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Works

Enwheeled: History, Design, and the Wheelchair

Enwheeled traces the development of the wheelchair through the lens of design history. Drawing largely on historical sources as well as the modern expertise of theorists and users, this book highlights key moments in the advances of prosthetic technologies, particularly the Civil War and World War II and the disability rights movement of the 1960s and '70s. Propelled by this historical narrative, Wolfson considers the multi-faceted relationship of user and chair, human and object, in the evolving identities of people who use wheelchairs in their daily lives.

 

Moonrise

This is the original essay that won a National Magazine Award and has appeared in several anthologies, including Best American Essays. It is also taught in several college classes.

The Myth of Diana

An essay about growing up female and naming a daughter. 

Jimi Hendrix and the Prophet Isaiah

A High Holidays talk about the musician, the prophet, and my parents. It appeared in The Forward as an essay in November 2019, on Hendrix's birthday.

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

When my 23-year-old son came out as trasngender I had to re-invent, sometimes painfully, my ideas about my child. In the end, love won out. 

Moonrise: One Family, Genetic Identity and Muscular Dystrophy

A chronicle of diagnosis and an exploration of the meaning of genetic disease. The book came out in 2003 and was based on an article in the Atlantic Monthly.

Beautiful Dreamers, Print magazine

My parents' literary magazines from Depression-era New York City public schools, with graphics

Balancing Act in a Wheelchair

A trip to Italy with a disabled son

My Father's Meat Grinder

This appeared in the Jewish magazine Lilith and examines my early life and my family's obsession with meat.