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Cathy Guisewite

Creator of the Cathy comic strip

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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 Arent 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. 

  • 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.

    Nylon

    Equally parts warm, laugh-out-loud funny, and charming. Guaranteed to make you fall in love with Cathy all over again.

    PopSugar

    Finally, a reason to laugh about growing older.

    Best Life

    Guisewite 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 Reviews

    Guisewite 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 Journal

    Struggling 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 Weekly 

    The 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 Magazine

    Cathy 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 Imperfect 

    Cathy 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 Housewife

    There 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 Bettyville

    Cathy 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 ProjectLittle Miss Sunshine)
  • Books by Cathy Guisewite

  • Media About Cathy Guisewite

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  • 212 572-2013
  • Cathy Guisewite travels from California

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