Tag: Anna Quindlen

Today is the official publication day of a moving memoir titled Life, with Cancer: The Lauren Terrazzano Story, and it is available wherever books are sold (in print now, e-book format in another week or two). I am proud to say I was the editor of this loving tribute to a remarkable young woman who accomplished so much in her short life. 

Life, with Cancer chronicles the story and the legacy of Lauren’s writing with the same passion and honesty Lauren exhibited throughout her brief career; through this book she continues to live on to enlighten and inspire.

With the help of coauthor Paul Lonardo (author of Caught in the Act), devoted father Frank Terrazzano tells his daughter’s compelling life story through the eyes of the many people whose hearts and lives Lauren touched. Lauren’s friends, colleagues, coworkers, and doctors collectively paint an accurate and touching portrait of Lauren the person and the journalist. Reflecting on his daughter, Frank writes of Lauren as “A beautiful young lady who believed that ‘The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword’ [and chose] to use her pen as a light—a light to shine in dark places exposing society’s many shortcomings.”

Including a foreword by best-selling author Anna Quindlen, Life, with Cancer begins with Lauren’s early years as a journalist, and with the intensity of the journalist herself, covers her larger-than-life experiences. A tapestry of Lauren’s life is woven together throughout the course of the book, taking into perspective her childhood, her accomplishments as a young journalist, and the final three years of her “Life, with Cancer.” These three major components are combined in each chapter to tell Lauren’s complete story.

Newsday columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning social journalist Lauren Terrazzano championed the causes of abused children, the elderly, and the homeless, truly becoming a voice for the voiceless through her writing by taking global issues and personalizing them to dramatize how they affected individuals and families.It was not uncommon for her stories to force change in and in governmental policies  or in people’s thinking.

Lauren infused every journalistic story she crafted with passion. That included her own story: at the age of thirty-six, Lauren—a non-smoker—was diagnosed with lung cancer. Until her death three years later, Lauren turned her incredible drive and her passion for communication into raising public awareness of lung cancer and putting a human face on her disease. In Lauren’s honor, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer, The Lung Cancer Alliance, and to fund scholarships through the Lauren Elizabeth Terrazzano Memorial Scholarship Fund at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading Life, with Cancer as much as I enjoyed editing it.

—Candace