Imogen Binnie is an American
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
who made her debut with the publication of ''
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
'' in 2013.
Early life
Binnie was born and raised in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. She attended
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
and graduated in 2002 after majoring in English and psychology.
Career
Binnie's debut novel, ''
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
'', was published by
Topside Press in 2013. The novel's plot centres around Maria, a trans woman leaving New York after a break up, and is intended to primarily address a transgender audience.
At the
26th Lambda Literary Awards
The 26th Lambda Literary Awards were held on June 2, 2014, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2013. in 2014, ''Nevada'' was a shortlisted nominee in the Transgender Fiction category, and Binnie won both the
Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award["Looking for summer reading? Lambda Literary Awards rain down a host of choices"](_blank)
''Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...
'', June 3, 2014. and the MOTHA award for "outstanding contribution to the transgender cultural landscape".
Binnie has published several short stories, including "Gamers", in ''Meanwhile, Elsewhere'' (Topside Press, 2017), “If You Leave” in ''Videogames for Humans'' (Instar, 2017), and "I Met a Girl Named Bat Who Met Jeffrey Palmer" published in the Lambda Award winning collection, The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard (Topside Press, 2012).
Binnie was a script writer for ''
Doubt
Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them.
Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty, ...
'', a short-lived American TV drama which premiered on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
in 2017. She wrote the Aug. 5, 2017, episode "I'm In If You Are."
In 2020, she was a script writer for ''
Council of Dads'', an American TV drama which premiered on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
. She wrote the May 28, 2020, fifth episode "
Tradition!"
Most recently, Binnie co-wrote and was the executive story editor for teen drama ''
Cruel Summer''. Binnie was a columnist at Maximum Rocknroll magazine for 9 years. Her early writing appeared in two zines she self-published, ''The Fact That It's Funny Doesn't Make It A Joke'' and ''Stereotype Threat''.
In 2021,
Picador
A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...
signed ''Nevada'' for publication in the UK for the first time, citing it as a "genuinely ground-breaking book, which has trenchant and inspired things to say about the trans experience". This same year, MCD announced it would reissue the book for wider distribution than the original run.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binnie, Imogen
Living people
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
Transgender novelists
Transgender women writers
American LGBT novelists
American LGBT screenwriters
LGBT people from New Jersey
Rutgers University alumni
21st-century American women writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American screenwriters
American transgender writers