Penny Wolfson

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.

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.

An essay about growing up female and naming a daughter. 

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.

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. 

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.

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