Stag DanceStag Dance

Publisher Annotation: In this collection of one novel and three novellas, Torrey Peterss keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing. In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition. Three startling novellas surround Stag Dance: zInfect Your Friends and Loved Onesy imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In zThe Chaser,y a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last novella, zThe Masker,y a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood. 304pp., 75K