Joyce Judith Wadler is a journalist and reporter for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, as well as a writer and humorist. Prior to working at the New York Times, she was the New York Correspondent for The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

and a contributing editor for New York Magazine and Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

. Wadler authored Liaison: The True Story of the M. Butterfly

M. Butterfly

M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....

 Affair (ISBN 0-553-09213-8) after interviewing Bernard Boursicot

Bernard Boursicot

Bernard Boursicot is a French diplomat who was caught in a honeypot trap , by Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer who performed female roles, whom Boursicot believed to be female...

, who granted her wide access to information and insight into his affair with Shi Pei Pu

Shi Pei Pu

Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese opera singer from Beijing. He became a spy who obtained secrets during a 20-year long sexual affair in which he convinced an employee in the French Embassy that he was a woman, later producing a child that he insisted had been born through their relations. The story made...

.

Cancer

Wadler has been treated for both breast and ovarian cancer. In 1991, Wadler was diagnosed with breast cancer

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...

 and had a malignant tumor "the size of a robin's egg" removed from her left breast. The eventual diagnosis was "ductal carcinoma with medullary features". Due to somewhat early detection and aggressive treatment, Wadler called it "[m]y maybe-not- the-best-but-still-pretty-terrific-whatever-the-hell-it-is cancer".

Her memoir about breast cancer, My Breast: One Woman's Cancer Story (ISBN 0671017756; ISBN 978-0671017750) was originally a two part cover story for New York Magazine and later expanded into an award-winning book and made into a television movie starring Meredith Baxter

Meredith Baxter

Meredith Baxter , also known for some years as Meredith Baxter-Birney, is an American actress and producer. She is known for her acting roles including three television series: Family , an ABC television-network drama, Family Ties , an NBC television-network situation comedy, and Dan Vs. , a...

, which won the American Women in Radio and Television Excellence in Programming Award in 1995.
Wadler was later also diagnosed with "advanced ovarian cancer" and treated. She is working on a book about her experience with ovarian cancer, tentatively titled Plucky Cancer Girl Strikes Back. She was treated and is in remission.

External links

• Joyce Wadler.com — official website
• Index of Wadler's recent reporting for The New York Times