Perceptions Press is a small independent publishing house located in Victoria BC focused specifically on publishing innovative, avant-garde and (occasionally) provocative transgender manuscripts. Perceptions Press is an imprint of Castle Carrington Publishing, along with TransGender Publishing (which publishes trans life stories and edited volumes) and Stephanie Castle Publications (which publishes primarily fictional works by trans authors, focused on trans topics).
Margot Wilson is an anthropologist who retired in 2018 from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Over the past 30+ years, Margot has undertaken anthropological research in South Asia. She has lived in a bamboo hut with no running water or electricity in a rural village in northwest Bangladesh, learning to be a village woman by living as one. Margot has also undertaken research at a shelter for abandoned women and children in Dhaka (the capital city) and at the Danish-Bangladesh Leprosy Missions in rural northwest Bangladesh.
In 2014, after attending the “Elders Panel” at the Moving Trans History Forward conference at the University of Victoria, Margot began collaborating with three trans elders to write their life stories. The first of these, Girl in the Dream, is the life story of Stephanie Castle, a Canadian trans woman, activist, and writer. Girl in the Dream was published in 2018 by TransGender Publishing, the first publishing house in Canada to focus specifically on transgender issues. A preview is available here. Other upcoming life histories include: Before My Warranty Runs Out (Joanna Clark), Young Kid, Old Goat (Jude Patton), and Gender Odyssey (Ariadne Kane).
Perceptions Press was originally opened in 1992 as a vehicle for publishing Stephanie Castle’s early non-fiction writing, including Feelings: A Transsexual’s Explanation of a Baffling Condition (a second edition is now available through TransGender Publishing), Prisoner of Gender (co-written with Katherine Johnson), and The Zenith Experience: Encounters and Memories in a Transgender Setting. Perceptions Press also published some of Stephanie’s early fictional novels based on trans themes, including Shadows in the City, A Tale of Two Wives, The Partnership (a second edition is now available through TransGender Publishing), and Tales from Cascadia. At the time, Stephanie’s non-fiction books (especially Feelings) and her novels were ahead of their time and considered by some to be provocative and cutting edge.
In 2005, Perceptions Press became part of Vibrant Publishing, although Stephanie retained a 50% ownership in the company. Stephanie’s more recent novels, including A Dilemma in High Places, The Enchantment of Margot Tyson, The Miracle Workers, Quatsino Gold, and Far Side of the Moon (a second edition in now available) were published under her second publishing company, Stephanie Castle Publications.
In 2016, prior to Stephanie’s death in the spring of 2017, Margot and Stephanie agreed to open a joint publishing company, Castle Carrington Publishing, as a parent company under which Margot would bring TransGender Publishing and Stephanie would bring Stephanie Castle Publications. When Stephanie passed away, her executor signed over Stephanie Castle Publications along with Stephanie’s 50% ownership in Perceptions Press to Margot.
In March 2020, the owner of Vibrant Press retired and signed over the remaining 50% ownership in Perceptions Press along with the remaining book stocks to Margot. These are available under the Back Stock- original books on sale tab.
In keeping with Stephanie’s original intent, Perceptions Press focuses on innovative, avant-garde, and (occasionally) provocative transgender fiction and non-fiction.
If you are a trans author and/or have written a novel with trans characters and would like to talk to Margot about publishing your manuscript, please use the contact form below. Also see our Information for Authors page.