Transgender Day of Literature Celebration
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 12:00 PM to 4:30 PM EST
Fenwick Library, Fenwick Main Reading Room #2001
Join us in celebrating transgender voices with a day of readings, panels, and a community writing workshop. The series of events will include readings and discussions from Oliver Baez Bendorf, Jos Charles, Taylor Johnson, Addie Tsai, Emily Holland, Cat Fitzpatrick, and Benny Peterson.
12:00 PM
Enrich your understanding of poetry and poetics in relation to the transgender community with Oliver Baez Bendorf, Taylor Johnson, and Jos Charles.
Oliver Baez Bendorf (he/him)
Oliver Baez Bendorf is a poet, artist, and educator, and the author of three collections of poetry. His most recent book, Consider the Rooster (Nightboat Books, 2024), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the CLMP Firecracker Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. His previous books are Advantages of Being Evergreen (2019), winner of the CSU Open Book Poetry Competition, and The Spectral Wilderness (2015), selected by Mark Doty for the Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize. His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Betty Berzon Emerging LGBTQ Writer Award from the Publishing Triangle. A dedicated mentor with over fifteen years of teaching experience, Oliver serves on the faculty of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives and works in exile somewhere on Earth near water, where he directs Studio in Exile.
Taylor Johnson (He/Him)
Taylor Johnson is from Washington, DC. He is the author of Inheritance (Alice James Books, 2020), winner of the 2021 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and a 2024 Whiting Award. His work appears in Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, The Baffler, Scalawag, and elsewhere. Johnson is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and a recipient of the 2017 Larry Neal Writers’ Award from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the 2021 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers from Lambda Literary. Taylor was the inaugural 2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum. From 2022-2025, he was the Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, Maryland. With his wife, Elizabeth Bryant, and the poet Simon Shieh, Taylor curated and founded the Green Way Reading Series at People’s Book in Takoma Park. Taylor was the 2025-2026 Hackerman Writer in Residence at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
Photo credit: San D Henry-Smith
Jos Charles (She/Her)
Jos Charles is author of the poetry collections a Year & other poems (Milkweed Editions, 2022), feeld, a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series selected by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2018), and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press, 2016). She teaches as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program. She is co-owner along with her partner, Claire Schwartz, of Stray Books in Long Beach, CA, where they reside with their daughter and two cats.
Photo credit: Sergio de la Torre
1:30 PM
Explore editorial practice and transgender voices in poetry and prose with Addie Tsai, Emily Holland, and Cat Fitzpatrick.
3:00 PM
Participate in a multi-genre workshop and learn from novelist, journalist, and editor Benny Peterson.
*The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.*
