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Bookaholic Podcast
Bookaholic Podcast
✨ Deirdre Pippins — better known as Bookaholic — is your guide to the bookish world! She shares author interviews, book reviews, and the latest book news to help you find your next great read.

Through her channel, you’ll also get a peek into her bookish lifestyle — from author adventures and bookish field trips to conversations around mental health and encouragement for aspiring writers.

📚 Whether you’re here for book recommendations, author interviews, book news, literary merchandise, inspiration, or community, Deirdre’s goal is simple: to celebrate books and the people who love them.

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Oct. 23, 2026

She Transitioned at 71: Richelle Lee Slota’s Story of Identity, Courage & Poetry | Episode 166

The latest news at Bookaholic - https://linktr.ee/truebookaholic

📚 BUY THE BOOK👉 LETTERS TO MY DEAD NAME by Richelle Lee Slota
https://link.amazon/B0445CI9q
Richard struggled for much of his life with a mystery. Why was he uneasy and uncomfortable? Why did he feel like an imposter? In his sixties, he made a discovery that would change his life and his creative work. He realized that his life as a man did not fit with who he knew himself to be. He began the journey of transition that led him to emerge in his San Francisco community as "Richelle Lee," leaving "Richard" behind.

This powerful book of poems by Richelle is a magnificent collection of metrical poetry that gifts the reader with honest passion and delightful good humor. Richelle Lee Slota's poems open themselves to the world in private and public "letters" that dare to test a society full of hate and division. These letters/poems are stronger than the terror and rejection the writer faces. The beauty of her rhythm and her emotional honesty--and Richelle's dazzling technical energy--reach out to anyone seeking optimism and hope and provide nourishment. "Catch the cis-brained psyches' sober iambs/write, thrumming clever like a cleaver transgender tie-ins," Richelle writes. See the gifted person who has discarded her dead name and be captivated, enlarged, and changed by this writer of unique and moving poetry, who courageously signs her new name to every poem.
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