NONFICTION WRITING
HARPER’S MAGAZINE
That, But Not That
“Cut to: me at Century 21 across from the World Trade towers, copping my first three-pack of Calvin Klein boxer-briefs (à la Marky Mark grabbing his junk in the Herb Ritts photos).”
Read more…
MOTHER JONES
Adventures at Camp Lost Boys
“The first thing you might notice when you roll up is the way the guys hug one another—well, right after noticing how short most of us are. There are no cautious hand-slaps leading to awkward man-hugs, but full embraces, where you melt into each other for a long moment of genuine communion.”
Read more…
Also in MOTHER JONES:
“T Cooper’s Resistance Reading”
GRAVY PODCAST
Separation of Church and Coffee
”Do you ever enter a space, it could be a restaurant, a store, gallery, bar, or whatever—and you just sense something?”
T Cooper explores the Christian coffee scene in the famously bible-minded city of Knoxville, TN.
Listen to the full story here…
ESQUIRE
Crazy Bitch
“Ever since one set of human bodies produced more testosterone than the other set of human bodies, the one with the most testosterone has pretty much always come out on top. See: All of world history. See also: Le Tour de France.”
Read more…
THE RUMPUS
ATL Rapper Tyler Gartzman
“‘When I’m not high as shit, I can talk more articulate.’”
Read more…
Also in THE RUMPUS:
“Ease on Down: T Cooper on Eddie Murphy, The Wiz, and memoir”
CNN
What Not to Say to a Transgender Person
“As someone who has also been asked on multiple occasions by complete strangers what might or might not be happening in my pants…”
Read more…
THE NEW YORK TIMES: T MAGAZINE
MC Diddy
“Eminem is not the be-all and end-all of Detroit hip-hop.”
Read more…
O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
Olympic Boxer Queen Underwood
“If Queen Underwood were an animal, she claims, she'd be a lion. ‘I didn't say 'lioness,' she clarifies. ‘Because lions are kings of the jungle, and I'm going to be on top.’”
Read more…
Also in OPRAH MAGAZINE:
T Cooper on Men, Women and Sex
POETS & WRITERS
Literary Guide to NYC
“It is impractical to attempt to offer a comprehensive literary tour of New York City. I can, however, provide a comprehensive tour of my own literary New York—which means it is completely self-absorbed and subjective. See? I am a writer.”
Read more…
SLATE
Pronouns
“What’s the first thing people ask when a woman is going to have a baby? Is it a boy or a girl? Sure, the halfhearted Is it healthy? question is usually soon to follow for good measure and/or manners, but mostly folks want to know what the sex of the baby is.”
Read More…
Above still from a short film adaptation of T Cooper’s memior Real Man Adventures (McSweeney’s Books, 2012)
THE DAILY BEAST
Five Books that Taught Me Something About Being a Man
“The sheer rage—at oneself, the world, at Ikea—that modern men seem to feel entitled to. Sure, I’ll indulge in it, but only for so long, until, say, I pick up a newspaper, and am reminded yet again how little white men in America have to be legitimately angry at.”
Read more…
OUT MAGAZINE
Dr. B and The Women
“‘I’m getting the Maserati of vaginas… Now I just have to learn how to use it.”’
Read more…
THE BELIEVER
IRMA THOMAS: The Soul Queen of New Orleans
“Things Irma Thomas was able to salvage from her Hurricane Katrina–destroyed home:
Posters
Old Records
The Christmas Tree”
Teen: Daniel
“They are beautiful boys—overtly dangerous and intimidating to be sure— but both have these even-more-lethal clear eyes and sweet smiles that have captivated me over the last half decade. Marcus, now sixteen, is in jail for crimes that far surpass bicycle pinching, and Daniel, newly eighteen, is trying to finish high school, help pay for his two-year-old son’s Pampers, and not get stabbed.”
Read more…
So There’s This Man
“At a certain point I’m just a man who writes books, advocates for pit bulls, likes both early-twentieth-century jazz and hip-hop as well as old airplanes, has a lovely wife and two kids—and not a transman who is all these things. Transgender is a term that implies an identity forever in transition. But I cannot think of a living person who is not in transition to some extent, regardless of gender. That’s what we do as humans: we evolve, constantly.”
Read more…
THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Journey, Wrapped in Mystery
“WHEN my mother's mother came to this country as an infant, she lost one of her brothers at Ellis Island.”
Read more…
Also in THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Living With Music: T Cooper
More writing by T Cooper can be found in these anthologies:
Feminist Press, 2019
McSweeney’s, 2004
Free Press, 2010
Manic D Press, 2005
McSweeney’s, 2014
Lyons Press, 2004