I saw someone in the tags of one of my posts say "wow i need to get on the coyote train" and I was like THIS IS MY TIME TO SHINE, why? Because I love their work and have books to recommend:
Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme edited by Ivan Coyote and Zena Sharman - this one has many different authors for each chapter and a couple chapters are by Ivan if I recall correctly. Great starter book to introduce someone to butch/femme identities, especially because there's a variety of perspectives when it comes to those identities. This one addresses kind of, one of my few critics of Ivan which is not addressing racial issues much, if at all, or disability, which in a way, it isn't their place to speak I guess, but this book does have perspectives from poc that are masculine of center and femmes of colour, aside from disabled femmes.
Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote - I adore this book. It talks about being butch, understanding oneself as butch, talks about growing up gender nonconforming, it talks about family perception, the struggles of going through life as a gender nonconforming person, about being a blue collar butch and how it can feel sometimes out in the field, how they were treated. Overall, an incredible book though some parts can be a bit rough.
Missed Her by Ivan Coyote - this one is more geared towards relationships (not just romantic, but it touches on that); loss; reflections on life, trans-ness and people's perceptions on that and what is butch; and how being who you are can change the world around you even in small ways and what will be there looking ahead. Very heartwarming read.
Care Of by Ivan Coyote - I haven't completely finished this one as it changes slightly from their usual way to write. This one is more prompt and response, since they use this one in the context of the pandemic, when they're stuck at home to answer emails, letters and messages they've gotten throughout the years and those can be very moving. You get to see the feedback and their interactions with the people that write to them. And as they write things with a more specific direction.
Gender Failure by Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon - is here as an honourable mention, not because I think it's inferior to the books previously mentioned, simply because I haven't read it myself, so I can't vouch for something i don't know, but the times I've seen people talking about it, it seemed like a good book as well and i know Ivan is quite skilled in discussing gender.
Ivan Coyote has a very subtle and inviting way to discuss all of these topics that I really admire and their story telling is kind, light-hearted without running away from important subjects.
If you've read Ivan Coyote and enjoy their work, especially in Missed Her, I can't recommend enough My Lesbian Husband: Landscape of a Marriage by Barrie Jean Borich, there's a familiarity there to me in the way they write and their story telling, though Barrie Jean Borich writes in a more continuous way than in short pieces like Ivan does.
Regardless, both really great authors, in my opinion.
