Precarious Lives, Fraught Selves

Thanuja: A Memoir of Migration and Transition is the first memoir by a Sri Lankan Tamil transwoman who is now a German citizen. The recently published English translation has been gaining attention across social media for its powerful account of gender, displacement, and resilience across continents.

This session reflects on the layered process of translating Thanuja Singam’s life story, not only across languages but also across histories, geographies, and identity formations. In placing the memoir in dialogue with the expanding field of Indian trans literature, the discussion opens up questions around how language shapes identity, how trans voices find space on the page, and how literary traditions both support and constrain such narratives.

The conversation will engage with the evolving landscape of trans writing in South Asia, examining the literary, political, and affective threads that connect diverse trans experiences. It also considers how translation can serve as a bridge between communities, turning individual testimony into collective memory.