Meredith Talusan BuzzFeed has brought on a new staff writer to broaden its coverage of the transgender community. Meredith Talusan, the site's first openly trans writer, announced her new position in a tweet Monday evening. Meredith Talusan @1demerith I sometimes ask myself what percentage of the minority tax is the penalty for white people's jealousy. The latest tweets from @1demerith.
Meredith Talusan is the author of Fairest (Viking Press, 2020), a widely praised memoir which Kirkus Reviews called, “captivatingly eloquent.” It was excerpted in the New York Times, selected as a most anticipated book of 2020 by O: The Oprah Magazine, and is the People and In Style Magazine Pick for June. Meredith is founding executive editor of them., Condé Nast’s first-ever platform devoted to the queer community. An award-winning journalist and author, Meredith has written features, essays, and opinion pieces for many publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, VICE Magazine, WIRED, The Nation, Mic, BuzzFeed News, and The American Prospect. She is the recipient of the 2017 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism, and has contributed to several books, including Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America.
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Meredith grew up a boy in the Philippines, moved to California at 15, and medically transitioned in her 20's. She embraces a gender-nonbinary identity, and considers herself an intersectional journalist. When asked about this in an interview with Catapult, Meredith explained, “It means that I'm someone in the position of telling other people's stories, when people like me don't usually have that power; we're usually the subjects of stories, but not storytellers. Or, if we're lucky enough to get to tell stories, it's only our own we can tell and not stories of other people. One of my key influences is Diane Arbus, known as a photographer of freaks. When I saw her photographs of female impersonators and circus performers as a freshman in college, including an albino sword swallower, I thought to myself, 'Why are there no albino sword swallowers taking pictures that go in museums?' So I guess in a way, my career has been all about becoming that albino sword swallower in the writing world, that freak who gets to tell her own and others' stories.”
Meredith graduated from Cornell University with an MA in Comparative Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing; from California College of the Arts with an MFA in Visual Art; and earned a BA in English and American Literature from Harvard University.
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She lives in Brooklyn, NY.