Lifectomy Illustrated Memoir - COMING SOON!

At thirty, Ashley Gierke’s world split open with a breast cancer diagnosis. Surgery, scars, and the fear of recurrence marked her body and her life. Searching for a way through the pain, she turned to drawing. Line by line, she began to map her grief, transmute her sadness and fear, and eventually transform herself. 

Lifectomy is a memoir told through 75 drawings and the stories that surround them. It is a book about survival and self-discovery, about ending a long-term relationship and stepping into the vulnerable terrain of dating again, and finding joy even with mortality close at hand.

More than an illness story, this is an artist’s journey: raw, honest, and unexpectedly beautiful. Lifectomy invites readers into the intimate space where trauma and creativity meet and where resilience takes shape.