Living With Trans Despair

The liberal bumper sticker reads “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” We could equally substitute despair for outrage. Things only seem to get worse, especially for trans people, pregnant people, undocumented people, poor people, racialized people, the list goes on. Whereas outrage is supposed to spur you to canvas and vote, despair is seen as an obstacle to the traditional possibilities of transformation. Taking instead a radical approach to despair, writers Simon(e) van Saarloos and Shuli Branson are working on respective projects that integrate queer nihilism with the openness of transition, delinking hope and change to operate in the shadows of a progressive rainbow that demands assimilation, rationality, and maturity. This discussion will engage the meeting point between Simon(e)’s forthcoming book Trans Despair (AK Press) and Shuli’s Antidote to Despair (Pluto Press) through a look at the creative counterworlds of trans life. 

This Conversation is hosted in conjunction with Phoebus Osborne's solo exhibition, Oh, it’s my ass and my anus, on view November 13, 2025 - January 10, 2026.

Shuli Branson (she/they) is a queer/trans anarchist writer, translator, community organizer, and teacher. She is the author of Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life.  translator Shuli has translated and edited multiple books and hosts the podcast The Breakup Theory. Recently, Shuli helped start writer-worker collective CAW, you can find their work at https://cawshinythings.com. Shuli is currently working on a new book, You Call That Living? An Antidote to Despair, for Pluto Press.

Simon(e) van Saarloos is the author of Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (2023); Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019) as well as several books in Dutch. Their writing has appeared in co-edited volumes and academic journals and they also write fiction and theater. They are currently writing a new book for AK Press, titled Trans Despair: Staying Unrelated and Insecure. Van Saarloos also works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations.