Flat

“Flat is as entertaining as it is honest and forthright about a subject that has been steeped in pink and sentimentality for far too long. Flat is, quite simply, a darn good read.”
—Christiane Northrup, M.D., ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers: Goddesses Never Age: The Secret Prescription for Radiance, Vitality, and Wellbeing; Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom; and The Wisdom of Menopause

“Guthrie’s refreshing femininity doesn’t fit the familiar cancer narrative. Informed by both the nuances of queer identity and a women’s health journalist’s insider knowledge, this memoir is a welcome punk rock to breast cancer’s pink-washing. Unflinching, eloquent, and richly intimate, Flat has shaken me, inspired me, prepared me for what could happen.”
—Angela Palm, author, Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere but Here

“I thought about this book when I was in traffic, when I woke up in the morning, and in the middle of the night. This story is sometimes terrifying and always compelling. The best compliment a memoirist can receive is for a reader to say, ‘Your book changed the way I view the world.’ Flat did that for me, and it has the potential to do that for many people.”
—Krista Bremer, managing editor, The Sun

“The biggest triumph of Flat is how it carefully upends the breast cancer narrative in smart, surprising ways. Flat is laced with sharp, funny, and thought-provoking insights on how living with breast cancer affects gender, identity, and human relationships. It’s a warm, moving, and fresh tale, told by a writer in the perfect position to share it.”
—Mike Scalise, author, The Brand New Catstrophe

“A veteran magazine writer, Catherine Guthrie shares in Flat the poignant story she couldn’t tell in women’s magazines: not the pink ribbon story, but her personal, hard-fought, disorienting and reorienting story of living with breast cancer. Hers is a voice—candid both in fury and in love—you can trust.”
—Howard Axelrod, author, The Point of Vanishing: A Memoir of Two Years in Solitude

“Everyone who goes through breast cancer treatment is brave in their way, but Guthrie challenges and overturns orthodoxies right and left. Her wise, clarion, un-saccharine voice is so, so refreshing. She is a muse for her generation and others to come.”
—Florence Williams, author, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History

“Flat is a captivating story that will appeal to any intelligent reader forced to deal with the unexpected havoc wreaked by a breast cancer diagnosis. I highly recommend Flat to any woman and her loved ones looking to move through the tumult of cancer."
—Mary Jane Minkin, MD, Yale University School of Medicine, and author

• The author is a women’s health writer with connections to many women’s health, breast cancer, and LGBTQ publications. Her feature about going flat published in the October 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine (circulation 2.3 million), which also mentioned the memoir. She was contacted by a producer at the Today Show, and is brainstorming a feature about her breast cancer story to run October 2018. She will also pitch to Dr. Oz, with whom she has past history and credibility.
• The book will publish in September to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
• Awarded the Honorable Mention for the Betty Gabehart Prize in Nonfiction by the Kentucky Women Writers Conference.
• “Going flat” is a gaining traction, and it has been spotlighted recently by Joan Lunden on the Today Show (Oct 2017), O, The Oprah Magazine (Oct 2017, written by the author), and the New York Times (Oct 2016). There is a growing visibility of women who reclaim and show off their flat chests, for example, Kathy Bates, Tig Notaro, and Anjelica Huston on the Amazon show Transparent.
• Inspirational medical memoirs that aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions have been very popular, such as the bestselling The Bright Hour (2017) and When Breath Becomes Air (2016).
• 1 in 4 breast cancer patients in the US who undergo a double mastectomy choose not to reconstruct. 50 percent of women who undergo a unilateral mastectomy do not reconstruct. In 2018, an estimated 3.3 million women live with breast cancer in the US