TISSUE PAPERS is the Anthology Spotlighting the Fun, Contradictory Side of the Trans Experience
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“Of late, trans writing always seems to come from crisis,” write Sam Moore and Donna Marcus Duke in the introduction to TISSUE PAPERS, their new anthology. There are, they say, fewer spaces for trans writing to simply ‘be’ – and so, their anthology TISSUE PAPERS was born.
TISSUE was initially conceived as a series of events, allowing trans writers to come together in one space. The next logical step was a collection of writing. Issue one’s theme “MAKING” with sections including “BABIES” and “MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS” which shed light on different aspects of the trans experience. The motivation for the project, ultimately, Moore and Duke say, is that “the best – and most interesting – way to understand the lives, loves and struggles of trans people is to simply give them a space where they can express themselves in all their uncertain, contradictory, monstrous glory.” Here, Polyester speaks to them about doing just that:
Where did the name TISSUE PAPERS come from?
Sam: When we were thinking about names for the reading series itself, we didn’t want anything that took itself too seriously. One of our big aims for this project has been to create a space for trans writing that doesn’t always need to justifying its existence; the work people bring to us can be strange, sexy, silly. And so TISSUE came about as a way of bringing together trans issues, but without feeling too severe. As soon as we decided to branch out into publication, we knew that the crude double-meaning of TISSUE PAPERS was just too good an opportunity to pass up.
Donna: So I could bullshit you and talk about how tissue is a word that denotes a collection of individual fibers entangled to make a mightier whole, I could bullshit you by saying we wanted something bodily and paperly and shitty all at the same time. And whilst this might all be true, TISSUE embarrassingly came from the pisspoor portmanteau of trans issue, which I can know only look back and cringe at lol. I prefer to think about TISSUE as just the name that came to be, one that wasn’t over-thought but fit the bill.
Although you mention in the introduction you don't find the need to detail why you chose 'making' as a theme for the first issue, I'd still love to know your own interpretations of how the theme relates to the trans community?
Sam: There’s something about the act of making that, to us at least, had a really unique resonance with the trans community; so much of how it seems to unfold in both digital and physical spaces is about things that are made and curated. I mean, thinking about all of the chaotic trans meme accounts I see on Instagram, that’s the first thing that came to mind once we settled on the theme; something that’s detailed and chaotic all at once. Between the complex relationship trans people often have to their bodies, to tensions around history and representation, there are so many different things that we make.
Donna: Making also felt like an appropriate name for a first project. It puts an emphasis on process not product. Whilst acts of making can mark an end, acts of making indicate possibility. That’s where it feels we’re at in undergoing our first publication.
You have a stacked roster of writers in this issue, how did you come to choosing who to feature in the first TISSUE PAPER?
Sam: It’s tempting to give the incredibly simple answer of “we just chose the work that we vibed with the most,” and while there’s truth to that, this first publication feels like a real mission statement for a us and, hopefully, for the trans literary community that we’ve been able to share with people through our events. We knew that we wanted lots of different types of work; there’s poetry, fiction, academic essays, visual art, and strange experimental work. The idea was to show that trans writing - like trans people - isn’t monolithic.
Donna: We were really taken aback by the quantity and quality of work we received, which I think is a testament to the thriving scene of writers writing from trans perspectives both in the U.K. and further afield. There were plenty of fabulous pieces that we didn’t have space to accept, but what excites me is there is such a breadth of voices that still need to be published. It definitely doesn’t make our job easy going forward…
You also touch on why TISSUE PAPER came together in the introduction, but how did the pair of you come together as collaborators?
Sam: Back in the summer of 2022, I was launching Long live the new flesh (Polari Press) a poetry collection I’d written about reality TV, horror films, and the trans body; I was trying to drum up press coverage for it and an editor of mine was keen to run an interview. They ended up getting Donna in to interview me and, ever since then we’ve developed a real affinity with each other’s work - and love butting heads about trans art. The inaugural TISSUE event was something I had in the back of my head as a response to the escalating culture war, and I knew that Donna was the perfect person to badger into collaboration.
Donna: I’m not sure if Sam remembers this, but I actually first got in touch with them on Insta at the end of 2021 on the train up to Glasgow. I’d just finished their pamphlet All My Teachers Died of AIDS published by the incomparable Pilot Press and wanted to let them know how much I liked it. 6 months later I interviewed them and they mentioned doing a response to all the transphobic rhetoric being peddled in the media in the run up to the Tory Leadership elections. I’d been organizing nightlife events for almost 6 years and I’d wanted to use this experience to create some sort of hub for the bustling scene of trans writers in London, and when Sam mentioned their idea, I knew it was the perfect place to start. The rest is history baby!
Sam: As tempting as it is to claim a perfect memory and say that I do remember that, I’m gonna go on the record as a TERRIBLE FRIEND and admit that I totally forgot about this first contact (Donna pls don’t cancel me haha.)
I found the collection titles really amusing - were these chosen before or after you had the works submitted? How did you go about grouping the pieces together?
Sam: The section titles were one of the last things that we settled on! Once we’d settled on all of the individual pieces that we wanted to publish, we had to work out how to group them together in a way that let the anthology flow and feel readable. We ended up thinking about ways that we could follow up the word MAKING, grouping pieces together in a way that let us bring together responses of different art forms and giving readers a way of dipping in and out of the book, instead of needing to confront it from cover to cover.
What's both of your favourite pieces from the first issue?
Sam: This question is cruel! I love everything that we’ve brought together in the book, but there are a couple of pieces in particular that I always find myself stopping on when I go through the books: Eliot Duncan’s poems, and Claye Bowler’s art on finding the money to pay for top surgery.
Donna: I agree! I standby everything in the collection and to choose a favourite is impossible. Rather than saying my favourite piece, here are some bits I think are iconic: Belladonna Paloma’s theory of muffing (google it xoxo), Masc Peach’s feces, Hesse K.’s escapdes, Francis Whorall-Campbell’s trans Cobaine… honestly I’m just listing every piece now, don’t make me choose a favourite I can’t.
Why are anthologies of writing so important in comparison to collections from just one writer/creative?
Sam: Anthologies like this feel vital because they’re able to showcase more than just one other; we’re able to present all of the weird and wonderful forms that trans writing is able to take. And while some of our contributors have some wonderful solo work out, I think there’s a certain kind of magic that happens when you put such diverse pieces of work in conversation with one another.
Donna: I feel quite strongly about anthologies. On a functional level, they can act as access points for writers to test out work, without needing to commit to longer forms. It also introduces writers to a wider audience: many of the writers I love today – the D Mortimers, Amy Etheringtons and Clay ADs of the world – I found first through anthologies by the likes of Pilot Press and Sticky Fingers. On a broader level, anthologies record creative communities, which is perhaps what I like best about them. Bringing together a community of writers demonstrates the context they’re all in and how they all influence each other. This invites readers both now and in the future to identify priorities in form and content specific scenes are dealing with at a particular time. Perhaps this is aggrandising, but I think this is why anthologies are archivally important. That’s what I like best about publishing them, they are a physical product of a community’s work in a specific time. This is important when it’s a community you feel is worth remembering.
What do you have planned for the next issue of TISSUE PAPER?
Sam: We’re thinking a little bit about the kind of things that might tie together a new publication; all I can say for sure now is that it’s the kind of thing that Donna and I will be fighting about for a long time.
Donna: So inside TISSUE there are two wolves. One is has a delicate commitment to earnest points of view, valuing sincerity however saccharine. The other is a cynical monstrosity who must trample over any modicum of honest expression with an abused use of irony. Our next anthology is going to do with the perpetual war between the two. We also will be publishing a small collection in response to an event by Jaye Hudson’s TGirlsOnFilm which will be available in the New Year. But the biggest plan we have is to pace ourselves! Starting a press is so exciting but both Sam and I have the tendency to bite off more than we can chew. May we rest!