Today we meet Renée Yoxon and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.
Renée (they/them) is a nonbinary gender-affirming voice teacher based in Montreal. They help trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people create speaking voices they love, through online courses, a pay-what-you-can practice community, and their book, The Trans Voice Practice Journal.
In Tipping the Velvet, Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.
Sarah Waters is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Paying Guests, Fingersmith, Affinity, and Tipping the Velvet. She has three times been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, has twice been a finalist for the Orange Prize, and was named one of Granta’s best young British novelists.
Connect with Renee
website: reneeyoxon.com
youtube: @reneeyoxon
instagram: @reneeyoxon
tiktok: @reneeyoxon
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy your copy of Tipping the Velvet here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781573227889
For a 20% discount on your pre-order of The Trans Voice Practice Journal: https://www.reneeyoxon.com/trans-voice-practice-journal
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1