Susan Sheehan, chronicler of lives on the margins, dies at 88

As a journalist and author, she wrote meticulous portraits of people for The New Yorker. Her book ‘Is There No Place on Earth for Me?’ won the Pulitzer Prize.

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Susan Sheehan, a Pulitzer-winning nonfiction writer whose meticulously built-up portraits of individuals trying to endure on the margins of society originally appeared in The New Yorker, and often were published later as books, died on Tuesday at her home in Washington. She was 88.

Her death was confirmed by her daughters, Maria Sheehan and Catherine Sheehan Bruno.

Ms. Sheehan was the author of eight books, most notably “Is There No Place on Earth for Me?” about a woman’s struggle with schizophrenia as she moves between her parents’ home, a supervised apartment and a mental hospital. The work won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1983.

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