Please join Barnswallow Books, the MWPA, and the Maine ACLU 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 join the Maine ACLU and others with experience working on free speech in Maine in conversation.
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.