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

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.

Read...
Credit: Thinkstock

Dear U.S. Government: Keep Your Hands Off Our Boobs!

A new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on mammograms ensures more women will die of breast cancer.

Read...
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.

Read...
Credit: Thinkstock

How I Learned To Get Naked With Strangers Again After My Mastectomy

I fumbled with my lace bra, hoping my silicone form wouldn't fall out from the left cup. I wasn't exactly ready . . . yet I was.

Read...

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.

Read...

Concrete Roots

In the photograph, my great-grandmother, Margarita Cirigliano, is sitting at a small table on the front porch of the family home in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Read...
“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.

Read...

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

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

Read...
image: US Navy.

In The Aftermath Of 9/11, A Home That Heals

We’ve pieced ourselves back together in a patchwork quilt of ragged emotions. The aftermath of 9/11 wasn’t easy for us, yet it was much easier than for some. People standing 50 feet away from Peter didn’t come home that night; he did.

Read...