In 2021, Lauren Fox, a bestselling author and writer for The New York Times, reviewed The Cape Doctor by E.J. Levy, an associate professor in Colorado State University’s Master of Fine Arts program.

Fox described the historical novel, inspired by Dr. James Miranda Barry’s life, as “gorgeous, thoughtful [and] heartbreaking,” stating that it “breaks open what we think we know about gender, identity and love and shines a light on the devastating limits of each.” Since then, The Cape Doctor has won the Colorado Book Award for historical fiction.

Beginning in Cork, Ireland, The Cape Doctor follows Jonathan Perry’s gender transition to enter medical school and provide for his family at a time when women were consistently denied access to education. Perry soon embraced the newfound freedom of living as a man. The story traces his journey from a medical student to a military physician, revolutionizing Western medicine in Cape Town, South Africa. The narrative explores his life through a feminist and queer lens.

E.J. Levy first learned about the brilliant 19th-century military physician Dr. James Barry, renamed Dr. Perry in the novel, on a flight to Cape Town in October 2011. It was only after Barry’s death that it was discovered that he had been female, having transitioned to James to enter medical school during a time when women were denied such education. She noted that “Barry’s life demonstrates what a person can achieve when freed from expectations of gender; it speaks to the transformative power of education often denied to girls and women.”

Today, E.J. Levy is a writer, mother, feminist and queer activist. Levy’s work has earned numerous awards, including a Pushcart Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, a Flannery O’Connor Award, a 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Award, the 2013 Best Indie Book of the Year by Kirkus, and the 2014 GLCA New Writers Award. She teaches in Colorado State University’s MFA program and has served as an associate professor since 2012.