The Biography

Jennifer Finney Boylan (born June 22, 1958) is a professor at Barnard College, bestselling author, and transgender activist. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 1980, then completed graduate work in English at Johns Hopkins University. Boylan was on the faculty of Colby College from 1988 to 2014. In 2000, she was named "Professor of the Year" at Colby College. She moved to Barnard in 2014, where she is both Professor of English and Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence. In 2013, Boylan was chosen as the first openly transgender co-chair of GLAAD's National Board of Directors and she served until 2017. Boylan also serves on the Policy Advisory Board of Gender Rights Maryland and the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Boylan has written thirteen books, including novels, collections of short stories, and her memoir. Her 2003 memoir, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders was the first book published by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller and was described by The Advocate as "a seminal piece of the trans literary canon". Her memoir, Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs was published on April 21, 2020. She was a Contributing Opinion Writer in The New York Times from October 2007 to April 2022. In October 2022, she published Mad Honey, a novel co-written with New York Times bestselling author, Jodi Picoult.