Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Sjunneson, Elsa
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1985-
History
World Fantasy Award-nominated Elsa Sjunneson defines herself as "a partially deafblind bicoastal raised speculative fiction writer and editor. " Originally from Seattle, WA., she is a graduate of both Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA and Sarah Lawrence College (in the Women's History program) in New York. She has written short stories for venues including Fireside and Uncanny Magazine; she co-edited the September/October 2018 special issue of Uncanny (titled Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction). This issue, designed to restore the disability experience to the science fiction narrative, won Sjunneson the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, the 2019 Aurora Award for Best Related Work-English, and the 2019 British Fantasy Award for Best Magazine/Periodical.
She has also been the Assistant Editor and Managing Editor of Fireside Quarterly and Uncanny's non-fiction editor. She has also been part of the creative team behind Serial Box’s Marvel's Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire,and has worked on game design products such as Changeling, Wraith, The Fate Accessibility Toolkit, and Dead Scare. Her comic story about Peggy Carter will be featured in 2021's Women of Marvel giant-size comic book.
Sjunneson, who won the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer, is also a noted writer of non-fiction pieces, which have appeared in venues such as Tor.com, the Boston Globe, and Uncanny. She is a fierce activist for the disabled and for correcting the media misrepresentation of disabled people. Her first full-length work, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism was released in October 2021.
She founded and wrote the popular blog Feminist Sonar from 2011-2016, where she laid groundwork for many discussions on disability in popular discourse. As an activist for disability rights, she has worked with New Jersey 11th for Change and the New York Disability Pride Parade.