Writer • Professor • AdvocateJennifer Finney Boylan, author of 19 books, is a Trustee of PEN America, and Professor Emerita of Barnard College of Columbia University.
She was President of of PEN America, the nonprofit advocating for authors, readers, and freedom of expression, from 2024 to 2026. 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 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 most recent book is CLEAVAGE: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us; the book won the 2026 Lambda Literary Prize for trans nonfiction. In 2022 she co-authored, with Jodi Picoult, the national bestslling novel Mad Honey.
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, she 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 Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean and a daughter, Zai.
Queer Advocacy Fighting back, one story at a time.
In these dark days, letting the sun shine on your face is an act of resistance.
LGBTQ people, and trans folks in particular, are under attack right now. I think all of us need to protect our hearts as best as we can, and no one can be faulted for seeking shelter. But remember that being seen, telling your stories, letting others see the simple fact of your existence, can really change the world, so that when strangers look upon us, instead of an Issue, they see a human being.
Tell your stories. Let the light shine upon you. “I believe in the future, we will suffer no more. Maybe not in my lifetime, but in yours I feel sure.” --Paul Simon.
For 25 years, Jenny B has been a go-to speaker on issues of trans equality and storytelling.
Jenny is a storyteller, a raconteur, and an educator. She has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the ABC Evening News, and MS NOW. She has spoken at lecterns from coast to coast, including Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, Dartmouth, Grinnell, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, and the University of Maine. She has also spoken at elementary and high schools, including the Little Red Schoolhouse in New York and the American School in London.
She gave the Commencement addresses at Barnard, the New School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the College of the Atlantic. She has received honorary degrees or medals of honor from Wesleyan, U Mass Dartmouth, and Barnard,
Top Secret
Please do not share this information with anyoneI can recite the names of all the presidents in reverse order • I play the autoharp Appalachian style • As a child I owned a cat named “Ba-BOING!!” • I am an unapologetic Deadhead, and first saw the band in August 1974, at a “Wall of Sound” concert at the old Philadelphia Civic Center • I once attended a convention of ventriloquists, where a guy with a puppet in a box tried to seduce me using what he called “the muffle voice.” • I grew up in a haunted house, and once saw the ghost of an elderly woman looking over my shoulder in the mirror. My mother’s caregiver saw the same figure and quit on the spot. A friend of mine saw a figure drift into his room one Christmas Even, in an apparition he described as being “like Venetian blinds.” • I am nuts about mountain biking. I shattered my kneecap in the gnarly Kennebec Highlands near my house in 2019. Now I walk with a slight limp. By “nuts” I mean I am still riding up there, undaunted • I am a deep Lord of the Rings nerd, and can (for instance) tell you the final resting spots of all seven Seeing Stones • My grandfather became homeless and is buried on Hart Island, New York City’s Potter’s Field • My wife and I share a wee house in Ballyferiter, County Kerry, with my cousin MJ • I love every kind of dog. I love bloodhounds most of all, but my wife won’t let us get one. Because of the drool • I make pretty great pizza. I own a fire oven.
Explore Books
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Cleavage
Published 2025 • Men, Women, and the Space Between Us
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Mad Honey
Published 2022 • o-written with Jodi Picoult, a soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past and what we choose to leave behind.
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Good Boy
Published 2020 • My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs.
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Long Black Veil
Published 2017 • A new novel about a woman whose family and identity are threatened by the secrets of her past.
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Stuck in the Middle with You
Published 2014 • A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders
