Susie Bright

Susie Bright
Bright atCome as You Arein 2012
Born	Susannah Bright (1958-03-25)March 25, 1958 Arlington, Virginia,U.S.
Other names	Susie Sexpert
Education	University of California, Santa Cruz New College of California
Occupations	Feminist author journalist critic editor publisher producer performer
Notable work	Big Sex, Little Death: a Memoir,Full Exposure,Susie Bright's Sexual State of the Union,SexWise
Movement	Sex-positive feminist

Susannah Bright(born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author and journalist, often on the subject of politics andsexuality.

She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and is one of the early writers/activists referred to as asex-positive feminist.Her papers are part of theHuman Sexuality Collectionat Cornell University Library along with the archives ofOn Our Backs.

Career

As a teenager in the 1970s, Susie Bright was active in thefeminist,civil rights, andanti-warmovements. She was a member of the high school underground newspaperThe Red Tideand served as the plaintiff suing the Los Angeles Board of Education for the right of minors to distribute their own publications without prior censorship or approval. (Judgement in favor of Plaintiff).

She was a member of theInternational Socialistsfrom 1974 to 1976 and worked as a labor and community organizer in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit, and Louisville, Kentucky. She was also one of the founding members ofTeamsters for a Democratic Union,and wrote under the pseudonym Sue Danielsin bothThe Red TideandWorkers' Power.She has said "I was motivated, always, from the sting of social injustice. The cry of 'That isn't fair!' gets a more impulsive behavior from me than, 'I want to get off!'"

Bright was one of the early staff members ofGood Vibrations,a pioneering feminist sex toy store, working at and managing the store from 1981 to 1986. She trained withSan Francisco Sex Informationin 1981. She wrote Good Vibrations' first mail order catalog, the first sex toy catalog written from a women's point of a view for a female audience. She founded the Good Vibrations Erotic Video Library, the first feminist curation of erotic films available at the time.

Susie Bright co-founded and edited the first women-produced sex-magazineOn Our Backs,"entertainment for the adventurous lesbian," from 1984 to 1991.Here she began her sex advice column as "Susie Sexpert." She collected these columns and expanded them to publish her first book,Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex Worldin 1990.

Bright co-edited withJill Posenerand published a portfolio of lesbian erotic photography titledNothing but the Girl,with 30 interviews with the photographers. It won theFirecracker Awardand theLambda Literary Awardin 1997.

Bright founded the firstwomen's eroticabook-seriesHeroticaand edited the first three volumes. She started the national bestsellingThe Best American Eroticaseries in 1993.

From 1992 to 1994, she was the contributing editor and columnist forSan Francisco Review of Books.

Bright was the first female member of theX-Rated Critics Organizationin 1986 and was voted into theXRCO Hall of Fame, 5th Estate,in 2005.

Known as the "Pauline Kaelof Porn ",she wrote feminist reviews oferotic filmsforPenthouseForumfrom 1986 to 1989.She was the first mainstream journalist who covered the adult industry trade— and the first scholar to teach the aesthetics and politics of erotic film imagery, starting in 1986 at Cal Arts Valencia, and then in the early nineties at the University of California. Her film-reviews of mainstream movies are widely published, and her comments ongay filmhistory are featured in the documentary filmThe Celluloid Closet.As well, she was featured inMaya Gallus's 1997 documentary filmErotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality.

Bright produced, co-wrote and starred in two plays,Girls Gone BadandKnife, Paper, Scissors.She worked as a screenwriter and film consultant on several films: Erotique,Monika Treut'sDie Jungfrauenmaschine(akaVirgin Machine) film in 1988 as "Susie Sexper,"The Celluloid Closet,TheCriterion Collection's edition ofLuis Buñuel’sBelle de Jour,andthe Wachowskis' film,Bound(in which she also had a cameo appearance). She also appeared as "Susie Bright, the feminist sex writer" in an episode of the HBO seriesSix Feet Under.

In 2013, Bright donated her archives to the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library.They included papers and documents from her early activist days inThe Red Tide,Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and International Socialists, her early stage and film work, a complete archive ofOn Our Backsmagazine and Fatale Videos, her reviews and research as a critic forPenthouse Forum,and the X-Rated Critics Association, all of her nonfiction manuscripts and anthology research for "Best American Erotica", costumes, VHS tapes, books, writings— as well as many other artist files from the early lesbian feminist and erotic literary fiction publishing era.

The donation culminated with the 2014 year-long exhibit "Speaking of Sex"where Bright's donations were displayed along with a wide array of the Human Sexuality Collection's historical documents and materials. As part of the exhibit's grand opening, Bright gave the lecture "The Sexual State of the Union", analyzing current sexual attitudes in America, and reprised her show "How to Read a Dirty Movie."

In 2022, Bright was in residence at the Cornell University Library for the exhibitionRadical Desire: Making On Our Backs Magazinewhere she presented the panel discussionMaking a Lesbian Sex Magazine in the Age of the Feminist Sex Warswith Lulu Belliveau, Phyllis Christopher, Del LaGrace, Morgan Gwenwald, Nan Kinney,Jill Posener,Jessica Tanzer, Deborah Sundahl, Karen Williams, and On Our Backs’ staffers, artists, and models.

Susie Bright was an editor-at-large and executive producer at Audible Inc. between 2012 and 2023. Her imprint isThe Bright List.She has been nominated or awarded an Audie Award four times, including for her production ofThe Autobiography of Malcolm X.She has produced audiobook titles by Margaret Atwood, Pablo Neruda, Che Guevara, Frank O’Hara, Martin Luther King, Cornel West, Gary Snyder, Charles Bukowski, Noam Chomsky, Ron Kovic and Bruce Springsteen, Betty Medsger, Dorothy Allison, Dan Savage, Tony Hillerman, Joy Harjo, Octavia Butler, and Dave Hickey.

Personal life

Bright is the daughter of linguistWilliam Brightand Elizabeth Bright.Her stepmother isLise Menn,and her stepbrothers are Joseph Menn andStephen Menn.

Bright lived with her partnerHoney Lee Cottrellin the 1980s. She is married to Jon Bailiff,with whom she has one daughter, Aretha Bright.

Books

As editor

• Bright, Susie; Blank, Joani, eds. (1995).Totally Herotica: A Collection of Women's Erotic Fiction.New York: Quality Paperback Book Club.OCLC36621041.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (1988).Herotica: A Collection of Women's Erotic Fiction.Burlingame, California: Down There Press.ISBN9780940208117.
• Bright, Susie; Blank, Joani, eds. (1991).Herotica 2: A Collection of Women's Erotic Fiction.New York, New York: Plume.ISBN9780452267879.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (1993).The best American Erotica, 1993(15th ed.). New York, New York: Collier Books.ISBN9780020792628.

• Bright, Susie, ed. (2008).The best of Best American Erotica, 2008(15th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN9780743289634.

• Bright, Susie, ed. (1994).Herotica 3: An Anthology of Women's Erotic Fiction.New York: Plume.ISBN9780452271807.
• Bright, Susie; Posener, Jill, eds. (1996).Nothing but the Girl: the Blatant Lesbian Image: A Portfolio and Exploration of Lesbian Erotic Photography.New York, New York: Freedom Editions.ISBN9781860470028.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (1998).Herotica: A Collection of Women's Erotic Fiction(10th anniversary ed.). San Francisco, California: Down There Press.ISBN9780940208247.With introduction and afterword by the Bright.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (2004).Susie Bright Presents Three the Hard Way: Erotic Novellas.New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN9780743245494.Authors:William Harrison,Greg Boyd, andTsaurah Litzky.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (2005).Susie Bright Presents Three Kinds of Asking for It: Erotic Novellas.New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN9780743245500.Authors:Eric Albert,Greta Christina,andJill Soloway.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (2008).X: The Erotic Treasury.San Francisco: Chronicle Books.ISBN9780811864022.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (2009).Bitten: Dark Erotic Stories.San Francisco: Chronicle Books.ISBN9780811864251.
• Bright, Susie, ed. (2018).Santa Cruz Noir.Brooklyn: Akashic Books.ISBN9781617756221.

As author

• Bright, Susie (1990).Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World.Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cleis Press.ISBN9780939416356.
• Juno, Andrea (Fall 1991).Angry women (interview with Susie Bright).Vol. 13.ISBN9780940642249.{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help)
• Bright, Susie (1992).Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader.Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cleis Press.ISBN9780939416592.
• Bright, Susie (1995).Susie Bright's Sexwise.Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cleis Press.ISBN9781573440035.
• Bright, Susie (1997).Susie Bright's Sexual State of the Union.New York, New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN9780684800233.

• Bright, Susie (1998).The Sexual State of the Union(trade ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN9780684838502.

• Bright, Susie (1998).Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World(1st ed.). New York, NY: Freedom Editions.ISBN9781860470059.
• Bright, Susie (1998).Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image: A Portfolio and Exploration of Lesbian Erotic Photography(2nd ed.). San Francisco, California Berkeley, California: Cleis Press Distributed by Publishers Group West.ISBN9781573440776.
• Bright, Susie (1999).Full exposure: Opening Up to Sexual Creativity and Erotic Expression.San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.ISBN9780062515919.
• Bright, Susie (2001).How to Write a Dirty Story.Susie Bright.ISBN9781931391306.
• Bright, Susie (2003).Mommy's Little Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn, and Cherry Pie.New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.ISBN9781560255512.
• Bright, Susie (2005).Inspired By Andrea Dworkin: Essays on Lust, Aggression, Porn, & The Female Gaze That I Might Not Have Written If Not for Her.Santa Cruz: Susie Bright.ASINB0041OSGGG.
• Bright, Susie (2011).Big sex, Little Death: A Memoir.Berkeley, California: Seal Press.ISBN9781580052641.

Awards

• National Leather Association International’s Jan Lyon Award for Regional or Local Work, 1987
• Humanist Feminist Award,2017
• Audie Award Winner,Carrie's Story, Executive Producer, 2014
• Audie Award Nominee,The Invisible Heart,Executive Producer, 2014
• Audie Award Nominee,Naked at Any Age,Executive Producer, 2013
• Audie Award, Best Memoir/Autobiography, Best Male Performance, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", co-producer, 2021
• Gail Rich Award, Santa Cruz, 2002
• Lambda Literary Award,Nothing but the Girl,1997
• Firecracker Alternative Book Award,Nothing but the Girl,1997
• Utne Reader Visionary,1995

External links

• Susie BrightatIMDb
• Susie BrightatAllMovie
• Susie Bright's Journal