Brooke, J: I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side

Driftwood Press, paperback

Publication Date: June 2, 2026

Publisher Marketing: J Brooke's I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side begins in a rich and specific New York City childhood full of binaries, then catapults into a fully realized, self-aware adulthood where the speaker experiences parenting, a breast cancer scare, and the complicated questioning of top-surgery.

"A beautiful book of poetry following one human's journey towards themselves, illuminating gender identity and the culture that surrounds us all-insightful and inspiring!"

• Rosie O'Donnell, Performer/Activist

"Funny and surprising, a real gem."

• Hannah Gadsby, Comedian/Writer

"The poems found in I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side are as intentional and full-bodied as the poet who penned them. J Brooke is a truth-teller with a gift for precise storytelling who walks the reader through the dark and light spaces of a life evolving, becoming anew."

• Amanda Johnston, 61st Texas Poet Laureate

"J Brooke's I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side is a book of rare courage-one that refuses performance, explanation, or any version that might win easy sympathy. Instead, these poems stand in the full, contradictory glare of memory and body, and say: I am here, I will not simplify what I carry. What lingers isn't a neat resolution but the stubborn dignity of survival-the daily, unspectacular ache of choosing to live honestly, with humor and care, even when the world demands a tidier answer. This is a collection that trusts the reader with what is unfinished and unfixable, and in doing so, offers something like hope-hope that we, too, might live inside our own contradictions and be seen."

• Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez: Stories & Fire Exit