Kelly Corrigan
Kelly Corrigan
Kelly Corriganis an American writer. She is a graduate of The University of Richmond and received a Masters in Literature from San Francisco State University. She is also the host of Foreword, a series where top notch thinkers take on big time ideas. Season One guests include Margaret Atwood, Walter Isaacson, BJ Novak, Jason Segel and John Cleese...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMemoirist
Date of Birth16 August 1967
CountryUnited States of America
diagnosed iii older turned
Shortly before I turned 37 and my older daughter turned 3, I was diagnosed with breast cancer: stage III of IV.
bad moms
Moms in fiction and memoir get a bad rap.
almost center foot joined san stream threw time university
I almost threw up the first time I set foot inside the University of California, San Francisco's Comprehensive Care Center and joined the stream of thin, slow-moving, low-voiced, gray-skinned people. I didn't want to be one of the pitied, the struck-down.
It's clear to you immediately that you can have anything you want when you have cancer.
crafted funny known nice piece rather roll time tongue women writer
It's funny, I'd rather be known as a writer who crafted a really nice piece about women's friendships over time. But that doesn't roll off the tongue like 'YouTube sensation.'
caught cheek cry dry exactly growing inside morning mouth near pulled ran saw tear tissue until
Growing up, I saw my mother cry exactly once. The morning of her brother's funeral. One long tear ran down her cheek through her make up until she caught it near her mouth and patted it dry with a tissue she pulled from inside her sleeve.
closer lives time truth
The truth is, I'd like to be closer to my kids. I'd like to share more with them. But that's not what this time in their lives is about. This is their time to separate, to self-direct, to become independent.
abroad california eventually home moved traveling
I moved from Philadelphia to California when I was 25, after traveling abroad for a year. I thought I'd come home eventually and settle down, but I didn't.
cancer empathy growth useful ways
Cancer is a growth hormone for empathy, and empathy makes us useful to each other in ways we were not, could not have been, before.
dad sleep white
I envy my dad and his faith. I envy all people who have someone to beseech, who know where they're going, who sleep under the fluffy white comforter of belief.
stuff-happens bigs ready
We're never ready for the things that happen. When the big stuff happens, we're always looking in the other direction.
daughter phones years
Even when all the paperwork-a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns-clearly indicates you're an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you're still somebody's daughter.
self parent perception
He defined me first, as parents do. Those early characterizations can become the shimmering self-image we embrace or the limited, stifling perception we rail against for a lifetime.
meaningful sometimes metaphor
That to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages--becomes a metaphor for all of life's most meaningful endeavors.