We Were Witches

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 Dying investigates 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.

NOTE: This is a POD/NONRETURNABLE hardcover edition that is releasing simultaneously to the main paperback edition of the book- Santa Fe Noir features brand-new stories by: Ana Castillo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Byron F. Aspaas, Barbara Robidoux, Elizabeth Lee, Ana June, Israel Francisco Haros Lopez, Ariel Gore, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Candace Walsh, Hida Viloria, Cornelia Read, Miriam Sagan, James Reich, Kevin Atkinson, Katie Johnson, and Tomas Moniz.<BR>- Editor Ariel Gore's fiction and nonfiction books have sold more than 150,000 copies combined.<BR>- Gore's books have won numerous awards, including a Lambda Literary Award, a Rainbow Award, and a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. She's also been a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction.<BR>- Gore and select contributors have strong connections to local media, including KFSR (Santa Fe public radio station), the Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe New Mexican, and the Alibi (Albuquerque weekly).<BR>- In addition to the typical local appeal that Noir Series volumes have, Santa Fe has a huge tourism industry and was recently named by Travel + Leisure as a "Reader's Choice Destination of the Year."<BR>- Santa Fe is the capital and forth largest city in New Mexico.<BR>- Santa Fe has a rich literary community with well-known authors such as D.H. Lawrence, Cormac McCarthy, Tony Hillerman, George R.R. Martin residing/or having resided in the city.<BR>- The volume contains one black-and-white graphic story ("La Llorona" by Israel Francisco Haros Lopez), which features 15 black-and-white illustrations. The rest of the book doesn't include any illustrations.