Again, Harder - by Alice Stoehr (Paperback)

About the Book

"Cult writer Alice Stoehr's debut short fiction collection about the messy, intersecting lives of a community of Midwestern trans women. Stoehr's short stories investigate the inner lives, evolving relationships, and often violent marginalization of a community of trans women in a large Midwestern town"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Cult author Alice Stoehr's debut short fiction collection about the messy, intersecting lives of a community of Midwestern trans women.

Again, Harder gathers the uncompromising short fiction of Alice Stoehr, which investigates the inner lives, evolving relationships, and often violent marginalization of a community of trans women in a large Midwestern town.

In these stories, a commune of trans separatists seduces a suicidal writer. An obsessive TERF and the trans woman she's fixated on circle one another with building intensity. Polyamorous triads bloom and wilt, hookup app messages fly, friends sit for post-surgical care, and women fall to the toxic allure of Dorothy Lipko, the worst ex-girlfriend you have ever known.

Among this, there is regret, there is poverty, there is depression and sexual anxiety and despair; there is also fleeting, shared joy. Again, Harder is the sardonic heartbeat of a new generation of American trans women.

Review Quotes

Praise for Again, Harder:

"Within the pages of Again, Harder, we glimpse what's behind every civil rights rallying cry and ironic meta-post: the Grand Guignol of sex, death, fear, and need that has driven so many of us to extremes. Alice Stoehr is a natural successor to Valerie Solanas and Paul B. Preciado, a writer of rare wit and frankness who can manage a truth about transness that supersedes ideology, antipathy, and even contemporary politics." --Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence

"Again, Harder is a wall outlet my trans heart can't help but keep sticking forks in--each story here alights with its own jolting truth." --John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Bad Houses

"These stories are beautiful, incisive, and finally all collected in one place. Every facet of transfeminine life is here, each waiting its turn to be held up to glimmer in the light." --June Martin, author of Love/Aggression

About the Author

Alice Stoehr is a writer and bookseller living in Minneapolis. She has self-published four books of short fiction.