Janet Mock is a writer, TV host, and advocate tackling stigma through storytelling. With a Master’s in journalism from New York University, the Honolulu native began her career as an editor at People.com and went on to write cover stories for Marie Claire, Interview, and The Advocate as well as essays for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Lenny. She produced HBO’s The Trans List, hosts the podcast Never Before, and serves as a columnist for Allure. Called a “fearless new voice” and “trailblazing leader” who “changed my way of thinking” by Oprah Winfrey, Janet was a featured speaker at the historic Women’s March on Washington. She is the author of Surpassing Certainty and the New York Times bestseller Redefining Realness. Find out more at JanetMock.com.
“Far too many assume that Janet Mock's story is primarily about her
body. This book is irrefutable evidence that Janet must be
understood through her intellect, spirit, and wit. Janet does what
only great writers of autobiography accomplish—she tells a story of
the self, which turns out to be a reflection of all humanity. You
will be changed by this book.”
*Melissa Harris-Perry, Wake Forest University Professor and host of
MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry"*
“A fiery success.”
*The Atlantic*
“Mock’s compelling memoir entrancingly chronicles the story of a
multiracial trans woman’s becoming within a society that is still
widely antagonistic to the non-White, non-male, transgender, and
economically challenged among us. . . . Mock has written herself
into herstory. And she has done so with clarity and poetic
brilliance.”
*The Feminist Wire*
“Courageous! Told with a spirit of raw honesty that moves beyond
confession to redemptive revelation, this book is a life map for
transformation—for changing minds. A heart-rending autobiography of
love, longing, and fulfillment.”
*bell hooks, feminist, social activist, and author of All About
Love*
“Redefining Realness is a classic American autobiography. Like
Richard Wright and Maya Angelou, Janet Mock brings us into a world
we may not know and with breathtaking insight, courage, and
masterful craft makes her story universal.”
*Barbara Smith, author of the Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on
Race, Gender, and Freedom, co-founder of Kitchen Table: Women of
Color Press*
"Janet Mock’s groundbreaking book is testimony to the remarkable
progress trans people have achieved over the last decade-- and
shines a bright light on the work that still needs to be done.
Mock’s clear, lucid prose will open hearts and minds, and further
the goals of equality and justice--not just for trans people, but
for everyone. Redefining Realness is loving, searing, and
true."
*Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She’s Not There and Stuck in the
Middle With You*
“Redefining Realness is a riveting, emotional, crisply written
testimony. I couldn't put it down. I aspire to be as unflinchingly
brave! Janet Mock's story simultaneously embodies, complicates, and
subverts the concept of American exceptionalism and
self-creation.”
*Laverne Cox, actress, advocate, and star of Orange Is the New
Black*
“Defining oneself is a revolutionary act, and, as described in her
memoir, Janet Mock fiercely fought to free herself with exquisite
bravery and sensitivity. Redefining Realness is full of hope,
dreams, and determination. It is a true American girl story.”
*Michaela angela Davis, Image Activist/Writer/CNN Contributor*
“Every Cinderella story has its problematic step-parents to
maneuver around, and its metaphorical fireplaces to clean, before
the heroine is whisked off to the ball. Janet Mock’s is no
exception. But the real magic here is not of the fairy-tale kind.
Redefining Realness overflows with the everyday magic of survival
and resiliency in low income communities of color, of loving
kindness bursting through the cracks of a hard reality, and of the
life-sustaining bonds of family, friendships, and a powerful trans
sisterhood.”
*Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History and Associate
Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Director of the
Institute for LGBT, University of Arizona*
"Janet Mock's honest and sometimes searing journey is a rare and
important look into la vida liminal, one that she manages to
negotiate remarkably well, with grace, humor, and fierce grit. Mock
doesn't only redefine what realness means to her, but challenges us
to rethink our own perceptions of gender and sexuality, feminism
and sisterhood, making this book a transcendent piece of American
literature."
*Raquel Cepeda, author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became
Latina*
“An eye-opening and unapologetic story that is much greater than
mere disclosure.... An enlightening, much-needed perspective on
transgender identity.”
*Kirkus Reviews*
“Mock defies the historically apolitical confines of the
transgender memoir, and draws bright lines connecting her
experiences to the larger realm of social justice, with a keen
political eye that uses her individual experience to elucidate the
wider condition of trans women of color in the U.S. Her vivid prose
arouses every sense.... Although the book is ostensibly one woman’s
coming-of-age story, Mock fulfills grander purposes here; in coming
to terms with her own difficult journey she also uses that
experience didactically, as if to take the uninitiated,
non-transgender reader with her, most certainly achieving
'realness.'”
*Publishers Weekly*
“A memoir that takes the coming-of-age narrative to both a higher
and deeper level.... Mock juxtaposes the personal and the political
with a dose of academic theory and pop culture, honestly detailing
both the joys and difficulties of her journey.”
*Slate.com*
“A classic feminist coming-of-age story that’s worthy of your
mantel. . . . Her memoir recounts a life that is both hardscrabble
and hard-fought, making for a must-read book that is at turns
riveting and wonderfully emotionally nuanced.”
*The Advocate*
“The beauty of Mock’s memoir is that it is both personal and
universal; her story is her own, but it also transcends the
specificity of her life narrative to touch all of us.”
*Lambda Literary*
“Mock’s grace in handling complexity is matched by her frankness,
and she talks race, class, and intersectional politics without ever
sounding polemical.”
*The Rumpus*
“It's fully intersectional, deliciously activist, wonderfully
unapologetic, brazen, and beautiful. I love Mock's book because,
like the best feminist reads, it’s really about the insight that
telling stories can be a revolutionary act.”
*Laura Ciolkowski, Associate Director of the Center for the Study
of Social Difference and Adjunct Associate Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University*
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