Published in 2017, First Light at Dawn by Nyri A. Bakkalian is a short story about a trans woman fighter pilot who is navigating both her transition and PTSD. It is notable in that it is the first [*] such short story written by a Queer Armenian. It was published in the anthology Queerly Loving (Volume 1).
Nyri A. Bakkalian, Ph.D. is a queer Armenian-American by birth, a military historian by training, and is proud to have called the American and Japanese northeasts her home. Her writing, art, and photography have appeared in Gutsy Broads, Metropolis Japan, The Copperfield Review, and other venues. She authored the novel Grey Dawn and the essay The Armenians of Pittsburgh.
Our “coffee date turned to another, and then another. We were inseparable. We made quite the pair: the tall, closeted, trans-lady pilot and the short, redheaded librarian. I’d take the train out whenever I had leave, and we’d explore the city, compare notes on what we’d been reading, ride the subway to places neither of us had ever been.
First Light at Dawn
Bakkalian writes the short story as an email from Kate Davis to her high school friend Hannah. Davis hasn’t seen Hannah in years. They have only recently reconnected. Davis’ tell-all email focuses on her “deployment and discharge and transition and the bad days.”
Deployed to Iraq, Kate has a moment of clarity during the Battle of Al-Hakawati, not just about the war, but about her invisibility as a trans woman. She applies for her discharge and begins her transition. From there, she details for Hannah her new life, the symptoms of PTSD, and her experiences being seen as a woman, who she has been her entire life.
If available, please consider buying a copy at Abril Books. This book may also be available for purchase through the Queer Armenian Library’s shop at Bookshop.org. If you purchase a copy through Bookshop.org we will receive a commission.
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-950-0. Published by Queer Pack, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, eKfr.
