Queer Words (3.11.25) — Rainie Oet on Writing, Queerness, and Glitch Girl!

“I want to write reality. Being a trans woman—in a lot of ways my life is a story that someone else tells (that’s a line from Glitch Girl!). My living experience is seeing parts of the story that are not visible to other people, that wouldn’t even be registered as story to other people. I am primarily writing to and for other trans women, on a platform where I hope to make visible the stories that wouldn’t be told except by other trans women. Very gratefully, I’m not alone.”

BookCrushin (3.27.25) — Guest Post: Glitch Girl! by Rainie Oet

“Glitch Girl! is a reminder to all these kids that they exist. That they are real. That it is worth it to live. And that living as a trans kid is messy, is painful, is silly, is sometimes deeply lonely, is sometimes deeply joyful, and it is also beautiful and collective. When they hold this book, they are holding a reminder that the world loves them. And wants all of them. That the world is better, so much better, for having them in it. And, because we are publishing books like this, those kids will know that we are going to keep fighting for them.”

Fresh Fiction (3.14.25) — Rainie Oet | Conversations in Character with J— from Glitch Girl!

“After two hours waiting in line, so excited for the ride, Mama and me were about to go on the rollercoaster and I suddenly felt terrified. I told Mama I didn’t want to go on the ride anymore. She was surprised in a way that felt a little like she thought I was being bad. I was holding up the line, but I started crying—I couldn’t help it! I sobbed, begging her not to make me go on the ride. Finally, she walked me back through the line, shaking and crying. I felt like the worst person ever. This happened a few more times after this, for years. But I always wanted to go on the ride. I want to go to the places I’m scared of going to.”

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (3.11.25, paywall) — Rainie Oet on autobiographical writing, how to summon inspiration, and Glitch Girl!

“Writing is an intimate one-way communication with strangers—not just readers I will never meet, but also the strangers inside my loved ones, and the strangers inside myself. All intimacy is about movement towards reality. Not just status quo reality, but omnipresent reality—banal, grounding, touchable and untouchable at once. The inside of reality is strange enough that when I blend it with fantasy, it lives its own life inside my own. Because life imitates art, I'm now my own character, moved forward by a plot whose author is and is not me.”

neonpajamas (3.15.22) — “Doppelgängers, Mirrors, and Octavia E. Butler // An Interview with Author Rainie Oet”

“Mirrors are important. Mirrors are scary. Mirrors hold a ton of meaning. My obsession with doubles/imaginary friends also spills into the things that scare me.”

Quail Bell Magazine (4.23.20) — Inside Ball Lightning. “Creation in Isolation: Rainie Oet; Love and Terror in Verse”

“I am deeply connected to love, experiencing the super strange wonder of being alive and sharing that with other people.”

Kirkus Reviews (11.23.24) — Glitch Girl! “A turbulent, emotionally wrenching coming-of-age story.”

“In this work inspired by the author’s life, J—, a neurodivergent, nonbinary trans girl, grasps for love and community as she plunges and loops on the roller coaster of her life.”

Publishers Weekly (11.21.24) — Glitch Girl! “A nonbinary trans girl numbs peer and parental rejection by obsessively playing a video game.”

“Simple language injects immediacy into J—’s narration throughout this raw novel about navigating abuse, gender identity, and experiences of neurodivergence.”

Booklist (1.1.25, paywall) — Glitch Girl! A “poignant, illuminating story.”

“The prose will especially resonate with anyone feeling like an outsider. The work’s format creates an accessible, immersive experience.”

Publishers Weekly (9.12.24) — Robin’s Worlds. “Layers of grief and joy.”

“Affecting narration from Oet, making her picture book debut, explores layers of grief and joy, while vibrant hues and detailed character designs from Ball breathe life into each dreamlike scene as the evening tenderly paves the way for a solitary child to find connection in the real world (‘There are so many of us, you have no idea’).”

The Poetry Review (Summer 2020, paywall) — Inside Ball Lightning. “Marek Sullivan on Rainie Oet and Crispin Best”

“Oet is sad, mostly unironic, rawly intimate and haunted.”

The Journal (3.4.20) — Inside Ball Lightning. “The poems within enter suddenly, through an open space, and electrify us.”

“Trauma passed through generations is cut through with concrete nostalgia — Neopets, Digimon, and the Powerpuff Girls all make appearances here. The imagery, both odd and recognizable, pulls us in.”

The Offing (11.15.19) — No Mark Spiral. “If you were to shout back into the cavern of childhood, what would reverberate back?”

“The attention to ‘small moments’ revealed the contradictions and privations of sibling life — of secret coded games, of shared hurt, of malice, of lies, of oneness, of stark separation, of deep love that is not totally understandable.”