accountable that is radical. He resolves his own masculinity crisis by doing the things men often think they’re doing, but so often are not: listening, asking questions, seeking help, being vulnerable.”
—The Guardian
"This book relays a subtle, profound personal investigation into masculinity and personhood ... McBee’s great twist is to treat masculinity itself as an anthropological phenomenon, represented by this bloody, extreme sport. Inside the fight, McBee finds reconciliation.”
—The New Republic
“A compelling example of humanity at its best, one to which anyone with a heart and a mind will relate.”
—Western Humanities Review
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