Shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction; Longlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction; Stonewall Book Award Honor Book winner; Longlisted for Canada Reads

Ivan Coyote is a celebrated storyteller and the author of ten previous books, including Gender Failure (with Rae Spoon) and One in Every Crowd, a collection for LGBT youth. Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, about how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don't fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels.

Ivan writes about their years as a young butch, dealing with new infatuations and old baggage, and life as a gender-box-defying adult, in which they offer advice to young people while seeking guidance from others. (And for tomboys in training, there are even directions on building your very own unicorn trap.)

Tomboy Survival Guide warmly recounts Ivan's past as a diffident yet free-spirited tomboy, and maps their journey through treacherous gender landscapes and a maze of labels that don't quite stick, to a place of self-acceptance and an authentic and personal strength.

Ivan Coyote is the award-winning author, co-author or co-editor of eleven books, including Tomboy Survival Guide, shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Nonfiction Prize and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. They are also the creator of four short films as well as three CDs that combine storytelling with music. Ivan is a seasoned stage performer and an audience favourite at storytelling, literary, film, and folk music festivals. Their latest book is Rebent Sinner. Ivan lives in Vancouver.

Ivan Coyote's profile page

• Long-listed, George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature
• Short-listed, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust of Canada for Nonfiction
• Winner, Stonewall Book Award Honor Book
• Long-listed, BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

A wryly confessional memoir ... by turns raw, bittersweet, and funny. -Publishers Weekly

Coyote is poetic in their phrasing and plain spoken with their truths. -EDGE Media Network

An emotionally powerful memoir by a great storyteller about normal life. -The Globe and Mail

Speaking for those who have had 'difference squeezed or pounded or prayed' out of them and of being 'trapped in a world that makes very little space for bodies like mine,' Coyote is by turn eloquent, provocative, and persuasive. -Vancouver Sun