A Pride Month Book Pairing

Featuring one of my writing superheroes, the esteemed Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jenny and I at a reception celebrating the release of her newest book Cleavage.

Jenny Finney Boylan, she has “doing the work” as she calls it for decades now. She is the author of 19 books, President of PEN America, and the Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her motto, as far as I can tell from following her closely for many years is, “Love will prevail.” If I get a tattoo maybe that will be it.

Introducing her at the final stop of her book tour for her newest book Cleavage was one of the highlights of my career as a writer. I’m including my remarks below.

For those of you short on time, here is my quick and passionate recommendation.

If you read one and only one memoir about a trans person’s journey to medical transition, read She’s Not There, which was originally published in 2003. What I like about it, is that it is a memoir about gender transition, but in the big picture it is a story about re-invention. And who among us has not had to re-invent our lives in order to live closer to the core of who we are? Plus, she is funny. Believe me, you need more memoirists in your life who have a sense of humor as charming and spot on as Jenny’s.

Buy She’s Not There

Her newest book Cleavage looks back from her sixties to the experiences she lived through and wrote about in She’s Not There. I experienced great pleasure reading the two together (I re-read She’s Not There before Jenny’s book tour event). There was a rich softness in Cleavage (despite its fabulous somewhat gonzo boob cover) that made me look forward to being an older woman.

Buy Cleavage

If you have time and want to read more about why Jenny is one of my sheroes, here is a copy of the introduction I wrote for her….

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If something in this post moved you, if you learned something new, if reading this made you feel more empowered to support the trans community, I hope you’ll consider sharing my free newsletter with a friend! My hope is to double my subscribers this month.

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For those of you who don’t know me. I’m Cristina Olivetti. I graduated in 1994 with a degree in Women’s Studies from Harvard-Radcliffe. I’m a writer. My first book, a memoir called About Bliss which will be out in June, is about raising my trans son. It would be hard for me to say whether Jenny Finney Boylan or Radcliffe has been more influential in my life as a person, as a parent and as a writer. To be able to celebrate both, on the same night is a joy and an honor.

As an undergraduate I had the good fortune of stumbling upon Radcliffe early in my time at Harvard, and then I had the good sense to stick around. The Schlesinger Library was an especially important resource for me as it provided a grant for researching my thesis (an opportunity that continues to be available to undergraduates) and these days it is my great pleasure and honor to serve on the Schlesinger Library Council.

Since my graduation, the design of Radcliffe has evolved. No longer a degree conferring institution, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute now stands independently as one of our nation’s most important centers for interdisciplinary research and intellectual curiosity. Built on a legacy of inclusion and the unwavering commitment to the study of gender The Institute gathers 54 intellectual and cultural thought leaders in Cambridge every fall for a full academic year of deep work and community. Past fellows include Elizabeth Warren, Zadie Smith, Michael Pollen and Jill Leppore. And through the Schlesinger Library HRI archives critical primary resources documenting the history of women and gender in the US.

In a time when intellectual life is endangered, and deep thought feels near impossible, The Harvard Radcliffe Institute is a refuge for creativity, cross pollinating community, rigor, and thoughtful cultural progress.

To me, there is hardly a better person to embody the spirit of HRI than Jennifer Finney Boylan. Because like Radcliffe itself, her cultural influence is multidisciplinary and deep. She is a scholar, a writer and an activist. You might recognize her name from the column she wrote for the New York Times, for one of her best selling memoirs, or maybe for her recent best selling novel, Mad Honey [If you read this far, consider this an Easter Egg third book recommendation—excellent, suspenseful, beach worthy novel] which she co-wrote with Jodie Picoult.

Her memoir, She’s Not There; A Life in Two Genders came out in 2003 and changed the world.

The first New York Times Bestseller written by a trans author, She’s Not There is considered by many to be one of the first waves in a cultural sea change that led to what Time Magazine called “the trans tipping point,” in 2014. I read it when my son was ten and it changed the course of both of our lives.

[This is where I accidentally started crying, like seriously choked up]

And while 2003 is an epoch ago in trans history, Boylan’s memoir continues to be a starting point for many readers, as it was for me, when it comes to understanding the trans experience.

Since 2003 Professor Boylan has worked non-stop. She has continued to teach, she has authored 18 books, she has been a frequent contributor to the NYTimes along with other publications, and she has served on numerous boards including PEN America, GLAAD, and the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research. With her new book, Cleavage, readers are treated once again to her humor, literary grace, and precise, compassionate self-observation. Though she had previously declared that she was done telling her story after having written five memoirs, we are lucky that she is back at it. We have never needed her story telling more.

So without further ado, it’s my pleasure to hand you over to Jenny who will start us off with a reading from Cleavage.