Rehearsals for Dying

On Love and Cancer

Ariel Gore

$42.95 $36.26

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Feminist Press at The City University of New York
18 June 2025

Biography: general; Memoirs; Illness & addiction: social aspects; Feminism & feminist theory; Gender studies: women

An expansive, darkly funny, and deeply personal reflection on the reality of living with-and dying from-metastatic breast cancer.

Deena stepped out of the shower and opened her towel in the steam. ""Does my breast look weird?""These words irrevocably change the lives of writer Ariel Gore and her wife. As they descend into a world of doctors and tests, medications and insurance, sickness and treatments and hope and pain and more, they discover just how little they truly knew-despite the awareness campaigns and hyper-visible pink ribbons-about the reality of breast cancer. Over the four years following Deena's terminal diagnosis, Gore does what she always does, no matter how difficult or personal the subject: she writes about it.

With keen insights, empathy, and humor, Ariel Gore braids together the story of Deena's experience, her own role as a caretaker, narratives from others living with breast cancer, literary reflections on illness, and reportage on the history of breast cancer and the $200 billion industry that capitalizes on and profits from breast cancer screenings and treatments.

Rehearsals for Dyinginvestigates and challenges everything we think we know about breast cancer. It goes beyond awareness to knowledge, presenting a rich, nuanced, heartbreaking, and hopeful portrait of what it is to be diagnosed with, treat, and live with breast cancer in the twenty-first century.

By: Ariel Gore
Imprint: Feminist Press at The City University of New York
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 215mm, Width: 139mm,
ISBN: 9781558613362
ISBN 10: 1558613366
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 18 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ariel Goremakes books, zines, coloring books, and tarot cards. She is the founding editor and publisher of the Alternative Press Awardwinning magazineHip Mamaand the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, includingHexing the Patriarchy and The End of Eve. Her shameless novel/memoir,We Were Witches, was published by the Feminist Press, and her anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City won the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Anthology. She teaches writing online at Ariel Gore's School for Wayward Writers at the Literary Kitchen. She currently splits her time between Santa Fe and New York.

Reviews for Rehearsals for Dying: On Love and Cancer

Praise for Ariel Gore “An insightful observer.” —New York Times on Fuck Happiness “This book mimics the messy, discursive texture of memory—of life. . . . Inventive and affecting.”—Kirkus Reviews on We Were Witches “Gore tells her story with such verve and wit I missed my train stop reading it.”—Lambda Literary Review on We Were Witches “This book is a magical field guide that will set the crap that needs to burn on fire, and compost the living shit out of the wrong world toward revolution, revelation, reformation, and release. I'm all in.”—Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author of The Chronology of Water, on Hexing the Patriarchy “Just holding this book in my hands makes me feel giddy with hope.”—Karen Karbo, author of In Praise of Difficult Women, on Hexing the Patriarchy