Jennifer Finney Boylan is a busy woman. In addition to teaching at Barnard College, consulting for Transparent and I Am Cait and serving as a GLAAD board co-chair, Boylan has authored more than a dozen books, including the best-selling memoir She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders and the forthcoming novel Long Black Veil. She will head to Boston Oct. 16-17 to receive the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Spirit of Justice Award and host a reading of her memoir—but first, she squeezed in a chat with us.
Have your thoughts on your memoir changed with time? After I wrote that book I read it a lot. I sat in bed, holding it in my hands, kind of unable to believe that it was real. Then, after I got over myself, I put the book aside for a long time. I don’t know if I read it at all until 2012, when I began to prepare the revised 10th anniversary edition. There were so many things I would have changed or corrected, now that I am 10 years smarter about the complexities of transgender experience, but for the most part I let everything stay the same. As the saying goes, I stand by all my mistakes. The new edition does have a short new introduction and two new “epilogue” chapters, one by me and one by my wife.
What’s been a positive outcome of working on I Am Cait? Caitlyn [Jenner] is a very unusual person—not only because of her history but also because of her privilege. No one in their right mind should confuse her with a typical transgender person. That said, just the tremendous visibility of her coming out put our stories on the radar.
You’ve worked in so many different arenas—what is your dream project? In my fantasy world, I have a one-woman show that consists of me telling stories and performing my original songs. Of course, an obstacle to this is that one of the instruments that I play is the autoharp… Also, I have a voice kind of like Rochester from The Jack Benny Show. Still, a girl can dream.
Transcendent
Jennifer Finney Boylan is a busy woman. In addition to teaching at Barnard College, consulting for Transparent and I Am Cait and serving as a GLAAD board co-chair, Boylan has authored more than a dozen books, including the best-selling memoir She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders and the forthcoming novel Long Black Veil. She will head to Boston Oct. 16-17 to receive the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Spirit of Justice Award and host a reading of her memoir—but first, she squeezed in a chat with us.
Have your thoughts on your memoir changed with time? After I wrote that book I read it a lot. I sat in bed, holding it in my hands, kind of unable to believe that it was real. Then, after I got over myself, I put the book aside for a long time. I don’t know if I read it at all until 2012, when I began to prepare the revised 10th anniversary edition. There were so many things I would have changed or corrected, now that I am 10 years smarter about the complexities of transgender experience, but for the most part I let everything stay the same. As the saying goes, I stand by all my mistakes. The new edition does have a short new introduction and two new “epilogue” chapters, one by me and one by my wife.
What’s been a positive outcome of working on I Am Cait? Caitlyn [Jenner] is a very unusual person—not only because of her history but also because of her privilege. No one in their right mind should confuse her with a typical transgender person. That said, just the tremendous visibility of her coming out put our stories on the radar.
You’ve worked in so many different arenas—what is your dream project? In my fantasy world, I have a one-woman show that consists of me telling stories and performing my original songs. Of course, an obstacle to this is that one of the instruments that I play is the autoharp… Also, I have a voice kind of like Rochester from The Jack Benny Show. Still, a girl can dream.
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