“Trans Time Travel (January, 2027) is staggeringly beautiful. Thomas Page McBee’s writing is fluid, cinematic, and deeply felt, lingering in the body long after the final page. In exploring the cycles of visibility and repression, he exquisitely weaves together a multitude of trans voices, revealing the interconnectedness of our collective journey toward gender liberation. This book is a powerful meditation on transformation, a reminder that despite all efforts at erasure, our expansiveness persists. It is an urgently needed and remarkable achievement that will forever transcend time and space.”

“Few writers move as effortlessly between the deeply personal and the sweep of history as Thomas Page McBee. Trans Time Travel is rigorously intelligent without ever sacrificing its humanity, precise without losing its sense of wonder. A work of extraordinary generosity and curiosity, weaving memoir, reporting, philosophy, and cultural history into something wholly its own. This is the book I have been waiting for, to be able to share with those who need it—whether someone needs to see their own experience and ancestry reflected back or to step into a new way of relating. It’s a volume that strips away the insanity of the current cultural discourse around transness, distilling it into something necessary and, well, timeless.”

“McBee’s lyrical, achingly honest exploration of loss and maturation offers a hopeful antidote to more toxic forms of masculinity.”

“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.”

“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.”

“McBee enlarges the study [of masculinity] from a series of vignettes into a full, poetic narrative ... a physical transition is part of the work of reclaiming the lost body. But first he must understand how violence fits into the male equation, using as his case studies two men who set out to do one thing but did the opposite: The protector who abused him, and the killer who let him live ... the act of writing could amount to a kind of revenge. But empathy, instead, is McBee’s objective, the most important part of becoming real in one’s own eyes. ‘Being human, ‘ he concludes, ‘means being at the mercy of others.’ That’s a part of aspiration, too. We are born human; with hard work, we achieve humanity.”

“McBee enlarges the study [of masculinity] from a series of vignettes into a full, poetic narrative ... a physical transition is part of the work of reclaiming the lost body. But first he must understand how violence fits into the male equation, using as his case studies two men who set out to do one thing but did the opposite: The protector who abused him, and the killer who let him live ... the act of writing could amount to a kind of revenge. But empathy, instead, is McBee’s objective, the most important part of becoming real in one’s own eyes. ‘Being human, ‘ he concludes, ‘means being at the mercy of others.’ That’s a part of aspiration, too. We are born human; with hard work, we achieve humanity.”

“McBee’s answer to the initial question of ‘What makes a man?’ is more generous, more inspiring, and more creative than the usual gender binaries allow. Full of bravery and clear, far-sighted compassion and devoid of sentiment, victimization, and cliché, McBee’s meditations bring him a hard-won sense of self—one that is bound to inspire any reader who has struggled with internal dissonance.”