Madeline Aliah (she/her) is a transfem teen--poet, writer, and orator. She holds a seat on the Santa Cruz Queer Trans Youth Council and speaks regularly to educators about the importance of an inclusive school culture.

Madeline Aliah’s debut chapbook tracks her inner journey from boy to woman. In three movements, she shows us the early bewilderment of a boy at odds with his body, the budding consciousness of finding a community, and the bittersweet labor of bringing herself into being. Through poems, at times slight and girlish, at times heavy with social fatigue, she speaks of her experience with unflinching honesty. These poems consider the bodily experience of gender dysphoria and the guilt and grief over accusations of gender abandonment and appropriation. Her poems touch on Queer history as well as the weaponization of identity, but most of all, they sing a young person’s deepest desire to feel free despite the risks and against all odds.