My novel Michel-Michelle arrived in the post to-day ready for readers at the launch in Irish Writers Centre on 5th March at 6.30pm. I am reminded that diversity flows through the imagination shared between reader and writer. As a reader, many other writers from Shakespeare to Toni Morrison have opened up other cultures and other identities, which have helped me survive the turmoil of gender identity in my life experience. Other individuals, groups and networks have helped me find the other in myself. I honour the many others, who remind me of the dangers of rejecting the other. But I don’t know how we can stand up for our rights without falling into the polarisation of US versus THEM. Can you help?

“He stretched himself. He rose. He stood upright in complete nakedness before us, and while the trumpets pealed Truth! Truth! Truth! we have no choice left but confess – he was a woman.” from Orlando by Virginia Woolf.