The Cancer Journals

The Cancer Journals is a non-fiction book published in 1980 by the poet and activist Audre Lorde (1934–1992). In it she recounts and reflects on her struggle with breast cancer, and examines how the illness intersects with her identities as a Black, lesbian, feminist mother and poet. The book gathers fragments of journal entries and essays written between 1977 and 1979.

The book is made up of three parts. The first, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," grew out of a talk given in December 1977 at a Modern Language Association panel on lesbian literature. Lorde considers how hard it is to speak publicly about something so personal, weighing the risk of being misunderstood or ridiculed against the comfort of silence. The second, "Breast Cancer: A Black Lesbian Feminist Experience," follows her day by day from biopsy to mastectomy, describing fear, anger and the need to survive without close peers or role models, as well as the value of the network of women who sustained her and of conversations with other lesbian survivors. The third, "Breast Cancer: Power vs. Prosthesis," addresses her coming to terms with her body after the double mastectomy and her decision not to wear a prosthesis, which she presents as a way of claiming a new identity rather than hiding difference in a society that judges women by their looks.

Lorde also questions the cosmetic emphasis of support programs for patients, which she sees as reinforcing a narrow, normative idea of femininity, and she argues that each woman should be free to weigh all treatment and healing options on her own terms. Over time the book became a key text in feminist writing, queer theory and the reflection on illness, and it remains one of the most influential accounts of cancer written from the experience of a Black lesbian woman.