Penny Wolfson

Jimi Hendrix and the Prophet Isaiah

A High Holidays talk about the musician, the prophet, and my parents.

Selected Works

Memoir

The Myth of Diana

An essay that started with my mother's fur coat and ended up examining the construction of my female self

My Father's Meat Grinder

A look at both the actual object--the old galvanized steel grinder my parents used--and the memories evoked

talk/essay

Jimi Hendrix and the Prophet Isaiah

This began as a talk for my synagogue using the prophet Isaiah's diatribe about fasting and peoplehood and morphed into a reflection on Woodstock and ethics.

Magazine essay

The Ties that Bind: Coming to Terms with My Child's Gender

Online magazine essay in Motherwell

Beautiful Dreamers, Print magazine

The first of many pieces for Print magazine about my parents' ephemera, this one about their high school literary magazines

Thesis

Enwheeled: Two Centuries of Wheelchair Design, from Furniture to Film

Thesis on the design and history of wheelchairs in the U.S.

Newspaper article

Balancing Act in a Wheelchair

When the five of us went to northern Italy, we found challenges and rewards in having a family member who used a wheelchair.

Nonfiction/Memoir

Moonrise: One Family, Genetic Identity and Muscular Dystrophy

A memoir of our family experience with the genetic disease and disability Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Memoir/Nonfiction

Moonrise

Essay that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly about my son's disability