Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of ten books, including the memoir She’s Not There, the first best-selling book by a transgender American. A three time guest of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Boylan has also appeared on the Larry King Show, The Today Show, and been the subject of a documentary on CBS News’ 48 Hours. In spring of 2007, she played herself on several episodes of ABC’s All My Children.

Professor of literature and creative writing at Colby College in Maine, Boylan is known for her sense of humor, which defuses and illuminates the highly charged issues of gender, culture, and love. Time magazine said She’s Not There was a “story that even family values folks would like.” Anna Quindlen, in Newsweek, described the memoir as “a funny memoir of growing up confused and a smart consideration of what it means to be a woman.”

Born in Valley Forge in 1958, Boylan holds degrees from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins. Her first collection of short stories, Remind Me to Murder You Later, was published in 1988, followed by the novels The Planets and Getting In. Her latest book, I’m Looking Through You, is about growing up in a haunted house, and about what it means to be “haunted.”

Boylan has spoken about gender, culture, imagination, and the redeeming power of love in many venues around the country, from New York law firms to colleges including Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Ohio State University, Amherst, and Bryn Mawr. She is also a contributor to Conde Nast Traveler magazine, where she has written about the Turks and Caicos, Vernice, and Easter Island.