Casey Plett

Casey Plett has emerged as one of the most important voices in contemporary transgender fiction, crafting intimate stories that center queer and trans lives with both tenderness and unflinching honesty. Her debut collection A Safe Girl to Love introduced readers to her distinctive style—emotionally precise, often funny, and deeply attuned to the small ruptures and reconciliations that define relationships. The book’s Lambda Literary Award win in 2015 marked early recognition of Plett’s ability to make the personal universal, exploring themes of desire, family, belonging, and the search for safety in a world that doesn’t always offer it.

Plett’s 2019 novel Little Fish deepened her reputation, winning another Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and demonstrating her range as a storyteller. The novel traces the intersecting lives of its characters with the same care and specificity that distinguished her earlier work, while expanding her canvas to explore larger questions about community, parenthood, and the possibilities of love. That Plett has won the Lambda Award twice in the same category speaks to the sustained excellence of her work and her consistent ability to capture truths about trans experience that resonate far beyond any single community. Her fiction operates in the space between vulnerability and resistance, between the everyday and the extraordinary.