Sue Booth-Forbes
{{short description|Teacher, writer and editor, operating a creative retreat in Ireland since 1998}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Sue Booth-Forbes
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| birth_name = Susan (L.) Larson
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| birth_place = Provo, Utah
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| occupation = Editor and coach, English teacher
| language = English
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| citizenship = US, Ireland
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| alma_mater = Brigham Young University
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| children = 2
| relatives = Clinton F. Larson (father)
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Susan Booth-Forbes (formerly Paxman, née Larson), is an American-Irish teacher, writer and literary editor. She co-founded the progressive Mormon women's journal, Exponent II, in 1974, and was its longest-serving editor, from 1984 to 1997. She operated the Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat in West Cork, Ireland, for over twenty years, hosting and supporting more than 1,000 writers and other creative artists. Before her editorial career, as a high school English teacher, she was one of two plaintiffs in a successful legal action over discrimination against female staff by her employer when she was pregnant in 1971, winning a declaration of unconstitutionality in a US Federal court.
Life
=Early life=
Susan Larson was born to Clinton F. (1919-1994){{cite news |title=Obituary - Clinton F. Larson |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/363904/DEATH--CLINTON-F-LARSON.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023093034/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/363904/DEATH--CLINTON-F-LARSON.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 October 2012 |accessdate=9 August 2019 |work=Deseret News |date=12 July 1994 |quote=Date of death: 10 July 1994}} and Naomi Larson (née Barlow) (1923-2010){{cite web |title=Obituary - Larson, Naomi |url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700026196/Obituary-LARSON-NAOMI.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809115611/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700026196/Obituary-LARSON-NAOMI.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 August 2019 |website=Deseret News |accessdate=9 August 2019 |date=21 April 2010 |quote=Date of death: 14 April 2010}} of Provo, Utah, U.S.; her grandfather was the athlete Clinton Larson.{{cite web |title=Clinton Larson papers |url=http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/3095 |website=Brigham Young University - Library |accessdate=9 August 2019 |quote="focuses on Clinton Larson's athletic, military, and physical education careers"}} Her father was an academic at Brigham Young University and a poet and playwright; he was the university's poet-in-residence for many years.{{cite web |title=Clinton F. Larson (1919-1994) |url=http://lib.byu.edu/exhibits/literaryworlds/larson/ |website=Brigham Young University - Library |accessdate=9 August 2019}} She has a sister. The family were active Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
=Early career=
==Virginia==
Larson studied at Brigham Young University (BYU), qualifying with a degree in English and Political Science, and with a Secondary Teaching Certificate.{{cite journal |last1=Kimball |first1=Linda Hoffman |title=Anam Cara: Sue Booth-Forbes and her writer's and artist's retreat center in Ireland |journal=Segullah (2005-) |date=14 December 2019 |accessdate=22 January 2020 |url=https://segullah.org/anam-cara-sue-booth-forbes-and-her-writers-and-artists-retreat-center-in-ireland/}}
She started her teaching career, in Utah, in December 1966; the same year, she married John Monroe Paxman, at the Salt Lake City Temple.{{cite news |title=Susan Larson gives vows |work=Salt Lake Tribune |date=18 December 1966 |quote=...solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple Wednesday (14 Dec. 1966) ... member of the Council of Seventy ...}} The couple moved to Charlottesville, Virginia in 1969, after John Paxman became a student at the University of Virginia School of Law. She held teaching posts in local schools. After being denied a routine renewal of contract as an English teacher at Albemarle High School in the summer of 1971 due to a pregnancy with a due date in December,{{cite news |title=Two pregnant teachers file class action suit |work=The Bee |agency=AP (Richmond, VA) |date=7 December 1971 |location=Danville, Virginia |page=3-A}} she, as the family's main breadwinner, had to find a new job.
She took a job as an office manager of a research lab at the University of Virginia Medical School, working up to her last week of pregnancy and returning one month later.{{cite news |title=Two pregnant schoolteachers file suit alleging discrimination |work=The Indianapolis Star |date=23 January 1972 |page=Sec 7, page 6}}
==The Paxman-Gough constitutional case==
Paxman, who stated that she had been surprised by the restrictive Virginia maternity rules, as those in Utah had been more flexible, and shocked when the county school board upheld the initial decision, became one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging rules across Virginia around employment discrimination due to pregnancy. She won a declaration of the unconstitutionality of such rules in 1975, and damages to include lost pay, but, on appeal, concluded in 1980, losing recompense other than an entitlement to reinstatement{{cite news |title=2 female teachers ordered reinstated |work=The News-Leader |agency=AP (Richmond, VA) |date=6 January 1980 |location=Staunton, Virginia |page=6A}} and partial cover for legal fees. While originally certified as a class action potentially including all pregnant teachers in the state, it was later decertified, but after an early ruling in the case, in 1972, the discriminatory rules were dismantled statewide anyway.{{cite web |title=US case law - US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit- 612 F.2d 848 (4th Cir. 1975) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/612/848/410159/ |website=Justia - US Law |accessdate=16 August 2019}}
=Massachusetts=
The Paxmans moved to and lived for an extended period in the greater Boston area, including in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
==Exponent II==
Paxman was a member of the team producing Exponent II, a magazine by, and largely for, Mormon women, from its inception,{{cite journal |last1=Dushku |first1=Judy |title=Negotiating Controversy over Forty Years |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |date=Summer 2016 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=143–152 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah|doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.49.2.0143 |s2cid=246621346 |doi-access=free }} and on the masthead from the second issue, in October 1974.{{cite journal |editor-last1=Bushman |editor-first1=Claudia L. |title=(Masthead) |journal=Exponent II |date=October 1974 |volume=I |issue=II |page=19 |publisher=Mormon Sisters, Inc. |location=Arlington, Mass. 02174}} She remained heavily involved until 1997, and in some form after,{{cite web |last1=Emilycc |title=Exponent II's Annual Retreat |url=https://www.the-exponent.com/exponent-iis-annual-retreat-2/ |website=Exponent II |accessdate=9 August 2019 |date=30 July 2007 |quote="We are excited to have Sue Booth-Forbes (formerly Paxman) as our keynote speaker this year. She moved to Ireland over ten years ago and has created a wonderful, nurturing artist’s retreat in her new home."}} She served as its fourth Editor{{cite news |last1=Gordon |first1=Suzanne |title=Challenging the Mormon church |work=Boston Globe |date=25 March 1993 |location=Boston, Mass., US |pages=53, 58 |quote=Sue Paxman (editor) .. Exponent II, a Mormon women's quarterly newspaper / original member / (and editorial and personal positions)}} from spring 1984{{cite journal |editor-last1=Paxman |editor-first1=Susan L. |title=(Masthead) |journal=Exponent II |date=1984 |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=20 |publisher=Exponent II, Inc. |location=Arlington, Mass. 02174}} until 1997,{{cite journal |editor-last1=Booth-Forbes |editor-first1=Sue |title=(Masthead) |journal=Exponent II |date=1997 |volume=20 |issue=4 |page=20 |publisher=Exponent II, Inc. |location=Arlington, Mass. 02174}} as Susan L. or Sue Paxman until 1996,{{cite journal |editor-last1=Paxman |editor-first1=Sue |title=(Masthead) |journal=Exponent II |date=1996 |volume=19 |issue=3 |page=20 |publisher=Exponent II, Inc. |location=Arlington, Mass. 02174}} then as Sue Booth-Forbes.{{cite journal |editor-last1=Paxman |editor-first1=Sue |title=(Masthead) |journal=Exponent II |date=1997 |volume=20 |issue=2 |page=20 |publisher=Exponent II, Inc. |location=Arlington, Mass. 02174}} The magazine addressed a wide range of issues, including feminism, reproductive rights, peace campaigns and other aspects of the roles and potential of women.
==Eliza Dushku==
Along with several family members, Paxman served as an on-set guardian (a Screen Actors Guild-mandated role) for actress Eliza Dushku, from her first serious film performance (This Boy's Life). Her mother, Judy Rasmussen Dushku, a fellow Mormon from the same region and a friend,{{cite news |last1=Koch |first1=James |title=This girl's life |work=The Boston Globe |date=12 July 1992 |pages=B25-26 |quote="...several family members who, along with Judy's close friend Sue Paxman, took turns living with Eliza on location"}} was also on the Exponent II team. In 1993, she was present for three weeks in this role during the filming of True Lies, and she backed Eliza Dushku when she, many years later, alleged an off-set sexual assault by a member of the production team - which Dushku at the time reported only to her mother, a brother, and a different family friend - and commented on the overall industry situation at that time.{{cite news |title=True Lies actress stands by claims she was 'molested' at 12 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42689602 |accessdate=12 August 2019 |work=BBC News |date=16 January 2018 |quote=Sue Booth-Forbes acted as the 12-year-old actress's legal guardian while on the set of True Lies...}}
==Other work==
Booth-Forbes also worked for the Cambridge University Press.{{cite news |last1=Mulcahy |first1=Miriam |title=I want to be alone: solitary retreats for some quality me time |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=5 Aug 2017}} Just prior to moving to Ireland, she worked as communications director for a quasi-public agency in Boston.{{cite book |last1=Rovetch|first1=Warren |title=The Creaky Traveler in Ireland: Clare, Kerry and West Cork... |date=2006 |publisher=Sentient Publications |location=Boulder, CO, USA |isbn=9781591810278 |pages=121–122 |edition=1 |quote=Sue explains that in the mid-1990s she was in a stress-filled job as...|author1-link=Warren Rovetch }}
=Ireland=
With a divorce, after over 30 years, due to be finalised in November 1997, and looking for a new direction, and having led multiple retreats linked to Exponent II, Booth-Forbes joined in a month-long literary retreat with friends, including Mary Lythgoe Bradford, in Connemara in August 1997,{{cite web |last1=Eggerz |first1=Solveig |title=Anam Cara, on Ireland's West Coast, a Place that Nurtures Creativity |url=http://thewriterscenter.blogspot.com/2014/10/anam-cara-on-irelands-west-coast-place.html |website=The Writer's Guide |accessdate=6 September 2019 |date=20 October 2014 |quote=...working at a stressful job in Boston and ready to make some changes in her life. / My daughter Maren and I spent the first week of December 1997 buying Anam Cara...}} In December 1997, she purchased a property near the small village of Eyeries in West Cork, on the Beara Peninsula, launching a residential creative retreat, Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat,{{cite news |last1=O'Connell |first1=Sandra |title=Steal away to write that novel |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=16 Mar 2013}} in June 1998. Over twenty-one years, more than 1,000 creative guests - writers, composers, choreographers, and visual artists - went on a retreat.
In 2018, Booth-Forbes launched a publishing company, Anam Cara Publishing.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}
Personal life
Booth-Forbes has two children, three grandchildren,{{cite news |title=Dispatches from Ireland – Anam Cara: A Shelter for Artists and Writers |url=https://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2014/07/dispatches-from-ireland-anam-cara-a-shelter-for-artists-and-writers/ |accessdate=18 August 2019 |work=The Bedford Citizen |date=30 July 2014}} and five nephews and nieces. She became an Irish citizen in 2012.{{cite web |last1=Booth-Forbes (editor, main writer) |first1=Sue |title=Fabulous news! |url=http://anamcarawritersandartistsretreat.blogspot.com/2012/ |website=Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat blog |accessdate=22 August 2019 |date=20 May 2012 |quote="I am more than thrilled to say that I have just been granted Irish citizenship"}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:People from Provo, Utah
Category:Brigham Young University alumni
Category:American Latter Day Saint writers
Category:Editors of Latter Day Saint publications
Category:American magazine editors
Category:American women editors
Category:American women magazine editors