Don't Call Me Inspirational A Disabled Feminist Talks Back

"[The] author's willingness to connect disability bias and sexism, as well as the non-linear essay format refreshing. The lives of people with disabilities rarely fit into a conventional timeline, so the non-chronological approach is a good choice overall. The title is a special gift to women like myself who feel that we get far more credit for continuing to exist than we do for anything we accomplish... Overall, this is a clear and thoughtful set of essays that made me want to read more...It really makes you think."--Breathe & Shadow, Summer 2013 "I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even more rare: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness, and so helps us to discover our own. This book is irresistible to read, honest, insightful and universal." Gloria Steinem "An inspirational affirmation of the unique worth of every individual." Kirkus Reviews, December 15th 2012 "Rousso is an activist, artist, educator, social worker, psychotherapist, writer, painter and advocate who has worked in the disability rights field. The book follows her journey from 'passing' - pretending that she didn't have cerebral palsy - to embracing her disability. In the late '70s, she began exploring her disability identity, and she writes with honesty and power." Jewish Woman, Winter 2012 "This collection of 52 short essays and meditative fragments is aptly described by the author, a psychotherapist, disabilities activist, and artist, as 'a collage or a series of images' rather than a more formal memoir... When she writes of the psychotherapy institute where she was training asking her to leave, believing that a person with her disability would 'distress [her] psychotherapy clients, causing them to flee - or at least to ask for another, more "normal" therapist,' she, and her reader, recognize the prejudice she has faced... [Rousso's] painful honesty is affecting." Publishers Weekly, December 2012 "[E]xtraordinary... Memoirs succeed when they provide readers with a gut feeling of what the author's life is like, and Rousso indeed opens the door to her world... [She] writes with intelligence, passion, humor and spunk." - New York Jewish Week "Rousso confronts her disability head-on in this engaging memoir. Sometimes emotional, often blunt, Rousso recounts what it was like growing up with cerebral palsy in New York City... This memoir is comprised of essays, poems, and personal memories, the combination making for an unusual, compelling read." - Library Journal "Rousso uses this collection of brief essays and a few poems to share her beliefs and render her journey from dependent daughter to independent activist... [P]age by page, she makes the case for herself, to herself - and to other disabled women. 'There is no quick fix for a lifetime of selfhatred,' Rousso writes. 'Only slow healing.'"--Bust, June/July 2013