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

10 Ways To Make It Through Your Son's Teen Years...Without Killing Each Other

"Remember, this isn’t just happening to you, it’s happening to moms everywhere. It’s not your fault — "

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Image: NY Post

Love, Candice: A Farewell to Candida Royalle

Candida Royalle pretty much invented couples erotica. She made it socially-acceptable. Respectable. The women in her films looked like real women and had real, comfortable female bodies. And her movies actually had stories. Good stories. She hired her friends—adult legends like Annie Sprinkle, Veronicas Hart and Vera, and Gloria Leonard — to create Femme films too.

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In The Wake Of My Mastectomy, I Got A Tattoo

To the tattoo artist, I was a flesh canvas that she could transform into something beautiful.

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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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My mammogram’s fine. I’m fine. Until next year. But four years and counting, I’ll take the fear, I’ll take the dread, just so I’m still around to feel it again next year.

How I Survive The Worst Day Of The Year (Every Year)

As a breast cancer survivor, the worst day of the year is when I go for my mammogram. True, nobody actually likes mammos, but I’ve been bitten by one. On the way to my annual squishing, I realized that I have a bunch of coping strategies.

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Since my battle with breast cancer in the spring of 2013, my life changed forever.

Compassion Is Complicated After Cancer

Upset you lost your keys? Try losing your breast. Pissed off about missing that train? Try missing your son’s 8th grade graduation because of a horrific infection from fluid buildup in the previously-mentioned missing breast. See what I mean? It kind of puts life into perspective.

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Having someone steal my cancer history and co-opt it...is unbelievably violating.

Someone Plagiarized My Cancer Story

Having someone steal my cancer history and co-opt it for their first-person Facebook blog is unbelievably violating. Somehow, it feels almost as invasive as my mastectomy.

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5 Reasons Why I Can't Stand Shakespeare

The hell with his elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases. Iambic pentameter is cruel and unusual punishment.

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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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