Susie Bright

Susannah "Susie" Bright (also known as Susie Sexpert) (born March 25, 1958, Arlington, Virginia) is a writer, speaker, teacher, audio-show host, performer, all on the subject of sexuality. She is one of the first writers/activists referred to as a sex-positive feminist. [http://sexuality.about.com/od/eroticentertainment/a/susie_bright_2.htm "Susie Bright Sexual Revolutionary"] , interview by Cory Silverberg, October 14, 2007, About.com. Retrieved 2008-01-02.]

She has a weekly program entitled "In Bed with Susie Bright" distributed through audible.com, where she discusses a variety of social, freedom of speech and sex-related topics. Interviews, book and movie reviews are common, as are letters from listeners. The show generally begins with a monologue on current events. The show concludes with a letters-segment and the catch-phrase "Clits up!"

Her website has operated since March 1997, and she began her blog in 2004.

Susie Bright was active in the 1970s in various left-wing progressive causes, in particular the feminist and anti-war movements. She was also one of the founding members of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and wrote under the pseudonym Sue Daniels. [ [http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/114/Susie-Bright-How-to-Read-Write-a-page01.html The WELL: Susie Bright: How to Read/Write a Dirty Story ] ]

Bright co-founded and edited the first women's sex-magazine, "On Our Backs", "entertainment for the adventurous lesbian," from 1984 to 1991. From 1992 to 1994 she was a columnist for "San Francisco Review of Books". She founded the first women's erotica book-series, "Herotica", and edited the first three volumes. She started "The Best American Erotica" series in 1993, which she publishes to this day. She was the choreographer/consultant for the Wachowski Brothers film, "Bound" (in which she also had a cameo appearance). Bright also appeared as herself in an episode of the HBO series "Six Feet Under".

Bright taught the first university class on the subject of the aesthetics and politics of pornography at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California in 1986, and became well-known for her scholarship in sexual representation through her courses on the subject at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Bright was the first female critic of the X-Rated Critics Organization in 1986, and wrote feminist reviews of erotic films for "Penthouse" Forum from 1986–1989. Her film-reviews of mainstream movies are widely published, and her comments on gay film history are featured in the documentary film "The Celluloid Closet"

She has one daughter, Aretha Bright, and lives with her partner, Jon Bailiff. She currently resides in Santa Cruz, California. Her father was the linguist William Bright.

Books

*Editor, "Three Kinds of Asking For It: Erotic Novellas" by Eric Albert, Greta Christina, and Jill Soloway, Touchstone, 2005
*Editor, "Three the Hard Way: Three Novellas" by William Harrison, Greg Boyd, and Tsaurah Litzky, Simon and Schuster, 2004
*"Mommy's Little Girl: Susie Bright on Sex, Motherhood, Pornography, and Cherry Pie", Thunder's Mouth, 2004
*"How to Write a Dirty Story," Simon and Schuster, 2002
*"Full Exposure: Opening Up to Sex and Creativity", HarperSanFrancisco, 1999
*Series editor, "Best American Erotica", Simon and Schuster, 1993 - 2007
*"Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World", 2nd edition with three new chapters, Cleis Press, 1998
*"Herotica", 10th anniversary edition, with Afterword by the editor, Down There Press, 1998
*"The Sexual State of the Union", Simon & Schuster, 1997, trade edition, 1998
*Author and co-editor, "Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image", Cassell, 1996
*"SexWise", Cleis Press, 1995
*Editor, "Totally Herotica", Book-of-the-Month Club, 1995
*"Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex Reader", Cleis Press, 1992
*Featured artist, "Angry Women", RE/Search, interview by Andrea Juno, Fall 1991
*Editor, "Herotica", "Herotica II", "Herotica III", Down There Press and Penguin USA, 1988, 1992, and 1994

External links

* [http://www.susiebright.com Official website]
* [http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/ Her weblog]
* [http://www.audible.com/susiebright "In Bed with Susie Bright" on Audible.com]
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susie-bright/ Susie Bright] at The Huffington Post
* [http://www.alternet.org/columnists/323/ Susie Bright] at AlterNet
* [http://harelbarzilai.org/heros/sueb.html "My hero Susie Bright"] fan page by Harel, and [http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/99/maya/susie.html Maya's Thoughts on Susie] , fan page by Maya.
* [http://susiebright.blogs.com/Old_Static_Site_Files/Prime_Of_Kitty_MacKinnon.pdf "The Prime of Miss Kitty MacKinnon"] by Susie Bright, "East Bay Express", October 1993. (archived at "Susie Bright's Journal" (website))
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/books/23bright.html New York Times obituary for William Bright (source for full name "Susannah")]
* [http://www.msmagazine.com/jun99/monica-bright.asp Ms. Magazine Article]
* Listen online: [http://boomp3.com/m/a6258c507b55 Full Exposure]
* [http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/02/22/sex-expert-susie-bright-lets-it-all-out/ Interview with Susie Bright on 10ZenMonkeys.com]

References