Catherine Gigante-Brown

Catherine Gigante-Brown

Bio

Catherine Gigante-Brown is a freelance writer of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Her works have appeared in Time Out New York, Essence and Seventeen. She co-wrote two biographies for Prometheus Books and her short stories appear in fiction anthologies. Catherine’s first novel, The El, is available from Volossal Publishing. You can learn more about her on her website.

Catherine Gigante-Brown Articles

Until you're not.

Cancer Blues: You Never Really Get Over It

That’s the thing about being a breast cancer survivor — it’s always there: it never goes away. The scars, the fear that lurks in the back of your mind like a boogeyman. You’re going along nicely, living your merry life, and you’re fine, until you’re not.

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What I Learned About Poetry From My Professor, Audre Lorde

I was 21 –– a Catholic, heterosexual college student, living at home in Brooklyn and still trying to discover who I was. At the crossroads of her life, Lorde knew exactly who she was. She was waging a war against cancer and sharing an old house in Staten Island with her kids and partner. But maybe we weren’t so different after all.

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Visiting My In-Laws Is Like An Episode Of I Love Lucy

I try. I really do. But whenever I attempt to embrace my husband Peter’s Cuban culture, I always screw up.

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Me? Worry? Confessions Of A Professional Worrywart

All bets were off after 9/11. In a twisted way, it proved to me that worry was fruitless. No one ever saw the terrorist attacks coming.

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Catherine and Stephen (top left) with their fellow cousins

Remembering Stephen: Love, Loss, And AIDS

What Stephen didn’t know –– what no one knew –– was how weak my knees grew when I pushed through the swinging doors of the ICU.

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Why Silver Is The New Blonde

Why, when I'm cool with being a salt-and-pepper chick, does it so clearly unnerve others?

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Why I Took My Son Off His ADHD Meds

I dreaded putting him back on Concerta in the fall but I knew I had to. Or did I?

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Maxine Nunes: Accomplished Writer, Forever New Yorker

From New York to LA, this lady knows a good story.

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Fighting Cancer On My Terms

"I was afraid this thing was going to do me in. But I took a deep breath and decided very early on that I would face cancer on my own terms."

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“Your left ovary is fine,” the nurse practitioner told me over the phone. “But you have a cyst the size of an orange on your right ovary.” Image: Cathy Brown.

For The Girls: A Fond Farewell To My Ovaries

I thought cancer was behind me. Until I had a weird pain near my left ovary which lasted for several days. It felt a lot like ovulation...Only, at 56, that train had left the station a long time ago.

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