kathleen watt

This narrative is beautifully rendered and illuminates the profound uncertainties a cancer diagnosis engenders. The relationships Kathleen describes are each, in their own way, creative endeavors. REARRANGED honors the fragility, vulnerability and strength of the relationships that nourished her; with loved ones, with her professional caregivers, and to herself and fellow inhabitants in the kingdom of the sick. The memoir is funny, profoundly moving and leaves the reader gasping at the unflinching description of the treatments and setbacks Kathleen endures. It should be a must-read for anybody interested in the fortitude and generosity of the human spirit and how our identities adapt to illness—and for all doctors and professional caregivers.

Mark Gilbert​, PhD | Studio Art, Medical Humanities; University of Nebraska, Omaha

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☙☙☙

In REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed, Kathleen Watt perfectly captures the exhilaration and madcap excitement of life backstage at the Metropolitan Opera, where she was a member of the Extra Chorus. Her writing about her singer's life is so vivid and personal that when she discovers an ominous lump on her gum that turns out to be an aggressive facial cancer, it hits the reader hard. I’m bowled over by Watt’s bravery in having lived to tell this harrowing tale, and for sharing it all so candidly.

 

Amy Burton | Leading lyric soprano, New York City Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Major opera companies in Europe, the UK, Japan, and Israel; Recital and Cabaret; Faculty, The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music

☙☙☙

For soprano Kathleen Watt, what began as a trip to her dentist morphed into a decade-long medical journey in the battle against maxillary osteogenic sarcoma. However, Watt’s grit and good humor prevent this book from becoming a saga of sickness. Instead, it is a story of survival. The author’s optimism shimmers... In REARRANGED, Watt shares her singular battle with a foe that altered both her physical form and her life. Her story of transposition is a source of inspiration and encouragement for anyone who must face the battle of a lifetime, whatever form it may take.

 

[Excerpted from NATS Journal of Singing, January/February 2024]

 

Debra Greschner, MM, B.Ed. | Associate Editor, Journal of Singing; National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS); Pan-American Vocology Association (PAVA); Voice faculty, Lamar University

☙☙☙

Kathleen Watt has turned her harrowing experience as an opera singer diagnosed with facial bone cancer into a story that is fresh, gripping, and also remarkably entertaining. Her voice—smart, funny, and disarmingly forthright—makes this book shine. I find myself in awe of her sheer bravado and resilience in overcoming all odds to share her story and hard-won wisdom with all of us.​

 

Helen Fremont | Award-winning author of national bestsellers The Escape Artist, (Gallery Books, 2020), and After Long Silence, (Delta, 1999)

☙☙☙

As an ICU nurse who only gets to meet and care for my patients in a very particular window of their medical journey, I found Kathleen Watt’s book, REARRANGED, to be the story that every healthcare provider needs to read. Watt’s ability to articulate her struggles, desires, frustrations, comforts, griefs and victories from pre-diagnosis to recovery helps us all better understand the tumultuous human journey with an aggressive cancer. I see my patients on a more human level, and I view my role in their care with much more humility after reading Watt’s book. This page-turner is incredibly engaging, a generous gift to all of us who desire to do better in healthcare.

 

Hui-wen Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN | Pediatric ICU nurse; TEDTalk Speaker, Writer, Blogger
 

☙☙☙

Kathleen Watt’s memoir REARRANGED is riveting. With the marvelous ear of the opera singer she once was turned now into nearly pitch-perfect prose, she recounts her harrowing ten-year odyssey of dealing with facial cancer and innumerable reconstructive surgeries. On the way, she informs the reader of the intricate architecture of the face and the equally delicate medical procedures required to restore that architecture. Sustaining infections, a dislodged prosthesis, medical psychosis, and the emotional roller coaster of triumphs beset with setback after setback, she records the journey she and her partner traverse with authenticity, wit, and sobering bravery. The reader is left with awe over the heroism required to sustain optimism. When hers finally fails, she refuses to gloss over despair.  When restored, it feels earned by the sheer grit of enduring that darkness. This is an inspiring, wise, astonishing book. I attended the launch reading of REARRANGED.  Kathleen Watt looks terrific. She read with humor and drama, even singing. Like the performer she once was and still is. 

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Suzanne McConnell |  Fiction Editor for the Bellevue Literary Review; Award-winning author of stories, essays, and poems, novels and nonfiction, including, Pity The Reader: On Writing with Style with Kurt Vonnegut.

☙☙☙

Kathleen Watt’s thoughtful memoir of her experience with facial cancer, treatment and reconstruction over 20 years ago is unique and should be required reading for all health professionals working with cancer patients, operative and post-operative patients, and—in fact—patients in general. Over the years she has educated herself on “what actually happened” from a medical perspective, and the contrast with “what she experienced” is fascinating, sometimes horrifying, and underlines how those in the system could better communicate with the patients we serve.

 

​Jolie Ringash, MD, FRCPC, MSc | University of Toronto, Department of Radiation Oncology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

☙☙☙

In her intriguing memoir, REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed, former opera singer Kathleen Watt documents her courageous fight with osteogenic sarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, in the facial sinus, and surrounding bone and tissue.

With an introduction by dramaturg Cori Ellison… the author’s harrowing and dramatic hospitalizations and setbacks are described with gut-wrenching detail and dramatic suspense. It’s as if the reader were along for her incredible journey. With her captivating narrative style Watt tells of the profound impact cancer can have on every aspect of life—from well-being to personal relationships and aspirations… Yet the reader experiencing cancer treatments will find Kathleen’s story is an encouragement, with its heartbreaking but uplifting message, of raw courage, humor, and hope. As well, the position of caregiver is lovingly acknowledged—making REARRANGED a must-read for caregivers of cancer patients and others with serious illnesses. 

This extraordinary story is a testament to the power of resilience, strength, and courage in the face of unimaginable challenges. It serves as a beacon of understanding and empathy for all who have, or will, encounter the unthinkable. Citations and an extensive list of resources are a bonus to this exceptional book

Carol V. Weishampel, Ed.D | Book reviewer, AuthorsReading.com, Retired art and reading teacher

☙☙☙

I am writing in praise of REARRANGED to testify that a facial-cancer memoir by an opera singer can be a gesamtkunstwerk. Kathleen Watt takes the reader through her vivid, painstaking (literally), occasionally self-mocking, excruciating, manic, ecstatic journey—from the discovery of her affliction, through an incessant procession of consultations, procedures, skin and bone grafts, ICU hallucinations, manic hopes, precipitous free-falls, disfigurements, and rough-edged healing—not to mention, as well, “the rest of life”. Kathleen Watt is an author who pushes through her epic to emerge with resolutions intact; and ever-grateful for her passion, so do we.

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Neil Baldwin | Author of Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022).

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☙☙☙

What does it mean to be defaced: to have your neck, throat, nose, eye sockets, eyelids, cheeks, tongue, and teeth disfigured? A harrowing account of the toll taken by treatments of osteogenic sarcoma—told by a woman who brings the same grit to the ordeal that she exhibited in becoming a chorister in the Metropolitan Opera Company.

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Susan Gubar | Professor Emerita at Indiana University; Author of the “Living with Cancer” column for The New York Times online

☙☙☙

Kathleen Watt’s REARRANGED is a beautifully written memoir of her heart-wrenching battle with a rare facial cancer that derailed her singing career and her life. Her astonishing honesty in recounting the details of her journey — both medical and personal — was sometimes horrifying, sometimes humorous, but always truly inspirational.​

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Lori Laitman | Internationally Acclaimed Composer of operas, choral works, and art songs

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☙☙☙

Kathleen Watt has written a brave and honest memoir about her battle with facial cancer, one that upended her career as an opera singer and her marriage, and required adapting to life with a permanent disfigurement. REARRANGED is a fierce examination of our culture’s ever-present obsession with female beauty and the perils of our convoluted healthcare system. And yet, throughout these pages, you’ll also find moments of surprising lightness and humor, and a willingness to stay open to the possibility of a new version of joy.

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Julie Metz | New York Times best-selling author of Perfection, and Eva and Eve

 

☙☙☙

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