She said she agreed to do it, “partly because a book is such a fantastically tangible legacy.” Page from ‘In-Between Days’ “The book wasn’t my idea at all at first,” she said.

She said a month later the Canadian magazine The Walrus offered to post the comics on its site, and a month later she was contacted by publishing company, Anansi to discuss the possibility of turning them into a book. She explained that the book came about soon after she started a blog to share the comics she had drawn to illustrate her challenges, fears and experiences living with incurable cancer, with the intention of helping others. “There really wasn’t… something that addressed the emotional side, as opposed to the clinical, and I felt like that might be something I could contribute, that might be helpful to other people.” Harrison explained that when she took to the Internet to learn as much as she could about her illness, statistics and clinical information abounded, but when it came to finding literature about living with terminal cancer, she couldn’t. In-Between Days, a graphic novel that combines comics and short essays that explore what it is like to live with incurable cancer, is, all at once, heartbreaking and heartwarming, revealing and honest, all the while showcasing how beautiful and unfair life can be.ĭiagnosed in 2013 at the age of 37 with stage four metastatic cancer, for which the median survival time is about two to three years, Teva Harrison sat down with The CJN to speak about her heavy-hitting, profoundly personal and emotional work in her west Toronto home (in front of a plate of homemade vegan, gluten-free cookies and a pot of chamomile and lavender tea). Teva Harrison draws scene from 'In-Between Days'

In-Between Days by Teva Harrison