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2013
MEMOIR / GENDER / JUDAICA
National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Memoir
“On the face of it,
Through the Door of Life
is the story of how Jay Ladin, the
author and an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, tran-
sitioned into living as Joy Ladin. But it’s Ladin’s relationship with Judaism that
anchors this book and makes it stand out. . . . Orthodox Jewish leaders should
thank Ladin for refusing to hide out, for reminding us how human beings should
relate to one another.”—
The Huffington Post
“Not only a memoir of transgender experience, this is also a story of family heart-
break and family love; of growth as a teacher and writer; and, not least, of a self
deeply connected to God and Judaism throughout a life lived across genders.”
—Rabbi Jill Hammer, director of spiritual education at the Academy for Jewish
Religion
“In painstakingly and painfully constructing her new self, Ladin is fully aware
of the societal conventions and privileges of which she makes use. . . . But there
seems to be a poignancy, of which Ladin is exquisitely aware, that precisely
because what Ladin wants is so normal, her efforts to obtain it are so fraught with
pain.”—
Lambda Literary Review
“Joy Ladin’s book succeeds so well because it is anything but a trans tract; it is
a fierce story of regular old human life: hideous choices, endless repercussions,
occasional glory, frequent humiliation, abiding difficulty. It could have happened
to us. She makes us believe it.”—Kay Ryan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Joy Ladin
, the David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College
for Women of Yeshiva University, is the first openly transgender employee of an
Orthodox Jewish institution. She is the author of six books of poetry, including
The Definition of Joy
and
Coming to Life.
FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION
OCTOBER
LC: 2011040974 PS
270 PP. 5 ½ × 8 ¼
E-BOOK $14.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-28733-7
Living Out: Gay and Lesbian
Autobiographies
David Bergman, Joan Larkin, and
Raphael Kadushin, Series Editors
• 2012 CLOTH, UWP, ISBN 978-0-299-28730-6
• WISCONSIN EDITION NOT FOR SALE IN
EUROPE, RUSSIA, AFRICA, THE MIDDLE
EAST, SOUTH ASIA, AUSTRALIA, AND
NEW ZEALAND
“Readers will be rewarded not only
with an expanded understanding
of a complicated choice but also a
compelling and moving story of a
person transitioning, not only from
male to female but from a numb,
suicidal ‘nonexistence’ to opening
the ‘door of life.’”
—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Rigoberto González
“An unforgettable portrait of the artist as
a young immigrant gay poet. These brief,
passionate chapters are filled with rare
courage, raw honesty, and the uncommon
beauty of a life spent yearning for consola-
tion and hope.”—Dinty W. Moore, author
of
Between Panic & Desire
Writers for Writers Award, Poets &
Writers magazine
PUBLISHED MAY 2013
LC: 2012032924 PS 128 PP. 5 × 8
E-BOOK $12.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-29253-9
Living Out: Gay and Lesbian
Autobiographies
