A Life in Too Many Margins follows a man looking back on his life from childhood to now, exploring how forced gender roles, neurodivergent masking, disability, and medical trauma have shaped him into the person he is today. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I found myself feeling sad quite often about the lack of disability representation in fiction, especially contemporary literary fiction by queer and neurodivergent folks and/or other intersectional groups. It’s gotten better in recent years as we’ve moved away from disabled characters being villains or “inspiration pornography,” but my dream world would have an entire section in every bookstore!

This story explores many kinds of labels. Which ones felt hardest to untangle?

The one I try hardest to help readers understand is the medical trauma. It’s hard to explain to anyone who isn’t trans or a woman the extent to which doctors will gaslight us when we don’t have the more obvious symptoms. The hardest emotionally was being neurodivergent. I am in my 40s and still working on unmasking behaviours.

Humor plays a central role in the book. How do you balance humor with emotional weight?

This didn’t really feel like a job or anything I had to balance, honestly. My humor is what’s gotten me through my worst times; I used it as a coping mechanism, then a grounding technique, and now it’s just a part of how I present myself and my stories.

Did writing this book feel like an act of advocacy?

Absolutely. I wanted to write about what it feels like to grow up learning how to adapt constantly, often without realizing you’re doing it. Also, because enough people told me I had to write a book, I eventually gave in. It’s almost completely a memoir, so it’s rooted in my lived experience, but it’s shaped intentionally with the occasional note of fiction. I wasn’t interested in documenting everything that happened so much as capturing how it felt. It took time to have the language and distance to write it clearly, but I always meant to share it to help others going through similar situations.

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