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Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition
Part of Gender Queer: A Memoir
By Maia Kobabe
Contributions by Hal Schrieve, Sandra Cox, Phoebe Kobabe, Justin Hall, Ashley R. Guillory, Mel Gillman, Andrea Colvin, Kori Michele Handwerker, Matthew Noe, Rani Som, Ajuan Mance, Shannon Watters, Jadzia Axelrod, Hazel Newlevant, Alex L. Combs, Tara Madison, Matt Silady and Eli Erlick / Illustrated by Maia Kobabe
Published by Oni Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Dig deeper into one of the most banned books in America with this annotated edition of Maia Kobabe’s seminal autobiographical work.
In 2014, Maia Kobabe—who uses e/em/eir pronouns—thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
This special annotated edition calls on voices from academic and creative communities to further shed light on the creation of Kobabe’s work—from exploring the technicalities of comic creation to highlighting personal anecdotes from a host of writers and artists discussing their own experiences growing up queer. Featuring commentary from designer and animator Phoebe Kobabe (The ABCs of Identities), cartoonist Ashley R. Guillory, Dr. Sandra Cox (associate professor of English at Southwest Missouri State University), Matthew Noe (Lead Collection & Knowledge Management Librarian at Harvard Medical School), author Hal Schrieve (Fawn’s Blood), and many more, this beautiful hardcover edition promises to be a wonderful educational tool for years to come.
In 2014, Maia Kobabe—who uses e/em/eir pronouns—thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
This special annotated edition calls on voices from academic and creative communities to further shed light on the creation of Kobabe’s work—from exploring the technicalities of comic creation to highlighting personal anecdotes from a host of writers and artists discussing their own experiences growing up queer. Featuring commentary from designer and animator Phoebe Kobabe (The ABCs of Identities), cartoonist Ashley R. Guillory, Dr. Sandra Cox (associate professor of English at Southwest Missouri State University), Matthew Noe (Lead Collection & Knowledge Management Librarian at Harvard Medical School), author Hal Schrieve (Fawn’s Blood), and many more, this beautiful hardcover edition promises to be a wonderful educational tool for years to come.
About The Illustrator
Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary queer cartoonist, a kpop fan, a voracious reader, and a daydreamer. You can learn an astonishing number of intimate details about em in GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR (America's most challenged book 2021-2023) and in eir short comics and writing published in The Nib, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR and Time Magazine. Maia’s second book is BREATHE: JOURNEYS TO HEALTHY BINDING with Dr Sarah Peitzmeier and eir third book will be a middle grade coming of age comic written with Lucky Srikumar, due out from Scholastic Graphix in 2026. Before setting out to work freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries.
Product Details
- Publisher: Oni Press (May 19, 2026)
- Length: 272 pages
- ISBN13: 9798894880822
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Raves and Reviews
2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book
2020 ALA Rainbow Project Book List
2020 YALSA Best Books List
2019 New York Public Library’s 50 Best Books for Teens
2019 SLJ Best Graphic Novel List
2019 The Advocate’s Best LGBTQ Graphic Novels List
“Seven years after its original 2019 publication, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir Gender Queer has achieved pantheonic status, earning recognition as not just a major achievement in the world of comics, but an important work of literature.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Wonderfully enlightening. I learned a lot, and became even more empathetic. That’s what books are all about.”
– Judy Blume, bestselling author of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
“An insightful and moving coming of age discovery.”
– The Los Angeles Times
"Heartfelt."
– USA Today
"Gender Queer exists so a new generation can see the words and experiences to help them feel whole and seen. "
– Booklist, starred review
“A book to be savored rather than devoured, this memoir will resonate with teens [...] It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand”
– School Library Journal, starred review
“A challenging yet heartwarming memoir, Gender Queer succeeds on all fronts.”
– Shelf Awareness
"A beautiful new reprinting…Gender Queer's effect on readers will always be more important than the bans."
– Polygon
“This special annotated version of the book unfairly at the center of so many book ban efforts brings in other voices beyond Kobabe’s, including other queer writers and artists and academics who further contextualize the work."
– Autostraddle
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition
Hardcover 9798894880822
Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition
Part of Gender Queer: A Memoir
By Maia Kobabe
Contributions by Hal Schrieve, Sandra Cox, Phoebe Kobabe, Justin Hall, Ashley R. Guillory, Mel Gillman, Andrea Colvin, Kori Michele Handwerker, Matthew Noe, Rani Som, Ajuan Mance, Shannon Watters, Jadzia Axelrod, Hazel Newlevant, Alex L. Combs, Tara Madison, Matt Silady and Eli Erlick / Illustrated by Maia Kobabe
Published by Oni Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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