in a dark movie theatre, a body is almost
anonymous. more so if it’s one of the auditoriums
with recliners, where a body is less likely
to touch another body.
- transmasc marvel girl (sonnet)
In a fantastic inversion of escapism, sterling-elizabeth arcadia’s Transmasc Marvel Girl puts contemporary film in the crossroads of love, transition, and, reproduction, not only as an artifact of our culture, but as a lens through which she demonstrates looking at her own life.
From sci-fi juggernauts like the Alien franchise or Terminator (1984), to queer indie films like I Saw the TV Glow (2024) and All of Us Strangers (2023), arcadia carefully disassembles films and reassembles them in her own likeness. Or, she takes an embroidery needle directly to the silver screen, where she writes life as a trans woman both above and beneath the projection.
Wrestling with heartbreak, madness, gender, sexuality, and reproductive politics as a gender non-conforming trans woman, and with special attention to the prose poem form, arcadia renders a scene—traversing the landscapes of interiority and embodiment—as striking as any of Roger Deakins’ cinematography.
For arcadia’s speaker, life is as much a struggle with oneself as it is with a transphobic, misogynistic world.
Advance Praise for Transmasc Marvel Girl:
Bracingly honest, frank but soft, and bathed in the reflected light of a movie theatre screen…this work encapsulates the transgender experience.”
- nat raum, author of with gasoline & journal of various worries
Release Date: April 23, 2026
48 pages
in a dark movie theatre, a body is almost
anonymous. more so if it’s one of the auditoriums
with recliners, where a body is less likely
to touch another body.
- transmasc marvel girl (sonnet)
In a fantastic inversion of escapism, sterling-elizabeth arcadia’s Transmasc Marvel Girl puts contemporary film in the crossroads of love, transition, and, reproduction, not only as an artifact of our culture, but as a lens through which she demonstrates looking at her own life.
From sci-fi juggernauts like the Alien franchise or Terminator (1984), to queer indie films like I Saw the TV Glow (2024) and All of Us Strangers (2023), arcadia carefully disassembles films and reassembles them in her own likeness. Or, she takes an embroidery needle directly to the silver screen, where she writes life as a trans woman both above and beneath the projection.
Wrestling with heartbreak, madness, gender, sexuality, and reproductive politics as a gender non-conforming trans woman, and with special attention to the prose poem form, arcadia renders a scene—traversing the landscapes of interiority and embodiment—as striking as any of Roger Deakins’ cinematography.
For arcadia’s speaker, life is as much a struggle with oneself as it is with a transphobic, misogynistic world.
Advance Praise for Transmasc Marvel Girl:
Bracingly honest, frank but soft, and bathed in the reflected light of a movie theatre screen…this work encapsulates the transgender experience.”
- nat raum, author of with gasoline & journal of various worries
Release Date: April 23, 2026
48 pages
