Category Archives: transgender

Southern Comfort next stop…

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: September 23, 2009

Southern Comfort, next stop. I’m off to Atlanta bright and early in order for my annual headlock with the southern comfort gender conference. This year I’m doing my one-woman show, The Porcupine Woman, on Thursday night, around 9 I think, as well as a seminar the next day.  If you’re there, please stop in.  Remind [...]

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On to Atlanta!

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: September 14, 2009

So my one-woman show, THE PORCUPINE WOMAN, rocked at Colby College’s Strider Theatre on the 11th and 12th of September. I’ll spare you the self-regarding details and just say that I was really happy with how it went; that I was grateful to Colby’s Lynne Connor for directing the show; and that once again venturing [...]

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Breaking Up With Myself

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: August 4, 2009

I wrote the following very short entry for the Penguin Blog in support of my story, “Trans,” in the anthology LOVE IS A FOUR LETTER WORD, which is about broken hearts and breakups. The entry I post herewith; the blog itself you can visit here, if you want, and read more from the other authors [...]

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“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. [...]

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Your 2009 Transgender All-Stars!

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: July 13, 2009

Your 2009 Transgender All-Stars will play the Wingnuts in the summer classic tomorrow night.  Some familiar fan favorites, and some newcomers in this year’s roster.  Also:  Susan “Wild Thing” Stanton, formerly catcher, appears to have sent down to the minors. 1. Helen Boyd After her best year yet with the Brooklyn Feminists, the leadoff hitter [...]

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Seattle, 3/20/09: "My Avatar"

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: March 23, 2009

Well, the piece rocked. This is going to be a quick summary, as I’m now back on crash deadline for the new book, but the event in Seattle was life-changing for me, and not only because i got to share the stage with two very cool performers and writers, Vikram Chandra and Christa Bell. INtegrating [...]

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Even Watchmen Get the Blues

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: March 16, 2009

So how about that big blue penis? According to a few of my children’s friends, the Watchmen movie gives new meaning to the phrase “weekend gross”. At issue is the character of Jon Osterman, a physicist who, after a radioactive mishap, becomes a glowing omniscient demigod named Dr. Manhattan, who performs most of his business [...]

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The Day the Gazungas Died: True Story of Boylan, Buddy Holly, Don McLean, and Rick Russo

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: February 3, 2009

A true story about a party at Don McLean’s house this fall. I was there with a bunch of other Maine writers; Don and his wife were hosting a benefit for the Maine Writers & Publishers’ Alliance. I made smalltalk with our host and he was generous and pleasant in every way. At the end [...]

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Why We Will Miss the Idiot, George Bush

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: January 19, 2009

Today is the last day of the Bush Administration. Two cheers! Still, as our man sets about the business of screwing up whatever he has possibly still left unscrewed in these last twenty-four hours, I can’t help but suspect that we will come to miss the man, this poor, hapless imbecile. For the last twenty-eight [...]

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MAN OF THE HOUR for January 4, 2009: BUSTER KEATON

By Jennifer Finney Boylan | Published: January 4, 2009

Jenny Boylan’s MAN OF THE HOUR for January 4, 2009 is Buster Keaton, American actor and director, a.k.a. “The Great Stone Face.” Born October 4, 1895, his career lasted into the early 1960s, with a cameo in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” But his greatest films are the early silents of the 1920s, [...]

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  • 4576011240_572c819271

    Jenny Boylan's twelfth book, FALCON QUINN AND THE CRIMSON VAPOR, now on sale from HarperCollins!

  • Browse Inside Falcon Quinn!

  • PROFESSOR JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN is the author of twelve 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; in 2010, she was the Hoyer-Updike Distinguished Writer at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She has also served on the judging committee of the Fulbright Scholars, administered by the U.S. Department of State.

    Her next published book will be STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU: Parenthood in Two Genders, coming from Crown/Random House in 2013, along with an updated, 10th anniversary edition of SHE'S NOT THERE.

    Check out the Twitter feed at JennyBoylan; or join Jennifer Finney Boylan on facebook.

  • Blog Archive

  • The Boylan Family, summer 2010

    DSC_0063 "You hang around our family, you learn all kinds of stuff."

  • Will Forte as Jennifer Finney Boylan on “Saturday Night Live”

    WiFo-Jennifer Finney Boylan-1

  • Jenny with Barbara Walters, December, 2008

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  • Jenny atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin

    2036947979_34bfbec240 August, 2002.

  • Surrounded

    boylanWith President Clinton and Maine's Governor John Baldacci, fall 2006.

  • JFB and Edward Albee

    edward_albee_by_fred_j_field-150x150

    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

    Boylan_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."