Carl Hiaasen
Bestselling novelist, Newbery Honor winner, and former Miami Herald columnist
Cathy Guisewite
Creator of the Cathy comic strip
Photo credit: Jack DeCerchio
Cathy Guisewite is the creator of the Cathy comic strip, which ran for thirty-four years in almost 1,400 newspapers. Her relatable and humorous look at the challenges of womanhood through the decades won her a place in the hearts of millions of readers. Guisewite’s new book of essays, Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault: Essays from the Grown-Up Years, picks up the story now, as she cares for aging parents, aging children and an aging self with her signature humor and wit. Guisewite loves to give talks that encourage and inspire women by getting them thinking and sharing and leaving them laughing.
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About Cathy Guisewite
As the creator of Cathy, Cathy Guisewite’s cartoon namesake appeared in almost 1400 newspapers every day for nearly thirty-four years, from 1976 to 2010. The character Cathy became a cultural touchstone for women everywhere as society went through many transformations — from what we eat to how we work to the amount of time now spent trying to figure out how to turn on the TV.
In Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault: Essays from the Grown-Up Years, Cathy Guisewite delivers poignant and humorous essays about what she calls the “panini generation”—squashed between wanting to do everything for loved ones on either side while still trying to check things off a personal must-do list from 1998. The essays are personal, relatable stories about this time of great transition in which we “need our senses of humor even more than in our blind date years.” In her funny, warm talks, she tackles age, motherhood, and womanhood through a charming lens that will resonate with women everywhere.
Guisewite appeared on many national TV shows over the years, and was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She’s given many talks, from small company luncheons to a University of Michigan commencement speech for an audience of 20,000.
Guisewite won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 1992, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy in 1987, and the high honor of having he work displayed on the fronts of refrigerators across the land. She lives in California with her dog, Leo.
Contact us for more information about booking Cathy Guisewite for your next event.
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Speaking Topics
Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault
Part inspiration, part commiseration, Guisewite shares insights and encouragement through personal stories and reflections about what women have already gone through, how far we’ve come, and all those small and huge things that can still hold us back. She illustrates points with images from her comic strip, promising a fun, funny, motivational, gearing-up-to-cope-with-whatever-comes-next message.
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Praise for Cathy Guisewite
Praise for Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault
Cathy’s appeal lay in the fact that she spoke openly about the things that women weren’t supposed to talk about: anxiety and insecurity and frustrations. She was a touchstone for neurotic girls and women of all ages…. [Her] forthcoming essay collection is as full of humor and pathos about life’s many mundanities as you’d want it to be. Only this time, there’s no comic strips, it’s all Guisewite’s voice—reliably sane, sparkling, and suffused with the same warmth and wit as we’ve all come to expect. What a treat.
— NylonEqually parts warm, laugh-out-loud funny, and charming. Guaranteed to make you fall in love with Cathy all over again.
— PopSugarFinally, a reason to laugh about growing older.
— Best LifeGuisewite hits the mark….Offers a new way to savor the humor of her classic comic-strip character. Absurd and often witty takes on life as a caregiver, mother, and woman.
— Kirkus ReviewsGuisewite finds her voice when she delves into her relationships with her daughter and parents and examines the struggles of aging and loss, which she does with humor and a deft eye for detail… [Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault is] a work with real heart…Guisewite is not Ephron, but she’s not trying to be. She’s emphatically, jubilantly, Cathy.
— Library JournalStruggling with the indignities of aging and the stress of caring for both a teenage daughter and elderly parents, Cathy cartoonist Guisewite finds an outlet for her frustrations in this amusing debut essay collection….Women who can relate to her experiences and concerns will enjoy her girlfriendish voice and appreciate the more substantive material.
— Publishers WeeklyThe creator of the iconic cartoon Cathy comes out of retirement to make us laugh, cry, and remind us—with humor and pathos—that yes, we all do stupid things yet live to tell the tale.
— O, The Oprah MagazineCathy was always the comic-book character who summed up what we were thinking, whether it was about calories, clothing, bosses, stress, or that extra cinnamon bun. Freed from the brevity of a single frame, creator Cathy Guisewite lets her signature voice and humor fly with Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault, and tackles the subjects of parenting, caregiving, aging, food, and so much more. Aack! It’s fabulous.
— Lee Woodruff, author of Perfectly ImperfectCathy Guisewite lets us know that it’s okay to be a woman who’s half Betty Crocker and half Betty Friedan. It’s okay to listen to your mother. It’s okay to miss the legs you used to hate. Nobody’s perfect, but imperfect people tell the best stories. Women are resilient. And everybody says ‘AACK!’
— Helen Ellis, author of American HousewifeThere is humor; there is comedy; there is Cathy, who gives us laughter but reaches way beyond the funny bone to touch us with her humane, entertaining, and satisfying collection. Cathy Guisewite is one of those personalities who bubble up from the page, then reach out to become our friend, fellow sufferer, and favorite observer of just about everything. Add her to your life.
— George Hodgman, author of BettyvilleCathy Guisewite, a bona fide hero for so many of us as we came of age, has delivered a one-two hilarious punch with her book—intimate, powerful, funny, emotional, real, and riveting. Cathy bares her soul and proves once again that happily, truly, we are all in this together.
— Beth Grant, actress (The Mindy Project, Little Miss Sunshine) -
Books by Cathy Guisewite
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Media About Cathy Guisewite
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Featured Title
Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault
“Cathy Guisewite must have discovered early that laughter is the only free emotion—the only one that cannot be compelled—because she gave us the gift of freedom in her ‘Cathy’ comic strip. Now, in Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault, she has written a book that will help us free our lives to the very end."—Gloria Steinem
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