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From legendary storyteller and activist S. Bear Bergman: a remarkable head-to-tail book combining a play and a long essay bridging trans history and trans futures
For some thirty years, S. Bear Bergman has been a leading light as a trans storyteller, activist, author, and publisher. In his first narrative book in thirteen years, Bergman explores what it means to be trans at this pivotal moment in history through a unique head-to-tail (tête-bêche) format combining a play with a long essay.
The play is The First Jew in Canada, a retrieval of trans history that tells the story of Jacques LaFargue—the first Jew to have arrived in Canada, according to the colonial record, and who was in fact a trans man—through the lens of Bergman's own experiences as a transgender man, a Jew, and an immigrant to Canada. The book elaborates on the play (based on Bergman's popular solo performance), elevating LaFargue to the status of trans ancestor.
The long essay is The Fresh End of a Long Thread, about the stories trans people tell about their lives and what they can create as a result—specifically in response to recitations of trans experiences in the mainstream that are simply trauma and misery manufactured for a cisgender gaze. The current brutal wave of anti-trans sentiment has made it harder for trans people to see themselves in the world, but Bergman reasserts the necessity for justice, liberation, and joy in their lives.
According to Bergman, trans people's stories make trans people real in the world, and the way they tell these stories shapes not just their experience but others' experience of trans people. Bergman has spent three decades carving out new spaces for queer and trans people on the landscape of people's imagination; his audacious new book is a moment of reckoning with the results of that work and what those results might teach trans people about how to continue.
"Wisely challenging and profoundly affirming, S. Bear Bergman's The Fresh End of a Long Thread weaves rigour and imagination, compassion, and a no-nonsense refusal to suffer fools into a buildable path to a place where, as Seamus Heaney so famously put it, 'hope and history rhyme.'"
—Hanne Blank, author of Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality
"The Fresh End of a Long Thread is a gentle, warm, generous, and potent testament to the power of storytelling. To the power of storytellers, too, who shape our understanding of the past and present and who make other futures, the ones some tell us are impossible, possible to imagine. Bergman's storytelling not only shows that the world has always had a place for us but it teaches us how to tell stories that change the world."
—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History and Changing Gender
"The only bad thing about S. Bear Bergman's insightful, heartfelt writing is that it wasn't available when I was first transitioning, or even when I was young and confused. There are plenty of books I wish I could go back in time and give my younger self, but The Fresh End of a Long Thread is something I wish literally everyone had read when I was growing up. This is the tonic we need in these uniquely screwy times."
—Charlie Jane Anders, author of Good Things Are Coming Your Way
"I first met S. Bear Bergman in the wild, old pioneer days of the internet, when he played James Bond to my Lady in Red. Even over dial-up I learned he could tell one hell of a good story. Four decades later, he's become my favorite teller of trans tales. And now he's written a book of stories about stories, a history of histories, and the delicious trouble of figuring out which is which. The Fresh End of a Long Thread is smart, funny, deeply Jewish, deeply queer, and an absolute joy to read. Wise old Jews have always told us stories that leave us with questions we must answer for ourselves. Bear does exactly that. This book is for anyone, Jewish or otherwise, who loves a really good story."
—Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw
"S. Bear Bergman takes us on an incredible journey into trans storytelling and the importance of precision, depth, and clarity in our histories and narratives. He offers us hope and guidance in these times. Trans story is more important than ever, and Bergman assures us that we are not screaming condensed versions into an abyss but instead celebrating our full, beautiful, powerful stories."
—Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware, author of Lessons from the Front Lines
S. Bear Bergman (he/him) is an author, storyteller, educator, and long-time queer pain in the tuchus. He's a storyteller in many genres, a writer for adults and children, a sought-after public speaker, an equity educator, an award-winning performer, and the parenting columnist for CBC Radio. His books include The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You; Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter; and (with Saul Freedman-Lawson) Special Topics in Being a Human and Special Topics in Being a Parent. He lives in Western Canada.