Join the Astoria Bookshop at QED Astoria to celebrate local author Julie Kliegman's new book about a pioneering trans athlete (and Queens native), FINDING RENEE RICHARDS. Julie will be in conversation with Giri Nathan, co-founder and writer at Defector.com.
About the Book
Fifty years ago, tennis player Renée Richards made international headlines in her fight to compete in the women’s draw of the 1977 US Open—marking the first time a trans athlete sued to participate in professional sports in the gender category with which they identify. Renée eventually won her case. Though she lost in the first round of the singles tournament, she and her tennis partner made it to the finals in doubles, losing to Martina Navratilova and her partner.
Finding Renée Richards chronicles Richards’s extraordinary life, moving from her tumultuous upbringing in Queens, New York, to her career as a successful eye surgeon; her years as a star tennis player to her role as a transgender pioneer. Now in her nineties, Renée remains a complex figure: A person who changed the sports world forever yet questions the place of trans athletes in that world today. GLAAD award-nominated sports journalist
Julie Kliegman deftly probes these contradictions, drawing on intimate interviews and offering critical reflections on what is at stake for athletes, fans, and the queer community today, at a time when trans participation in sports is more hotly contested—and condemned—than ever before.
About the Author
Julie Kliegman (they/them) is a writer and editor with work in outlets including The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, Slate, Bookforum, The Ringer, Defector, Texas Monthly, Vulture, and The Verge. They are a regular guest on podcasts including You’re Wrong About and Hang Up and Listen. Kliegman has been copy chief at Sports Illustrated and copy editor at The Ringer. They have also taught journalism to undergraduates at the New School. Their first book was Mind Game: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes. Kliegman lives in Queens, New York.
In conversation with
Giri Nathan (he/him), author of the national bestseller Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis, is a staff writer and cofounder at Defector Media. His writing has appeared in New York magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and The Believer, and in the 2025 editions of The Year’s Best Sports Writing and The Best American Food and Travel Writing. He is the senior correspondent at tennis outlet The Second Serve. In 2022, he received the Tom Perrotta Prize for Tennis Journalism.
