Catherine Lanser’s writing has been published in the following places:
The Sunlight Press
My review of Karen DeBonis’ Growth was published in The Sunlight Press.
Tiny Truths
I love #tinytruths from Creative Nonfiction – who challenges writers to craft a nonfiction story no longer than a tweet. Here’s one of mine picked up in the January 2022 newsletter.
Brevity Blog
I finally admitted that I hadn’t read The Year of Magical Thinking after I read it and learned how it did speak to me.
Bezzy Migraine
An article about why I participated in Headache on the Hill and why migraine advocacy is so important.
Migraines can be isolating. Here’s how to find your migraine community and others who support you.
CafeMom
A piece about what I learned from my dad.
Ruminate
My reflection on “What Remains” is included in Readers Notes in Issue 58 of Ruminate Literary Magazine.
Essay Daily
The #Midwessay project attempts to understand what the shape of the Midwest is in 2021. Writers from Midwestern states were chosen to write essays from their perspective. My Wisconsin-perspective essay was included.
Good Men Project
Writing from this blog is also published on the Good Men Project, a diverse community of 21st century thought leaders who are actively participating in a conversation about the way men’s roles are changing in modern life—and the way those changes affect everyone.
Why is Isolation So Noisy?
This post from this blog was added to the Madison Living History project, Stories from a Distance, as part of the podcast Inside Stories (May 2020).
Living Like Kings
This essay about growing up outside of Milwaukee on the shores of Lake Michigan is included in The Milwaukee Anthology from Belt Publishing (April 2019).
Waiting for What’s Next
This is an excerpt from my memoir and appeared on Pulse – voices from the heart of medicine which publishes personal accounts of illness and healing. It tells the story of how my family decided to have my father undergo surgery after a devastating stroke.
Without a Net
This excerpt from my memoir was a Nonfiction Finalist in the 2018 Coalition of Texans with Disabilities Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing contest.
Why I Read and Write About Illness
Women Writers, Women’s Books
Why most books I read are memoirs about illness and/or death and why I focus my writing on the topic.
4 Ways to Combat Doubt and Achieve Your Dreams
This appeared in The Kindred Voice and talks about flying the kite of your dreams and taking signs from the Universe.
Familial Food
Hektoen International
After my father’s stroke, he received nutrition through a feeding tube because he wasn’t able to swallow anymore. He never lost the hunger for real food and the connection sharing food with our family. This excerpt from my memoir tells that story.
Seeing Through Mohammed’s Eyes
Corners: Voices in Change
Tells the story of how I came to see Morocco through the eyes of the driver who sometimes had my new husband and me holding on for dear life.
Discovering Migraines
Hektoen International
Another excerpt from my forthcoming memoir: In the Absence: My Memoir of the Brain.
Without a Net
Open Thought Vortex Literary Magazine
Part of a Facing Our Fears series, this is another excerpt from my forthcoming memoir.
Maintenance
Prairie Gold an Anthology of the American Heartland
An essay of how I was unprepared to buy my first house, the unlikely source of help I found, and my heartbreak when I had to leave the neighborhood behind.
Being the Baby
Being a Grown Up: A User’s Guide to the Real World
An essay about the blessings and curses of being the baby of a family of nine. One of my inspirations for my memoir.

Costume Accessory
Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn Award-Winning Stories from WomensMemoirs.com
This story tells of the one costume my dad made me for Halloween, complete with a real pitchfork from his shed. It won Honorable Mention from the WomensMemoirs.com Memoir Contest and is also published in
Playing with Tradition
Christmas Traditions: True Stories that Celebrate the Spirit of the Season
An essay about the traditions of Christmas in a big family as it grows.
Forever Eighteen
Chick Ink: 40 Stories of Tattoos – And the Women Who Wear Them
An essay about my tattoo and how it will always tie me to my eighteenth year.
The Great Walnut Caper
Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill
An essay about a Christmas misunderstanding involving walnut ornaments.
The Smell of Lilacs
Stories of Strength
An essay about how I learned to remember my father after his death. It was the seed that started my memoir.