Jennifer Finney Boylan
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of eighteen books, is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University.
She serves on the Board of Trustees of PEN America, the nonprofit advocating for authors, readers, and freedom of expression. From 2011 to 2018 she served on the Board of Directors of GLAAD; she was co-chair of GLAAD’s board of directors from 2013-17. She also is a member of the faculty of the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference of Middlebury College, and the Sirenland Writers’ Conference in Positano, Italy.
For many years she was a Contributing Opinion Writer for the opinion page of the New York Times; she has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.
Her recent books include Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us (Celadon/Macmillan); Good Boy: My Life in 7 Dogs (Celadon/Macmillan); and her book project Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult (Ballantine/Random House).Her 2003 memoir, She’s Not There: a Life in Two Genders (Broadway/Doubleday/Random House) was the first bestselling work by a transgender American.
A novelist, memoirist, and short story writer, Jennifer Finney Boylan is also a nationally known advocate for human rights. Jenny has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show on four occasions; Live with Larry King twice; the Today Show, the Barbara Walters Special, NPR’s Marketplace and Talk of the Nation; she has also been the subject of documentaries on CBS News’ 48 Hours and The History Channel. She served as an advisor to the television series Transparent.
She lives in New York City, and in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean and a daughter, Zai.
Hardback
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What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan, bestselling author of She’s Not There and co-author of Mad Honey with Jodi Picoult, examines the divisions—as well as the common ground—between the genders, and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American.
Je...Read More
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER• “Alternatingly heart-pounding and heartbreaking. This collaboration between two best-selling authors seamlessly weaves together Olivia and Lily’s journeys, creating a provocative exploration of the strength that love and acceptance require.”—The Washington Post
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK C...Read More
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Trade Paperback
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From bestselling author of She’s Not There, New York Times opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan comes Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of pets.
Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: showing how a young boy became a middle-age...Read More
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Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2017
For fans of Donna Tartt and Megan Abbott, a novel about a woman whose family and identity are threatened by the secrets of her past, from the New York Times bestselling author of She’s Not There
On a warm August night in 1980, six college students sneak into the dila...Read More
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Hardcover
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More than a decade after the New York Times bestselling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young women, nine of the original contributors are back—along with sixteen captivating new voices—sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, in...Read More
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Falcon Quinn and his friends are monsters--a Sasquatch, a Chupakabra, a wind elemental, a Frankenstein--but now they confront the scariest challenge of all: 9th grade. Disguised as humans, Falcon and friends are in a race against time to find five monsters hidden in a New Hampshire high school. An exciting adventure as well as a serious look at wha...Read More
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New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Finney Boylan returns with a remarkable memoir about gender and parenting that discusses how families are shaped and the difficulties and wonders of being human.
A father for six years, a mother for ten, and for a time in between, neither, or both, Jennifer Finney Boylan has seen parent...Read More
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Audiobook
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The Rileys, of Bar Harbor, Maine, negotiate the changes in their family as they head to Ford's Theatre, in Washington, DC, for their son's violin performance. Sweet, comic, and exuberant, the novella also tells the story of a transgendered adolescent as she comes to terms with her family, world, and sexuality.
Jennifer Finney Boylan is the autho...Read More
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The seminal work of trans literature: a story of love, sex, selfhood, and understanding from the renowned author of Cleavage and co-author of Mad Honey
“A very funny memoir of growing up confused and a very smart consideration of what it means to be a woman.”— Anna Quindlen
When she changed genders,...Read More
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E-Book
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Falcon Quinn survived the first term at the Academy for Monsters along with his monstrous friends Max, Pearl, Mortia, and the rest. He has finally discovered his monster nature and is working hard to embrace it. But what does it mean to be an Angel, exactly? Having wings is great, when Falcon can remember to use them, but with parents who are the l...Read More
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E-book
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Thirteen-year-old Falcon Quinn and his neighbors, Max and Megan, board bus number 13 for school on an ordinary day in Cold River, Maine. Only the bus doesn't take its ordinary route, and Falcon and his friends soon find themselves in an extraordinary place—on Shadow Island, at the Academy for Monsters.
With a student body stranger than the cas...Read More
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Paperback
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From the famous gender rights activist and bestselling author of She’s Not There
For Jennifer Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and the remote whisper of human voice...Read More
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She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders
Jennifer Boylan is the author of the first bestselling work by a transgender American. A professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, former chair of the board of GLAAD, and a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times, Jenny is “the sunny face of the transgender movement.” In this talk, she discusses the diversity of transgender identities and provides strategies to provide understanding and support. This talk is not just about LGBTQ people; it’s about all of us and all the ways in which embracing diversity enables us to live richer lives.
Gender and Resistance
Author, activist, and professor, Jennifer examines the current moment in the struggle for equality—for LGBTQ people; for disabled people; for anyone who seems “different” in our current culture. The former chair of the board of GLAAD, Jenny has witnessed firsthand two decades of progress and struggle for the queer rights movement. With humor, compassion, and fierceness, she gives her listeners understanding, inspiration, and solace.
A Twist in Your Plot: On Revision and Invention
Jennifer has been a professional writer for 30 years. Author of 16 books, she discusses how revision is not only a vital strategy for writers of fiction and nonfiction; it’s also a method for living your best life. With humor, compassion, and wisdom, she encourages her listeners to create and reinvent themselves so that they may become “their own best draft.”
Jenny Finney Boylan’s Keynote at the Winter Institute
“I’m a Transgender Woman. This Is Not the Metamorphosis I Was Expecting.”
“Transgender author Jennifer Finney Boylan: The fight is not over”
“In ‘Cleavage,’ Jennifer Finney Boylan reflects on men, women and living a transgender life”
“On cleavage: mind the gap (excerpt)”
“A ‘Weary but Fabulous’ Poster Girl for Trans Life Opens Up About Aging”
“The Most Anticipated Queer Books of 2025, According to All the Lists”
“Here Are the 11 New Books You Should Read in February”
“The Most Anticipated Queer Books for February 2025”
“The Next Big Idea Club’s February 2025 Must-Read Books”
“Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025”
“The 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2025”
“Jennifer Finney Boylan to Lead PEN America”
Read Jenny’s short story “THE ASSASSIN” in The American Bystander.
“In My Mind, I’m Going to New Jersey”
“The Doggiest Days of Summer Demand Gin and Tonics”
“Harry Potter and the Scales of Justice”
“Why I Changed My Birth Certificate 25 Years After I Transitioned”
“Why Do Conservatives Attack Abortion and Trans Rights in the Same Ways?”
“I’m a Trans Woman. Bullies Don’t Surprise Me, but Allies Still Do.”
“My Trans Journey: A History in 6 Passports”
“When Do You Know You’ve Done Your Work Here on Earth?”
“Jennifer Finney Boylan: ‘Treat Trans People Like the Brave, Decent, Precious Souls They Are’”
“What ‘Peanuts’ Taught Me About Queer Identity”
“Lessons From a Life in Two Genders”
Read Jenny’s column in The New York Times.
Follow Jenny on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read her posts on Medium. Also check out her personal website.
Praise for Cleavage
“With its frank depiction of marriage and parenthood after transition, She’s Not There mapped what was, for many, uncharted territory. Cleavage picks up the story with confidence, clarity, and perspective….[it’s] I Feel Bad About My Neck for sexagenarian trans people and, really, anyone who wants to know how it feels to live many lives.”
—The New York Times
“Boylan has a unique perspective, having navigated the world in two genders, and she augments her own experience with a big-picture examination of what it means to be who you are.”
— The New York Times Book Review, “20 Books Coming in February”
“With Cleavage, her new memoir-in-essays, she examines the growing gender divide at this critical juncture in the U.S. [reflecting] on the differences between manhood and womanhood as she has experienced them since her transition in 2000, as well as the experiences of those who exist outside the binary, in hopes of narrowing the gap between us all.”
— TIME
“Cleavage poses a range of questions, including how gender affects our body image, relationships and our sense of self. Throughout its pages, Boylan also considers her own journey as a writer, activist, spouse and parent in the present day, and the prevailing power of love.”
— People Magazine
“Jenny’s honest, intense lived experience gives us a compassionate prism through which to see this changing world.”
— Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Boylan writes with great humor, wisdom, and warmth about what it means to be human—at different ages, and in different genders—in this confounding world. Compulsively readable and often outright hilarious, this book is a treasure.”
— Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers and I Have Some Questions for You
“For those who have never felt at home at home—and that’s a lot of us these days—Jenny Finney Boylan’s story is a story of faith, hope, and, above all, love.”
— Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street
“Once again, the legendary Jenny Finney Boylan serves up a memoir for the ages with a hard-won tale about women and men and the nexus between parenting a child self into her true form, then having to apply that wisdom as a parent to an offspring. As with all her books, it’s unforgettable. Buy this book!”
— Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit
“Boylan is an accomplished and playful writer, adept at handling serious subjects with a light but poignant touch… Readers will be equal parts entertained and edified.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“[T]his luminous memoir-in-stories… is always erudite, enlightening, and thought-provoking. Love is never far from her consciousness. She concludes that with a little luck, love might prevail, and readers will hope so, too.”
— Booklist,Starred Review
“An exploration of gender that effectively balances pathos and humor.”
— Kirkus
“Jennifer Finney Boylan’s latest memoir-in-essays, Cleavage, is a sometimes funny, sometimes elegiac, meditation on gender, parenthood and coming to terms with herself.”
—BookPage
Praise for Good Boy
“Boylan’s gorgeously crafted homage to our unconditional love of dogs turns out to be much less of a paean to her constant canine companions, and much more of a journey through her own psyche and the moral needle of the world we live in. What do we keep, even as we lose pieces of ourselves? The dog at your feet while you’re reading already knows the answer.”
—Jodi Picoult, #1 NYT bestselling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things“Good Boy is a warm, funny, instantly engaging testament to the power of love—canine and human—to ease us through life’s radical transitions. And I say that as a cat person!”
—Jennifer Egan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, and Manhattan Beach“Beautiful, tender, and utterly engaging, Good Boy measures out Boylan’s life in dog years. The result is a gorgeous memoir, full of heart and insight.”
—Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book“Jenny Boylan has given us a story full of humor, earned wisdom, and large doses of unconditional love. Beautifully written, wise, and funny, Good Boy is a gift to us all—but especially the dog lovers.”
—Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours“How do you measure a life? Anyone who has lived serially with dogs will appreciate Jenny Finney Boylan’s brilliant answer: through the dogs who have accompanied you through that life. The dogs we choose reflect us, and how we live with them reflects on us. Silent observers of the vicissitudes of growing up—and being grown up—Boylan’s dogs track her selves. Good dogs, all.”
—Alexandra Horowitz, author of Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond, and the New York Times bestselling Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and KnowBook This Speaker
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