On Saturday afternoon, Prairie Lights Bookstore was packed as people patiently awaited Torrey Peters, a New York Times bestselling author. The second level of the small bookstore in downtown Iowa City was packed with people standing along the bookshelves on the walls and sitting on the floor, stairs and in rows of chairs.
Peters received her MFA from the University of Iowa. Her debut novel, “Detransition, Baby,” had won several awards besides being a New York Times bestseller, including the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. The novel tells the story of several women, two transgender women, one of whom had detransitioned and one seeking motherhood, and a cisgender woman.
“I think that’s such an important aspect to show that it’s not black and white, like you are something or you aren’t something. I think that gray area is a space that queer folks aren’t often afforded,” Adiah Siler, an attendee of the event, said…