Category Archives: books

Mary Karr’s LIT

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: January 2, 2010

I received Mary Karr’s LIT for Xmas and fell deeply into it over the course of the next several days. And when I was done I had that wonderful, awful sense of completion and bereavement, knowing that there was no more. So immediately started re-reading it. One of the best books I’ve read this [...]

Posted in books | Tagged Jennifer Finney Boylan, lit, mary karr, memoir, transgender | 3 Comments

from the Powell’s Books blog… Eight odd questions for JFB…

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: October 1, 2009

Powell’s Books is one of my favorite independent bookstores in the country. They did this deranged Q&A with me a little while ago in the run-up to my reading in one of their stores. You can, and should, visit their blog here.
Jennifer Finney Boylan is Professor of English at Colby College and the [...]

Also posted in I'm Looking Through You, Powell's Books, Uncategorized | Tagged books, Boylan, I'm Looking Through You, Powell's, Thurber, transgender | 3 Comments

Doug Dorst and Jenny Boylan on fiction, invention, and zombies

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: September 18, 2009

In late summer, 2009, Doug Dorst (ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS) and Jennifer Finney Boylan (SHE’S NOT THERE; I’M LOOKING THROUGH YOU) shared this brief exchange about writing, invention, and the nature of zombie mutants:
Jenny Boylan: Doug, I loved your book. One of the things I found so engaging about it was the tension between the realism [...]

Also posted in dorst, writing | Leave a comment

Steven King’s ON WRITING…

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: August 14, 2009

On Writing by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Steven King’s ON WRITING is part memoir, part Elements of Style; it’s also one of the most modest, generous, thoughtful, and succinct books on fiction writing I’ve ever read. Most how-to books on writing are full of blarney and mustard; Steve’s book focuses on [...]

Posted in books | Tagged Boylan, King, On Writing, Steven King, The Stand | 3 Comments

Writers’ workbench: On the ecstasy of the home stretch

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: August 7, 2009

So here I am, late summer, deep in the heart of the first draft of a new book. I’m in that euphoric, terrifying, mysterious frame of mind that arises when the end of the draft is almost in sight. I try to write about 1000 words a day, which translates to about [...]

Also posted in Boylan, Falcon Quinn, writing | 2 Comments

THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC by Richard Russo

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: August 4, 2009

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Rick Russo’s new book contains some familiar, beloved elements for Russo-philes– a devoted, exhausted wife; a smart, snarky daughter; an irritating mother who doesn’t stop meddling, even after death–and at the center, a restless, loving soul, this time the professor Griffin, who wrestles [...]

Also posted in russo | 1 Comment

ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS by Doug Dorst

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: August 3, 2009

Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Just finished ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS by Doug Dorst, a wild first novel that is equal measures hard-boiled cop story and zombie invasion. The tale starts out with the near-death of a young man in a cemetery– he’s rescued by our hero, Officer Mercer [...]

Posted in books | Leave a comment

“Love” launch party at Housingworks…

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: July 29, 2009

The launch party for Love is a Four Letter Word at Housingworks ROCKED. With Dan Kennedy hosting, tantalyzing story excerpts from Wendy McClure, Said Sayrafiezadeh, Maud Newton, and Amanda Stern. Plus saw friend and NYer cartoonist Emily Flake,collection editor Michael Taeckens, and Galleycat’s Ron Hogan, and all the proceeds go to AIDS research & support. [...]

Also posted in Jennifer Finney Boylan, transgender | Tagged Boylan, hogan, love is a four letter word | Leave a comment

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: July 16, 2009

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Richard Russo sent me to this fine novel. I’m essentially on the Rick Russo book club right now, having read THE GOOD THIEF at his urging just before this one. Enjoying Ferris’ high-wire act in this book a great deal, especially the wild 1st person [...]

Posted in books | Tagged Boylan, ferris, goodreads, then we came to the end | 3 Comments

Jenny Boylan's eleventh book, FALCON QUINN AND THE BLACK MIRROR, now on sale from HarperCollins!
Browse Inside Falcon Quinn!
PROFESSOR JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN is the author of eleven books, including She's Not There: a Life in Two Genders, and I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted, both published by Random House. A novelist, memoirist, and short story writer, she is also a nationally known advocate for civil rights. Jenny has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Live with Larry King, 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 is a regular contributor to the op/ed page of the New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Since 1988, she has been Professor of English at Colby College in Maine; starting in 2010, she will also be the Hoyer-Updike Distinguished Writer at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She is currently on the judging committee of the Fulbright Scholars, administered by the U.S. Department of State.

Check out the Twitter feed at JennyBoylan; or join Jennifer Finney Boylan on facebook.
twitter feed
- A lengthy, and thoughtful story on the late Christine Daniels. Link, and a few comments, at THERE FROM HERE blog: www.jenniferboylan.net
- Dreamed that our summer house became infested with something called "toilet lobsters."
- @JennyBoylan on why people quit their jobs theatrically. "We Are All Jerks" at There from Here blog: www.jenniferboylan.net
- On job quitters, real and faux, and what's really at stake: WE ARE ALL JERKS, at There From Here blog: www.jenniferboylan.net
Blog Archive
- August 2010 (6)
- July 2010 (4)
- June 2010 (7)
- May 2010 (4)
- April 2010 (3)
- March 2010 (7)
- February 2010 (3)
- January 2010 (7)
- December 2009 (5)
- November 2009 (8)
- October 2009 (10)
- September 2009 (7)
- August 2009 (13)
- July 2009 (14)
- June 2009 (2)
- May 2009 (6)
- April 2009 (7)
- March 2009 (8)
- February 2009 (8)
- January 2009 (17)

The Boylan Family, fall 2007

"You hang around our family, you learn all kinds of stuff."
Will Forte as Jennifer Finney Boylan on “Saturday Night Live”
Jenny with Barbara Walters, December, 2008
Jenny atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin

August, 2002.
Surrounded

With President Clinton and Maine's Governor John Baldacci, fall 2006.
JFB and Edward Albee

Edward had been my teacher at Johns Hopkins in the winter of 1986. He visited Colby in fall, 2007. As we took our leave of each other, he kissed me on both cheeks and said, "We have done well. You and I."
Jenny and her teacher, the great John Barth

Jack was my professor at JHU when I did my thesis, back in the day. After many years, I can now confidently say I finally understand his definition of plot. Which is, of course, "the perturbation of an unstable homeostatic system and its catastrophic restoration to a new and complexified equilibrium."
RSS Feed
- All posts
- All comments