Susan Nussbaum (1953 - 2022)
Susan Nussbaum was a disabled writer, actress, activist and the author of Good Kings Bad Kings. She had a life of telling the truth, enjoying her friends and family and working for disability rights. Two of Susan’s plays have been published: Mishuganismo and No One As Nasty. She won the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Social Engaging Fiction for her novel, Good Kings Bad Kings.
Nussbaum once wrote, "When I became a wheelchair user in the late '70s, all I knew about being disabled I learned from reading books and watching movies, and that scared the shit out of me. Tiny Tim was long-suffering and angelic and was cured at the end. Quasimodo was a monster who loved in vain and was killed at the end, but it was for the best. [Later,] I joined the disability-rights movement, barely organized in Chicago back then, and quickly came to realize that I was not alone. … My transformation from shamed victim to furiously rebellious crip (we took back the word that had oppressed us and used it in our own proud new vocabulary of defiance) was the foundation of my new identity.” She is survived by her father, Mike Nussbaum, sister, brother and daughter. |