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Jennifer Finney Boylan

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.jenniferboylan.net

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

Member Since

January 2008

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Jennifer Finney Boylan is a widely praised author and professor.

Edward Albee summed up her oeuvre in 1988: -- "Boylan observes carefully, and with love. [Her] levitating wit is wisely tethered to a humane concern…. I often broke into laughter, and was now and again, struck with wonder."

Jenny's memoir, She's Not There, published by Broadway Books in 2003, was one of the first bestselling works by a transgendered American; until 2001 she published under the name James Boylan. She's Not There, currently in its eighth printing, is popular both as a textbook in high schools and colleges as well as with readers's groups. The paperback edition contains a "readers guide" in addition to the main text, which consists not only of Jenny's insights on " Jennifer Finney Boylan is a widely praised author and professor.

Edward Albee summed up her oeuvre in 1988: -- "Boylan observes carefully, and with love. [Her] levitating wit is wisely tethered to a humane concern…. I often broke into laughter, and was now and again, struck with wonder."

Jenny's memoir, She's Not There, published by Broadway Books in 2003, was one of the first bestselling works by a transgendered American; until 2001 she published under the name James Boylan. She's Not There, currently in its eighth printing, is popular both as a textbook in high schools and colleges as well as with readers's groups. The paperback edition contains a "readers guide" in addition to the main text, which consists not only of Jenny's insights on "a life in two genders" but also includes an afterword by Pultizer Prize winner Richard Russo, whose friendship with James, and later with Jennifer, provides part of the books narrative.

She's Not There won an award from the Lambda LIterary Foundation in 2004, the year after its initial publication. The book has since been published in many foreign editions, and was an alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Anna Quindlen called it “a very funny memoir of growing up confused, and a very smart consideration of what it means to be a woman.”

Her 2008 memoir, I'm Looking Through You, is about growing up in a haunted house. While trans issues form part of the exposition of the book, the primary focus of I'm Looking Through You is on what it means to be "haunted," and how we all seek to find peace with our various ghosts, both the supernatural and the all-too-human.

Jenny has been a frequent guest on a number of national television and radio programs, including three visits to the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has also appeared on the Larry King Show, The Today Show and been the subject of a documentary on CBS News’ 48 Hours. She has also appeared on a wide range of local and syndicated television shows, as well as NPR's Marketplace and the Diane Rehm show. In 2007 she played herself on two episodes of ABC's "All My Children." She has spoken widely around the country on gender and imagination, at venues including the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and the New Jersey State Theatre. She has given plenary and keynote speeches at conferences on diversity and scholarship around the country, and at colleges and universities including Amherst, Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke, Bucknell, Dickinson, Bates, Ohio State, Middlebury, Gettysburg, Georgia State, the University of Puget Sound, and Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She has spoken at law firms, at corporate events, and at bookstores from Seattle to Vermont.

Her nonfiction has appeared on the op/ed pages of the New York Times, in GQ magazine, Allure, and Glamour. She is also an ongoing contributor to Conde Nast Traveler magazine; her most recent work there was on Easter Island, published in the January 2007 issue.

Boylan's first book, a collection of stories entitled Remind Me To Murder You Later, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1988. Her first novel, The Planets, was published in 1991 by Poseidon Press. (Simon and Schuster). Loosely based upon the classical piece of music by Gustav Holst, The Planets followed the lives of several fictional characters in the real town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, which has been afflicted by an underground coal fire since the early 1960s.

Her second novel, The Constellations follows the lives of several of the characters from The Planets, some of whom flee from angry cows, discover a latex brain, and begin a life of dognapping.

Her 1997 novel, Getting In, published by Warner Books, focused on four high school students who go on quests to get into college. The novel was optioned for film by Renny Harlin and Geena Davis, and Jenny was tapped to write the initial screenplay for New Line Cinema.

Born in 1958 in Valley Forge, Boylan ...more

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Jennifer Finney Boylan's Blog

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

I just finished this amazing book. Name drop goes here: my pal Russo told me to read it, and he was right. It's reminiscent of the Dickensian orphan/waif genre, but it's also a thing unique. I fell into this book while I was reading it and did not want to do anything else but dwell in the dark, merciless world of its hero.

4 likes · Like • 1 comment • flag

Published on July 07, 2009 13:42 • Tags: good, thief, tinti

Combine Editions
Jennifer Finney Boylan’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 597,919 ratings · 55,875 reviews · 31 distinct works • Similar authors

	She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders 3.97 avg rating — 13,072 ratings — published 2003 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Black Veil 3.26 avg rating — 2,767 ratings — published 2017 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs 3.66 avg rating — 2,178 ratings — published 2020 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us 3.65 avg rating — 2,172 ratings — published 2025 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted 3.73 avg rating — 1,325 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Goodreads Author), Anna Quindlen (Contributor) 3.80 avg rating — 1,116 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror (Falcon Quinn, #1) by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Goodreads Author), Brandon Dorman (Illustrations) 3.87 avg rating — 620 ratings — published 2009 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Falcon Quinn and the Crimson Vapor (Falcon Quinn, #2) 4.04 avg rating — 297 ratings — published 2011 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Getting In 3.26 avg rating — 124 ratings — published 1998 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I'll Give You Something to Cry About 3.65 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Falcon Quinn (3 books)
by

Jennifer Finney Boylan (Goodreads Author),

Brandon Dorman (Illustrations)

3.93 avg rating — 950 ratings

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

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The Stand

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 14, 2009 06:12AM

Quotes by Jennifer Finney Boylan (?)

“As it turns out, we're all still learning to be men, or women, all still learning to be ourselves. pg 197”
― Jennifer Finney Boylan, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders

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“Maybe . . . it's easier to have enemies than not to have them. . . . If you don't hate people, you have to learn to like them. . . . And liking people? That's not easy.”
― Jennifer Finney Boylan, Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror

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“I have a different theory, which is even more harebrained. It goes like this: Maybe we should all just love one another, even if we don't completely understand the things that people bear in their dark, strange hearts, even if the stars that other men and women are following seem invisible to us. If we make ourselves open to the humanity of others first, maybe understanding will follow. An incomprehensible theory of the universe isn't necessary if your only ambition is to embrace another soul. What you need, maybe all you need, in fact, is the willingness to love.”
― Jennifer Finney Boylan, Long Black Veil

tags: absolute-truths, universal-love

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See all Jennifer Finney Boylan's quotes »

Polls

July BoTM "Color in Title" ~ 1st Poll
Top 5 books move onto final poll

Girl in the Blue Coat

by Monica Hesse

6 votes, 12.0%

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5 votes, 10.0%

A Spool of Blue Thread

by Anne Tyler

5 votes, 10.0%

The Peach Keeper

by Sarah Addison Allen

5 votes, 10.0%

Written in Red

by Anne Bishop

5 votes, 10.0%

Black Out

by Lisa Unger

4 votes, 8.0%

White Teeth

by Zadie Smith

4 votes, 8.0%

My Name Is Venus Black

by Heather Lloyd

4 votes, 8.0%

Sadness Is a White Bird

by Moriel Rothman-Zecher

3 votes, 6.0%

The Black Velvet Coat

by Jill G. Hall

2 votes, 4.0%

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

2 votes, 4.0%

Red Rising

by Pierce Brown

2 votes, 4.0%

Like Water for Chocolate

by Laura Esquivel

2 votes, 4.0%

Long Black Veil

by Jennifer Finney Boylan

1 vote, 2.0%

50 total votes

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