Digital Issue: NEW NORMAL

Digital download of the complete issue:
NEW NORMAL, Dec 2023 / Jan 2024, Vol 8, No 6, 130+ pages

Have you found yourself using air quotes to describe your “new normal” since receiving your cancer diagnosis? For our first NEW NORMAL theme in six years, we are exploring stories of how those diagnosed with cancer (all stages) have learned to accept the inevitable changes, both physical and mental. Our goal with this issue was to explore through storytelling the feeling of having one foot forever in Cancerland, but also embracing the other “foot”: the moments in which we embrace LIVING in spite of cancer’s glare - and how.

Cover Star: Cheri Henderson

Contents:

Normal-ish a poem by Tina Conrad | My Now Normal by Lauren Candies Tarpley | Portals by Lisa Jones Christensen | Dear Body, I Am Sorry a poem by Sophie Dormal | Life Raft by Peyton Fisher | Cancer Sat on My Bench by Sara Hauck | 34 and the C Word a poem by Alicia Fisher | The Whole Ocean by Krista Hanson | Reintroduction by Brittany Johnston | Downpours a poem by Sarah Ro | Toplessness Transformed by Kathleen Moss | Scan, Treat, Repeat by Cheri Henderson | Journey by Tia Keck | Cancer Watered the Soil Under My Feet and Made Me Bloom by Erin Perkins | A Warrior’s Diary a poem by Asmita Chattopadhyay | Lymphedema by Desiree Maldonado | Why Not Me? by Sheyll Jalbuena | Saltwater Cure by Nicole Close | Don’t Ghost Your Therapist by Becca Keleher | Good Enough by Falon Stahley | Impatient a poem by Claire Lemiski | Prepared by Miriam Janove | Life’s New Canvas by Sanem Sureli | My Courtroom Victory by Julie Hough | The Myth of the New Normal by Doris Cardwell | It Was Written in the Stars a poem by Katie Duke

PLUS: Editor’s Note and Tell Your Story Writing Prompt by April Johnson Stearns