Breast Cancer Survivor, Humorist, and Writer

Program Title: My One Night Stand With Cancer

When Tania Katan was 21 years old she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She survived, minus a breast. Exactly 10 years later it happened again. By age 31 Katan was a two-time breast cancer survivor with the scars to prove it and a sense of humor forged by the unthinkable. Her memoir, loaded with rage and blistering humor, tells the tale of living through two bouts with cancer, coping with her supportive but neurotic family, running in 10K races, and pledging to never ever date a psychotic woman again. Her story is an inspirational account of survival.

Tania has been writing in little journals with no lines since she was 17 years old. As an adult, her journal entries have taken various forms including essays, plays and books. Katan's essays are featured in Imagining Ourselves, a book developed through the San Francisco International Museum of Women in 2005. Tania is a regular performer at Comedy Central's Sit 'n Spin, and Los Angeles based Word-A-Rama. Her memoir My One-Night Stand With Cancer was released in 2005 and her solo show, based on the memoir, will premier in Los Angeles at the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.

Katan has received the American College Theatre Festival Award in Playwriting, the Jane Chambers Student Playwrights Award, American Conservatory Theater's David Mamet Playwriting Award, and others. Katan's plays have been seen at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Circle Repertory Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, Pacific Residence Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and other venues throughout the United States. She also runs Topless 10K's to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.

With wit, courage, and honesty Tania's readings and lectures are as dynamic as she is!