The Elephant in the Room is Cancer. Tea is the Relief Conversation Provides.

January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!

Patient

Done, right?

by Shalom Cherian January 5, 2026

So you’re done, right? You’re back to normal! Are you going to be increasing your work hours? See, I told you you’d put this behind you!

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Cancer is…

by Bethany Ross

Cancer is… an uncomfortable high heel which the heel broke on, and is squeezing your baby toe

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Everywhere and Always

by Annika Hudson

Dear Cancer, As far as I know I’m not supposed to be stopped in the grocery store in front of all the bread, frozen in my body by a sudden wave of dread and images of sickness. I’m not supposed to be listing chemo drugs in my head as I drive or zoning out of a conversation with my neighbor wondering whether they are scared of death too.

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The Plan

by Angela Campos December 15, 2025

You lie in a hospital bed. People in and out of your room, introductions, tests, bloodwork, scans, IVs, all a blur. This wasn’t part of the plan. You repeat your speech: name, date of birth, and why you’re here to all the hospital staff who enter all day and night. This wasn’t part of the plan.

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I wish someone told me

by Cecily Liu

I wish someone had told me—Told me how much it would hurt. Not the blade that cleaved my skull, To extract the unwelcome guest, Nor the threads that stitched the wound shut, Or the scar, fracturing my head, Like parched and cracking earth.

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Raspberry Sorbet Swirls in the Sky

by Spence Shishido December 8, 2025

I woke from the deepest sleep the doctor was above me what happened? I asked wearily you had a hysterectomy she said

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The Part That Died

by Cecily Liu November 19, 2025

When I found out I could not carry a child, a hush fell inside me—not silence, but something colder. A part of me dropped dead.

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The Give and Take of Cancer

by Kelsie Scorzo November 10, 2025

Cancer is greedy, in the most ravenous and insatiable way. It has taken my energy, my routines, my sense of stability, and any sense of predictability I ever thought I had.

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Cancer Molded Me

by Michelle Lawrence November 3, 2025

I don’t like talking about what I have lost from cancer because it is an enormous reminder that some abnormal cells in my body that I created, which are so tiny, have had such a humongous impact on my life forever.

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The Glorious Gap

by Shalom Cherian October 27, 2025

Heading into the interview, I look into the car mirror one last time, and adjust my head scarf. Hmm…will they discriminate against me for wearing a headscarf?!

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