Soloway - She wants it: desire, power, and toppling the patriarchy

This is a story about self-doubt, self-discovery, and the triumph of self-actualization. It is imperative reading for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of what it means to be Other in this worldwhat it means to discover who you are, to understand that each of us deserves happiness, and gathering the grit to go after it. I could not put this hilarious and heartfelt book down.

CHELSEA HANDLER

Jill Soloways extraordinary memoir, She Wants It, is a compendium of the heart, a brave piece of literature that pulses from the page with its unique journey through the grace and guts of living honestly and intentionally in a world that often aims to deny us of both. Jills story is both an illumination and an education, one that broke me as a reader, then put me back together again, wholly changed and forever redefined.

AMBER TAMBLYN

Jill Soloway is not only a stunningly talented series creator, theyre an archangel, here to rid us of the patriarchy. Its a grand mission and its not easy going, She Wants It is their wild-winged, softhearted share-all. I loved their book so muchit is about everything Im interested in; a personal life amidst daring creative endeavors.

JANE CAMPION

If anyone has led a more wildly interesting life and written about it more brilliantly than Jill Soloway, this devourer of such hasnt found it. Grab on and grab hold! Youll be laughing and crying the whole way through.

NORMAN LEAR

Pages are just another canvass that Jill uses to share their truth and artistry. She Wants It gives a timely front-row seat to gender exploration and storytelling that entertains as it inspires.

SARAH KATE ELLIS

Fierce, funny, and fabulousthis book is a triumph!

MARGARET CHO

She Wants It reads like the memoir youve always dreamed of writing, if only you were as talented and funny and altogether endearing as Jill Soloway. The books casual and effortless-seeming prose belies the seriousness of Soloways intentions until the moment when you realize that you are reading a thrilling meditation on everything important, from the way women traditionally inhabit the world to the new paradigms of power and gender that they are claiming as their own. It will make you question many of your assumptionsor, perhaps, clutch ever more tightly to thembut, either way, you will read it with rapt interest and feel like your horizons have broadened when youre done. Jill Soloway is still the smartest kid in the class, coaxing us all along with them on their profound and daring journey of self-discovery.

DAPHNE MERKIN

She Wants It is an extraordinary examination of feminism, ambition, artistic desire, chance, and career by one of the greatest American writer/directors working today. Soloway surveys the trajectory of their life and the creation of their groundbreaking series, Transparent, with courage, self-knowledge, humility, and wit. Their voice got inside me, I was totally hooked.

CHRIS KRAUS

In a world where gender doesnt mean what it used to, She Wants It offers so much more than a backstage peek into the autobiographical origins of Transparent. Jill Soloways on a quest to figure out feminism for the twenty-first centuryand wants you to want that, too.

SUSAN STRYKER

Jill Soloways is one of our cultures most innovative minds, and She Wants It is a keen demonstration of the depth of their insight. As Soloway depicts their intertwined desire to create art with the need to be their complete self, in the face of a culture that seeks to limit them because of their gender, they do so with that ineffable combination of intellect, unpredictability, and wit that has made their films and TV shows so undeniably brilliant. She Wants It is a necessary read for anyone who has ever wrestled with desire, both as an artist and a human being.

MEREDITH TALUSAN

Jill Soloway is a very lucky queer. They get every break, and then help people who never get a break. They stumble at intimacy and then soar to new heights of connection and self-knowledge. Jill takes Hollywood to the thorniest questions Hollywood didnt know existed. This is a rollicking tale of how an enmeshed family sometimes brings out the best.

SARAH SCHULMAN

Jill has a brilliant ability to communicate their creative process. The nuts and bolts of bringing a story to fruition, from life, thought, and inspiration to the screen and vice versa. Theyre fearless about expressing their desiresfor creative control, for power, for equality, dammitwith no apologies.

SUSIE BRIGHT

As with most books, some names and dates have been changed to make friends more comfortable and to make the flow more flowing. Ive also found it most helpful to stay loose with the pronouns. A few of us have been multiple genders over the course of this work. I boldly use the gender most suited to what I experienced at the time, and sometimes use the word they to name a gender that has shifted over the years. Sometimes when I use the word Dad I also use the word she. I understand this is complex and sometimes uncomfortable; it is this discomfort that I hope will guide us into our nonbinary future. I am grateful for your trust.