Worthy of the Event: An Essay

A trans essayist with a checkered past takes on the big questions of human existence.
Move over Michel de Montaigne, there's a new girl in town.

Set against a backdrop of trans life that begins with her own transition in the 1960s, Vivian Blaxell takes us on a witty and expansive sweep through history, from Australia to Japan, to Hawai'i to Mexico, to heretofore unmapped regions of the mind. In seven devastatingly intelligent parts, her essay covers a vast range in time and space--from the arson of a Japanese temple to a transformative encounter with a coral reef, from Nietzsche and Hegel to Indigenous metaphysics, from a perplexing relationship with a beautiful man to the unknowable minds of animals. Fleshy and philosophical, searching and exalted, utterly distinctive and assured, Worthy of the Event belatedly establishes Vivian Blaxell as one of the major writers of her generation.

“Astonishing … confident, nimble … teeming with wonder and wicked humor … readers craving a break from the mundane will be grateful Blaxell has shared these stunning explorations.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A moving and brilliant exploration of trans life since the ’60s ... electrified, searching ... Worthy of the Event reads like a conversation with one of your smartest, most self-aware friends. What a pleasure to discover the world through Blaxell’s eyes.”
—Isle McElroy, Vulture