Avi Ben-Zeev is an Israeli-born writer and psychologist known for exploring identity, belonging, and self-discovery themes. His memoir, Calling My Deadname Home (2024), delves into his journey as a transgender man reconnecting with his past.
Born into a working-class, right-wing family in Israel, Avi grew up navigating a complex cultural and political landscape. Despite struggling in school and barely graduating high school, Avi became deeply involved in pro-Palestinian activism during his youth and avoided compulsory military service by feigning madness.
Reflecting on this period, he said, “Escaping military service was a choice that shaped my understanding of courage and identity.”
In his early twenties, Avi moved to the United States to pursue higher education. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University, completing his studies in 1997. Avi’s academic career flourished as he became a leading scholar in social psychology, publishing influential research on stereotype threat and educational inequities. His work, including the Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP) intervention, funded by an NIH grant, focused on supporting underrepresented groups in academia.
Avi’s passion for storytelling and creative expression led him to study creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, where he earned an MFA in 2022. His writing has been widely recognised, with awards including the 2024 London Independent Short Story Prize in Flash Fiction. His story “Angel” won the UK’s first transgender writing competition, and his co-edited anthology Trans Homo … Gasp! was a Lambda Literary Award finalist.
In Calling My Deadname Home, Avi blends memoir and social commentary to recount his journey as a trans man navigating the complexities of identity. The book chronicles his early struggles with transition, his experiences as a bearish gay man, and his eventual decision to reconcile with his hyper-feminine past self, Talia.
“To become the man I aspired to be, I had to invite Talia back in,” Avi writes, capturing the memoir’s central theme of integrating the past into the present.
The narrative unfolds in three episodes: early transition, later transition, and Talia’s story. It weaves personal anecdotes, reflections on contemporary gender issues, and Avi’s path from a tumultuous childhood in Israel to earning a doctorate at Yale. Avi explores what it means to come home to oneself with humour, brutal honesty, and self-compassion.
Avi Ben-Zeev currently lives in the United Kingdom.
Photo credit: www.avibenzeev.com
Born into a working-class, right-wing family in Israel, Avi grew up navigating a complex cultural and political landscape. Despite struggling in school and barely graduating high school, Avi became deeply involved in pro-Palestinian activism during his youth and avoided compulsory military service by feigning madness.
Reflecting on this period, he said, “Escaping military service was a choice that shaped my understanding of courage and identity.”
In his early twenties, Avi moved to the United States to pursue higher education. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University, completing his studies in 1997. Avi’s academic career flourished as he became a leading scholar in social psychology, publishing influential research on stereotype threat and educational inequities. His work, including the Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP) intervention, funded by an NIH grant, focused on supporting underrepresented groups in academia.
Avi’s passion for storytelling and creative expression led him to study creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, where he earned an MFA in 2022. His writing has been widely recognised, with awards including the 2024 London Independent Short Story Prize in Flash Fiction. His story “Angel” won the UK’s first transgender writing competition, and his co-edited anthology Trans Homo … Gasp! was a Lambda Literary Award finalist.
In Calling My Deadname Home, Avi blends memoir and social commentary to recount his journey as a trans man navigating the complexities of identity. The book chronicles his early struggles with transition, his experiences as a bearish gay man, and his eventual decision to reconcile with his hyper-feminine past self, Talia.
“To become the man I aspired to be, I had to invite Talia back in,” Avi writes, capturing the memoir’s central theme of integrating the past into the present.
The narrative unfolds in three episodes: early transition, later transition, and Talia’s story. It weaves personal anecdotes, reflections on contemporary gender issues, and Avi’s path from a tumultuous childhood in Israel to earning a doctorate at Yale. Avi explores what it means to come home to oneself with humour, brutal honesty, and self-compassion.
Avi Ben-Zeev currently lives in the United Kingdom.
Photo credit: www.avibenzeev.com
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