Keynote
A darkly comic, introspective debut collection that looks beneath the surface of trans life in 2010s Seattle
Book Title
Crawl
Subtitle
Stories
Cover Image
- “Max Delsohn is an immense and singular talent who drills down to the messy truth of the human heart and names all its shades of joy and pain.”—Mona Awad
Body
People called it paradise, but baby, it wasn’t.
What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you?
The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. Max Delsohn’s stories—by turns exuberant, heartfelt, tragic, and wry—portray the pleasures and pains of sex and romance, the possibilities and ambivalences of gender expression, and the joys and failures of community in a city and a time that has branded itself a radical queer utopia but proves much more complicated in reality.
What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you?
The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. Max Delsohn’s stories—by turns exuberant, heartfelt, tragic, and wry—portray the pleasures and pains of sex and romance, the possibilities and ambivalences of gender expression, and the joys and failures of community in a city and a time that has branded itself a radical queer utopia but proves much more complicated in reality.
List Price
$17.00
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About the Author
Credit: Quinn Tucker
Praise
- “A horny, hilarious, bittersweet romp through millennial transmasc malaise—Crawl aches and charms in turn. Max Delsohn is a writer to watch.”—Carmen Maria Machado
- “A lust-filled, vibrant collection of tender, juicy stories that recall the hedonism of being young and chasing the next big thrill. Like befriending the women's rugby team and watching them transition one by one in a haze of bong smoke.”—Grace Byron
- “Max Delsohn has a poet’s sense of yearning, a stand-up’s sense of timing, and a 3 a.m. hookup’s desperate frankness about sex—all of which combine to make Crawl one of my favorite story collections of the past few years.”—Torrey Peters
- “Max Delsohn, a wildly talented, very bold, very funny new writer, has the rare gift of knowing how to (wryly) celebrate life, love, and desire in all their forms.”—George Saunders
