Fogarty shortlister Seth Malacari challenges the idea that transgender storytelling is trauma literature
Seth Malacari (he/they) is a nonbinary trans masculine author and editor who is well-known to Fremantle Press. In 2023, he brought together a talented community of LGBTQIA+ writers from across the country for the anthology An Unexpected Party.
Their new work is a trans-for-trans romance novel that shows how to explore the diversity of the transgender experience through the lens of joy, first love and friendship.
Describe the manuscript in your own words.
Boy Friends is a second-chance romance between two mid-twenties, trans masculine people, Joe and Romy. Joe and Romy were best friends, then boyfriends, then exes. They are unexpectedly reunited a year after their breakup on the set of a reality TV show called Boy Friends, which sends six trans masculine people into the forest in Western Australia’s south to experience the boyhood they never got as children. Over the course of the week, Joe reflects on all that went wrong with Romy and (if all goes to plan) how he can make it right again. The novel explores first love, coming of age, masculinity, and challenges stereotypes of transgender existence and transgender narratives.
What inspired you to write it and what did your writing process look like?
This novel was a natural next step for me after the work I did on An Unexpected Party. I wanted to explore what a transgender narrative could look like across a full-length piece with the goal of confronting the lack of trans fiction in Australia. To date, there are only a handful of full-length fictional works by transgender authors about transgender themes in Australia, and none of them are T4T (trans for trans) romances. Though transgender literature is still in its infancy in Australia, various tropes and stereotypes are already emerging about what trans storytelling is, and many of these tropes centre around trauma and the transition process, positioning the trans body as an object to discuss, rather than a vessel to live within. With Boy Friends, I wanted to write a novel for trans people that highlights joy, love, friendships and finding yourself in a way that is not soaked in violence and hopelessness. Being trans is hard, but that doesn’t mean all our books needs to be about hardship. I wanted a book where the main character, the love interest, and most of the supporting cast are trans guys. I wanted to prove that we are capable of writing narratives that are distinctly trans without being distinctly depressing. For an example, the framing of Before/After is a common device used in trans literature, generally to describe bodily changes, but I used it instead to chart Joe and Romy’s relationship. I wanted to give trans boys hope that their lives can be full of love, community and adventure. I also wanted to confront stereotypes about trans masculinity by having a diverse cast of trans masculine characters who experience their gender identities in different ways.
The idea for the manuscript was stewing for a while, but the actual writing process was quite quick. I spent some time in Walpole in the forest soaking it all up and it all flowed very easily from there. I allowed myself the freedom to write the story I wanted to see, rather than tailor my writing to what is expected of trans narratives.
Tell us what it means to you to make the 2025 Fogarty Literary Award shortlist.
The shortlisting has confirmed for me that there is a space in the Australian publishing landscape for lighter transgender novels. Since I first met them in 2022, Fremantle Press have been a huge supporter of my work and of transgender storytelling, and this shortlisting shows again their commitment to supporting marginalised authors. Being on the shortlist I hope will inspire other trans and queer authors to write more fiction, or submit the fiction they are already writing, even if they have never seen books like theirs on the shelf (especially if they’ve never seen books like theirs!). When I started the project that became An Unexpected Party it was because I wasn’t seeing the type of stories I was writing, and Boy Friends follows that quest to get more trans people writing, more trans books being published, and more diversity of representation into the canon.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Recently I was a panellist at the inaugural Trans Books Festival in Melbourne, organised by author Sam Elkin and supported by Transgender Victoria. It was a day of panels and workshops by trans writers, about trans storytelling, and it was something I thought I would never see in Australia, let alone be a part of. I was honoured to share the stage with fellow Fremantle Press authors Madison Godfrey, Alison Evans and Michael Earp, as well as authors from all over the country. The sense of community was immense, and the audience was packed for every single session. Regardless of whether this novel wins the Fogarty or not, trans stories are needed, wanted, being celebrated, being platformed on big stages and popping up in awards lists across the country. If you are a trans person working on a story, any story, don’t give up! Your stories matter.
Seth’s work has been published in various anthologies, including Head Under Water, Ourselves: 100 Micro Memoirs and Emergence: SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition. Seth is currently undertaking a creative writing PhD at UWA.
To meet Seth in person, join us at the Fogarty Literary Ceremony on Tuesday 3 June at the Government House Ballroom. Tickets are free and available from Humanitix.
