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

My Love/Hate Relationship With Makeup

Makeup and I have always had a love/hate relationship: I love it; it hates me.

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Tracy Hammond: Author, Alpha Male Wrangler

Who says feminists don't love alpha males and cooking?

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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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Americans spend too much time working and not enough time relaxing.

Working It: How Work Sucks For Everyone In America

The overinflated American work ethic is slowly killing us. It’s constantly pushing us to do more — put in longer hours, check business emails on personal time, take calls from our bosses when we’re chilling in Cancun.

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Who Was Delia Green?

The heartbreaking saga of a 14-year-old Black prostitute who was murdered in cold blood by her (maybe) pimp on Christmas Eve in 1900 Savannah.

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David with his taller friends

Little Wonder: Stupid Things People Say To Short People

Even when I explained to my son that he came from a long line of short people, it didn’t help. David still felt bad about being small. How could a five-year-old possibly get this type of size-shaming message? From other people, mostly insensitive adults. They gave him the idea that bigger was somehow better.

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My Father Never Said I Love You, But I'll Be Different

I realized my father was from a generation that never said those three little words. He was saying he loved me without them. But I didn't realize it then.

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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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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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My Meds Make Me Fat—But They're Worth It

Being a little bit chubby is better than being a lot dead.

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