The Natural Mother of the Child Audiobook By Krys Malcolm Belc cover art

The Natural Mother of the Child

A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood

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The Natural Mother of the Child

By: Krys Malcolm Belc
Narrated by: Krys Malcolm Belc
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About this listen

Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner Anna adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as "the natural mother of the child". By considering how the experiences contained under the umbrella of "motherhood" don't fully align with Belc's own experience, The Natural Mother of the Child journeys both toward and through common perceptions of what it means to have a body and how that body can influence the perception of a family. With this memoir-in-essays, Belc has created a new kind of life record, one that engages directly with the documentation often thought to constitute a record of one's life - childhood photos, birth certificates - and addresses his deep ambivalence about the "before" and "after" so prevalent in trans stories, which feels apart from his own experience. The Natural Mother of the Child is the story of a person moving past societal expectations to take control of his own narrative, with prose that delights in the intimate dailiness of family life and explores how much we can ever really know when we enter into parenting.

A supplemental PDF featuring photographs and official documents is included with this audiobook.

©2021 Krys Malcolm Belc (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Biographies & Memoirs Gender Studies
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What listeners say about The Natural Mother of the Child

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Open and Honest

The author does a wonderful job of giving the reader insight into his life an into relationships. This is an intimate and sublime read.

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Very well written

Completely enjoyed both the story and the writing! Bravo to Krys on his first book of many!

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Lyrical, real & vulnerable

This book is not what I expected, in that it is more vast & goes deeper, bares more than I thought it would. I recommended it right away to a non-binary parent in my life. It is necessary in more ways than one & so honest about what growing a human is, what parenting is (and isn't).

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Excellent

A joy to read—such a rich, original, well-written story about parenthood and gender. We needed this book!

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