Audre Lorde is a necessary author for any reader interested in social work. The political is personal. This was a great read. Reading her taking stock of her life and her views while battling cancer was an important read. Anyone who doesn’t think women are objectified needs to read. I would recommend to anyone and everyone.

A beautiful testimony of Lorde's experience with cancer. Lorde speaks out and is a voice for those dealing with similar diagnosis who may not have the strength to speak for themselves. Powerful and captivating!

Audre Lorde is a force to be reckoned with, even when she is battling cancer and fight through the emotional and physical toll of having a mastectomy. In this book written in 1980 she deals with body image, medical pressure and her identity as a woman, a poet and a mother in the midst of her ongoing trauma. As always Lorde’s anger is palpable against the system that is trying to make her feel worse as a woman and as a cancer “role model” but this same anger leads her to insights and growth. I love reading her work and will certainly come back to this again for a second read.

It’s Audre so obviously it’s a dunk.

I will say one part that stuck with me now that I’ve finished this book is the representation. She speaks about it so clearly and it really hit me how many models white people have for navigating/battling/enduring illness.. cancer chronicles and whatnot. To have a black lesbian poet share her journey through cancer life was so refreshing and pulsed so differently for me. So necessary.

We need our stories shared in all the threads that life weaves. We deserve models and the sharing of our own brilliant thoughts with one another too.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had preconceived notions about The Cancer Journals. I thought that it would feature detailed journal entries chronicling Lorde's diagnosis, surgery, and treatment. As I read the Journal, they entries appeared to be a collage of musings, poetic anecdotes, and cautionary tales on women's health. Tracy K. Smith's forward to .The Cancer Journal best captures Lorde's desire to reclaim her body, mind, and spirit as she travailed through her health battle.
I would recommend Lorde's book for readers because it documents a journey into understanding cancer as a disease, its impact on a woman's body, and the desire to claim wholeness and healing. I'm glad that Penguin Random House has reissued The Cancer Journals. It makes a significant contribution to literature rooted in heath & wellness.

Essentially anything and everything Audre Lorde is a must for me. This taut reprint of one of her last works makes available to those who should have it more of Lorde's introspections and experiences.

It never ceases to amaze me how much of the future Audre Lorde predicted decades ago. Maybe that shows how nothing really changes, or maybe she really is that brilliant; I think it's a combination of both.

The Cancer Journals is yet another reminder from Lorde that every action in our life—including our illnesses and our decisions surrounding what to do about them—is political. For Lorde, that means examining the problematic ways we go about diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, particularly for something like breast cancer that's so tied to women's pain, suffering, and place in society. Her Black, lesbian, feminist politic applies here.

Like all of Lorde's work, The Cancer Journals is absolutely a must-read, especially if you're looking at how feminism injects itself into all parts of life; that includes our mortality.