After Writing About Cancer, Then What?

 

Cancer books and their authors.

If you know of other books written by people with cancer that you think are great, please drop me a note. I’ve noted below when I wrote about the following authors and the kind of cancer they had.

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What do cancer patients who have written about their experiences write about after their cancer is gone? Many write one book on cancer and they’re done. 

Going through the treatments was the action part — the flurry of medical procedures, the physical trauma, the emotional rollercoaster. Now cancer patients only have reflections about how cancer has disrupted, changed, rearranged, and refocused their life. They probably have lingering side effects of the treatments, but they’re not exotic enough to write about. If the writers have been mindful during treatments, these elements will already be in their book. So, what is left for them to write about?

Unfortunately, a number of writers and poets die as they are finishing work on their one cancer book– Paul Kalanithi, lung (Jan. 18), Julie Hungiville Lemay, ovarian (Oct. 1), Ilyse Kusnetz, breast (Oct. 1), Gilda Radner, ovarian (Sept 30), and Nina Riggs, breast (upcoming). The fact that their books came out at all is a testament to their determination to do the writing and the efforts of their survivors to get the manuscripts published. The writers believed that what they were going through would matter to others. They do, and some of their books have become best sellers.

Some writers, however, don’t want cancer to become their narrative. Barry Lopez, prostate (Dec. 21) wrote little about his cancer before he died from it. He chose to continue to write about the environment and our need to pay attention to what is going on there. He also illustrates how few cancer accounts are written by men. I’m guessing there are a number of reasons for this: men believe that their jobs are more important than cancer and if they do any writing, it will be about that; men don’t like to acknowledge when they are in pain; and men don’t want to share their emotions in public and appear vulnerable.

Susan Sontag, breast, uterine, and leukemia (upcoming) wrote perceptively about the context of cancer in society in her groundbreaking Illness as Metaphor book (1978), but she refused to include her own experiences dealing with cancer, apparently believing that how she thought about cancer was more important than how she felt about it.

Audre Lorde, breast, liver (upcoming) was an early entry into narrative medical writing when her breast cancer experience, The Cancer Journals, was published in 1980, while also writing about the need for social justice for women and marginalized groups of people. She lived for another fifteen years and died of liver cancer. In 2019, Anne Boyer, breast (Sept. 30) wrote The Undying, about her aggressive cancer and about the inequalities and inefficiencies of health care in a capitalist system.

Some cancer patients provide real-time dispatches from the front lines, like spoken word poet Andrea Gibson, ovarian (Oct. 26). Gibson started a Substack blog (Things That Don’t Suck) and shared their four-year progression through ovarian cancer to let others know that what they were going through is what every cancer patient goes through, and to encourage them with Andrea’s hard-learned insights and struggles. Andrea’s cancer poems have been published in a number of places, but not in their last book, You Better Be Lightning (2021), because that was the year Andrea was diagnosed. A collection of only cancer poems has yet to appear, but I am hopeful.

The poet Katie Farris, breast (Sept. 29) wrote about her cancer and other topics in her 2023 book of poems, Standing in the Forest of Being Alive. It’s probably too soon for a follow up book on cancer to appear. After his diagnosis, Tony Hoagland, pancreatic (upcoming) included poems about his cancer with stunning descriptions of going through chemotherapy in his last two books, one that was brought out by his wife after he died. Jorie Graham, breast and uterine (upcoming) poems are not narrative, but imagistic and philosophical and appear in several of her recent books. 

Elaine Mansfield, lymphoma (Oct. 12) wrote about her husband cancer and her caregiving struggles in Leaning Into Love. Although Margaret Edson, ovarian (Oct. 1) never had cancer, she wrote a preceptive play Wit about a woman with ovarian cancer enduring chemotherapy in a clinical trial. Mark Shanahan, prostate (Nov. 9), created a six-part video series on his journey.

Suleika Jaouad, leukemia (Dec. 7) kept a journal throughout her cancer treatments. After writing her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms (2021), she complied The Book of Alchemy (2025) by inviting100 people who inspired her to contribute short essays for the book. In her introduction, she writes about how journaling helps us deal with our central questions about life. She also has a Substack account, The Isolation Journals.

After Kate Bowler, colon (Oct. 4) wrote two books describing her life and treatments for near-terminal Stage 4 cancer (Everything Happens For a Reason, 2018, and No Cure For Being Human, 2021), she published a number of faith-related books with blessings and prayers. She also does podcast interviews (Everything Happens) about health and wellness topics with inspiriting people. 

The cancer experience is so traumatic for some people that once they get through it, they never want to talk about it again, to anyone. This is understandable, and they have that right. Yet I have learned so much about how to face my cancer by reading how they dealt with theirs.

© 2026 Mark Liebenow