Please join Barnswallow Books, the MWPA, and the ACLU of Maine for a conversation during Banned Books Week about the importance of free speech in writing and publishing. Bestselling and award-winning writer Jennifer Finney Boylan will be in conversation with Zach Heiden, Director of Program and Strategy and Chief Counsel at the Maine ACLU, and Cathleen Miller, UNE archivist and chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee at the Maine Library Association.
Free event with RSVP.
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of nineteen books, is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University.
She serves on the Board of Trustees of PEN America, the nonprofit advocating for authors, readers, and freedom of expression. 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 opinion page of 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, CLEAVAGE: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us, was published in 2025. The thriller Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult, was published in 2022 by Ballantine/Random House.
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 New York City, and in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie, and their family.
Zach Heiden, ACLU of Maine
Zach Heiden is the Director of Program and Strategy and Chief Counsel at the ACLU of Maine. Zach was hired in 2004 as the organization’s first staff attorney and he was instrumental in building the ACLU of Maine’s legislative advocacy program before the organization had policy counsel on staff.
He has litigated a wide variety of cases to defend the civil rights and civil liberties of people in Maine, including the rights of artists, immigrants, incarcerated people, journalists, pregnant people, protesters, religious minorities, students, and whistleblowers. New England Super Lawyer magazine called him “a hero to beer drinkers everywhere” for his challenge to censorship of alcoholic beverage label illustrations.
In 2008, Zach served as a member of the Maine Judicial Branch Indigent Legal Services Commission, which helped restructure the delivery of constitutionally mandated legal representation to people who had been accused of committing a crime and could not afford legal representation. In 2012, Zach served on the Executive Committee of Mainers United for Marriage, the statewide campaign to win marriage equality. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law.
Cathleen Miller, UNE & the Maine Library Association
Cathleen Miller works at the University of New England Libraries as Education and Outreach Archivist and Associate Dean for Research and Teaching. She holds an MLS from Drexel University and an MA in Poetry from Temple University. Cathleen is currently the Chair of the Maine Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, serves as a Law for Librarians trainer, and is on the steering committee of the New England Intellectual Freedom Helpline. Outside of library-land, Cathleen spends as much time as possible with hands in the earth, whether it be in the garden or making vessels out of clay, and writes essays and poems focused on their relationship with the Earth and our more-than-human kin.