Wildfire at a Glance
Upcoming Happenings
Note: The event times listed are Pacific Standard Time.
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📚New Issue Release - HAIR
Hair can be a defining part of who we are — tied to our identity, culture, and sense of self. When cancer takes that away, it can feel like losing more than just hair. This issue tells the stories of regrowing or changing hair during cancer. You’ll read stories that explore transformation — whether it’s unexpected empowerment, a deep loss, or both.
📣THE SECOND TIME AROUND Issue Submission Deadline
Wherever you are on your hair journey after a breast cancer diagnosis, for this issue of Wildfire Magazine we want to hear your stories of change, growth, and the emotions in between. If you did not lose your hair due to cancer treatment and had feelings associated with that experience, your stories are welcome, too!
🎧The Burn: Revenge with Jen Pogue
Jen Pogue returns to The Burn for another episode. She was diagnosed at 37 with de novo Stage IV Triple Negative metastatic breast cancer. Jen reads her story “Revenge” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “MBC: Advocacy” issue. Her essay is about being overlooked by a doctor and the importance of sharing your story. April and Jen will discuss the role rage plays in advocacy, being raised to accept what doctors say and what the word survivorship means to those living alongside cancer.
✏️Free Pop-Up Writing Workshop: for those diagnosed with Lobular or Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Calling all those diagnosed with lobular & Inflammatory breast cancer. We see you out there, living in a ductal bc world.
Join our March Pop-Up Writing Workshop to find your lobular & inflammatory breast cancer communities and learn how to start writing with others who understand you.
🎧The Burn: The Train to Nowhere with Angela Firman
This episode’s guest is Wildfire’s own Angela Firman – back for a second visit! Angela was diagnosed initially at 33 with Stage III hormone-positive breast cancer and she is now living with Stage IV metastatic disease. Angela reads her piece “A Train to Nowhere” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Career” issue. Her essay is about how sometimes cancer significantly changes a career path. April and Angela will discuss writing memoir in the third person when suffering brings joy and living with MBC versus dying from MBC.
🎧The Burn: Showing Up with Keri Smith
Keri Smith reads her essay “Showing Up” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Career” issue. April and Keri will discuss navigating mixed emotions of celebration and devastation, the ways cancer is a thief, scheduling time to talk about cancer and using writing to process through cancer.
🎧The Burn: Authentically Me with Kassi Sullivan
Kassi Sullivan reads her essay “Authentically Me” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Career” issue. April and Kassi will discuss the challenges of working with students while living with cancer, loving yourself through changes, things Kassi would tell her younger self and advice for those working while living with MBC.
🎧The Burn: Rosanne with Debbie Kerr
Debbie Kerr reads her essay “Rosanne” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Career” issue. April and Debbie will talk about working as a lifeline during treatment, using humor in hard times, long-term survivorship and the cancer related PTSD nobody talks about.
🎧The Burn: Finding Purpose in Paradox with Kate Rowbotham
Returning guest Kate Rowbotham reads her essay “Finding Purpose in Paradox” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Career” issue. Kate’s piece is about one woman’s career decisions following her cancer diagnosis. April and Kate will discuss masking, searching for a job during treatment, and what inspired Kate to email April about creating a work themed issue of Wildfire Magazine.
🎤An Evening of Live Storytelling: MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS
Join April, guest editor Gillian Lichota from iRise Above, and the writers of Wildfire Magazine’s “Mothers & Daughters” issue for an evening where we will hear the many varied voices of the young breast cancer community.
🎧The Burn: Trading Places with Beth Gainer
Returning guest Beth Gainer reads her essay “Trading Places” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Work & Cancer” issue. Beth’s piece is about cancer colliding with her work life. When her employer turned their back following her diagnosis, she took the scary leap into the unknown to change careers.
✏️Free Pop-Up Writing Workshop: The Second Time Around (Diagnosed Twice)
Join us on January 14 at our Pop-Up Writing Workshop on the theme of "The Second Time Around (Diagnosed Twice)." Learn to use writing as a tool to navigate these complicated feelings that come from being diagnosed with cancer more than once, in the company of those who understand this all too well.
✏️Harvesting Clarity: Cultivating Self-Acceptance & Purpose Heading into 2025 (with Art & Writing)
Join us for a guided art and writing workshop where we reflect on the lessons of the past year(s) and intentionally identify what we wish to carry forward. Through transformative exercises, we'll focus on self-acceptance, gaining clarity, and setting purposeful intentions for the new year.
🎧The Burn: Snip, Surrender, Shine: A Ritual in Resilience with Stacy Conlon
Stacy reads her essay “Snip, Surrender, Shine: A Ritual in Resilience” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue. Stacy’s piece takes us along on an act of intentional ritual when removing her hair before chemo, and giving herself a ceremony container to move through a part of her cancer journey.
🎧The Burn: Swim: Searching for Answers in Memoir with Tova Wolking (RE-RELEASE)
Tova Wolking reads her piece “Swim” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2021 “Bay Area Young Survivors” issue. In the wake of Tova’s mom passing away, breast cancer took root in her body. This is the story of one woman asking how to find the key to unlocking her own grief about her breast cancer when her mother took so many of those answers with her when she died.
✏️Planting Seeds: A Fun Art & Writing Exercise
Save the date for this collaboration with Stephanie McLeod-Estevez.
📣HAIR Issue Submission Deadline
Wherever you are on your hair journey after a breast cancer diagnosis, for this issue of Wildfire Magazine we want to hear your stories of change, growth, and the emotions in between. If you did not lose your hair due to cancer treatment and had feelings associated with that experience, your stories are welcome, too!
🎧The Burn: Laurie Ratliff (RE-RELEASE)
In this episode, Laurie Ratliff reads her piece “Where Do You Go When You Don’t Belong Anywhere?” from the 2019 “Social” issue of Wildfire Magazine.
📚New Issue Release - MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS
The mother/daughter relationship is famously complicated. Add in a cancer diagnosis, and things get ridiculously complex. We learn about our bodies, our place in the world, and our worth from watching our moms. When cancer comes along, some of us want our moms involved; others don’t. Some of us watched our moms face breast cancer before us. Some of us are now caregivers to our moms as they face their own illnesses and cancers. This issue is jam-packed with stories about navigating the mother/daughter relationship in Cancerland.
Our guest editor for this issue is Gillian B. Lichota, Founder of iRise Above Foundation.
The issue will officially be in the world and in your VIP Subscriber Library on December 21st.
Shop individual issues in our Shop and view our complete archives here.
🎧The Burn: Erica Fitch (RE-RELEASE)
Erica Fitch reads her piece “Memories in Color: Four Generations” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2020 “Family” issue, where she uses the structure of color to explore and write the hard stories in our lives.
🎧The Burn: Door Marked Danger with Lorie Kolak
Lorie reads her essay “Door Marked Danger” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue. Lorie’s piece slows down to take us into the moments surrounding her nipple tattoo experience following her mastectomy.
🎧The Burn: About Damn Time with Claire Lemiski
In this episode of The Burn, Claire reads her essay “About Damn Time” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Family” issue. Claire’s piece is about breast cancer being a genderless disease, and a bond that was strengthened with her father because of their shared experience of both receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
🎧The Burn: Naked Narrative with Katie Murray (RE-RELEASE)
This week we are sharing a favorite episode from the archives as we take a fall break from our regular podcast schedule.
When Katie Murray was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was surprised to discover that old traumas she thought she had dealt with were reawakened within her. She turned to writing to ground herself -- quite literally on the gurney going into and emerging from surgery -- and make sense of all she'd been through, prior to cancer, and then during her cancer treatment.
🎧The Burn: Bra Hunting with Jennifer Brindle
In this episode of The Burn, Jennifer reads her essay “Bra Hunting” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue. Jennifer’s essay is about bra shopping after breast cancer surgery told through the lens of buying bras throughout her life.
🎤An Evening of Live Storytelling: MBC 2024
Join April, guest editor MJ DeCoteau, and the writers of the “MBC: Advocacy” 20204 issue for an evening where we will hear the many varied voices of the MBC community.
🎧The Burn: The Story About My Body with Shangrong Lee
In this episode, Shangrong Lee reads her essay “The Story About My Body” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue. Shangrong’s piece is about receiving a cancer diagnosis that transports her back in time growing up Asian when she felt like her body wasn’t a safe space because she looked different from ridiculous American beauty standards.
✏️Free Pop-Up Writing Workshop: Hair Stories
Join us on November 12 at our Pop-Up Writing Workshop on the theme of "Hair Stories" after a breast cancer diagnosis. Learn to use writing as a tool to navigate complicated hair changes and accompanying feelings in the company of those who understand this all too well.
🎧The Burn: The Deformed Woman with Hannah Haworth
In this episode of The Burn, Hannah reads her essay “The Deformed Woman” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue.
🎧The Burn: When Cancer Worlds Collide with Megan-Claire Chase (RE-RELEASE)
Megan-Claire Chase reads her piece "When Cancer Worlds Collide'" from Wildfire Magazine's 2018 "Caregivers" issue. Megan-Claire Chase was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer at 39 after watching her mother go through her own cancer. Her mom was still very much in need of caregiving when Megan was diagnosed and this led to some hard truths about being a daughter and a caregiver to a parent.
📣MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS Issue Submission Deadline
The mother/daughter relationship is famously complicated. Add in a cancer diagnosis, and things get ridiculously complex. We learn about our bodies, our place in the world, and our worth from watching our moms. When cancer comes along, some of us want our moms involved; others don’t. Some of us watched our moms face breast cancer before us. Some of us are now caregivers to our moms as they face their own illnesses and cancers. Maybe you’re a mom with a daughter of your own; how has a cancer diagnosis affected that relationship? Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, we want your stories of navigating the mother/daughter relationship and the lessons you've learned along the way.
🎧The Burn: Barbershop Quartet with Erin Weiss
Psychotherapist Erin Weiss returns to The Burn for a third visit. Erin was diagnosed with Stage IV de novo metastatic breast cancer (MBC) following her first mammogram at 42. She’s been living with MBC since August 2019. In this episode, she reads her essay “Barbershop Quartet” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Body” issue.
📚New Issue Release - annual MBC: ADVOCACY
Each October, we devote an entire issue to those diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). In a month bursting with breast cancer awareness, we believe in shining a spotlight on a segment of the community that needs more attention. This year's guest editor is MJ DeCoteau and the Rethink Breast Cancer team. Our theme for the issue is advocacy. How do you advocate for yourself and for the MBC community? Advocacy takes many shapes and forms,
The issue will officially be in the world and in your VIP Subscriber Library on October 19th.
Shop individual issues in our Shop and view our complete archives here.
🎧The Burn: The Hidden Struggle of Secondary Infertility with Susan DiGregorio
Susan DiGregorio was diagnosed just days before her 38th birthday with Stage Ib hormone positive breast cancer. Susan is a mom, wife, volunteer and also works in real estate. In this episode, Susan reads her piece “The Hidden Struggle of Secondary Infertility” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2024 “Family” issue. Susan’s story is about the complexities surrounding her inability to have another child after cancer. April and Susan will discuss the roles pets play in cancer, finding acceptance with hormone therapy side effects, and the time and layers in recovering from cancer’s aftermath. They will also talk about the significance of connecting with others within the cancer community.
✏️Free Pop-Up Writing Workshop: The Story You Need to Tell
Join us on September 17 at the Wildfire Pop-Up Writing Workshop on the theme of "Good Grief: Writing Our Way Through" to spend time with carefully created writing prompts to guide you into writing your way through whatever you are grieving right now in your cancer experience.