CANTON -- Bestselling novelist and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activist Jennifer Finney Boylan will discuss her memoir about transitioning from male to female as part of SUNY Canton's Living Writers Series. Boylan will speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, in the Miller Center Kingston Theatre. The event is free and open to the public.

Her memoir, "She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders," is one of the first bestselling works by a transgender American. Until 2001 she published under the name James Boylan. Today, she is an activist for LGBT people through her writing and her involvement on the Board of Directors of GLAAD and the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.

Boylan has been a frequent guest on a number of national television and radio programs, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "The Today Show," and is a regular contributor to the op-ed page of the New York Times. She has been a member of the English Department at Colby College for 25 years.

Boylan is the author of 13 books. Her latest published work is "Stuck in the Middle with You: Parenthood in Three Genders," a memoir about the differences between fatherhood and motherhood. "Having a father who became a mother has helped my sons, in turn, become better men," Boylan said about the book.

SUNY Canton Assistant Professor of English Phil K. LaMarche created the Living Writers Series in 2012 correspond with his Living Writers Course. Students enrolled in the class read the books by the authors scheduled to visit the College. Short-story author Patrick Lawler will speak Nov. 19.