The Woman Inside of Me

Jae Escoto is a Filipino trans man who has performed spoken word poetry and competed in poetry slam competitions since 2006. Jae holds a bachelor's degree from California State University San Marcos, double-majoring in Literature and Writing and Women's Studies, and minoring in Philosophy. Jae also holds a master's degree in Women's Studies from San Diego State University. The voices in this book are representative of the author and the woman who lives inside of him (narrated in italics) as they journey through their transition from woman to man."The Woman Inside Of Me" is Jae Escoto's daring narrative to take us into the struggles of becoming our fiercest selves. Everything that I have witnessed in Escoto's spoken word work on stage is in this collection, an epic slam poem with an insightful self-probing that moves the reader to haunting depths and breathtaking heights. Here is a literary work that enfolds with layers of poetic passages and dialogue that are sharp as truth, a truly Filipinx work that explodes the foundation of genders and what it means to love and its fragility. A stunning piece of art from beginning to end, intense and full of glorious epiphanies." -Regie Cabico, Poet & Publisher Capturing Fire Press "In this multigenre work, Jae Escoto chronicles the year he comes out as a trans man and prepares himself for hormone treatments. The dual and dueling voices in The Woman Inside of Me speak with uncertainty, fear, anger, pain, determination, compassion, and love. Escoto's language, tonal shifts, and multiple genres evoke an immediacy that positions the reader as witness unable and unwilling to look away from his wonderfully terrible struggle to be 'unapologetically' he/him." --- Catherine Cucinella, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (retired) California State University San Marcos; author, Poetics of the Body: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Marilyn Chin, and Marilyn Hacker (Palgrave). "In his electrifying debut book, Jae Escoto plunges the reader deep into the personal dialogue underlying his journey to live as his fullest self. He makes it impossible for us to see our world as separate from his story, or from the many complicated stories that follow us every day. Escoto's genius is his emotional accuracy. He pens a stunningly authentic voyage all his own. In this, he empowers all of us to breathe more of our own air into our own lives, regardless of what already sits inside of us." -- Matt Storm, transgender artist and curator, leadership team member of the LGBTQ Caucus of the Society for Photographic Education, inaugural fellow of STABLE Arts