RELATIVE STRANGERS author event
Details
Join us to welcome local authors Danna Schmidt and Kara Rubinstein Deyerin, in conversation with fellow local author Sara Easterly and celebrate the release of the nonfiction anthology Relative Strangers!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
What’s it like when a complete unknown is actually close family? In Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, a provocative anthology curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by Libby Copeland, 28 acclaimed and emerging writers explore the transformative experience of encountering unknown close relatives. These are intimate stories by those who’ve spent years longing and searching for their unknown biological families and by others shocked to discover they have parents or siblings they never dreamed of—blindsiding revelations that demand both a radical recalibration of identity and a redefinition of family. Each addresses the myriad emotions that arise in the wake of these discoveries and encounters, demonstrating that what we don’t know can hurt us, that secrets are toxic, and that truth can bring healing, redemption, and, sometimes, estrangement. Woven through is a universal question: What does it mean to be family?
What’s it like when a complete unknown is actually close family? In Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, a provocative anthology curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by Libby Copeland, 28 acclaimed and emerging writers explore the transformative experience of encountering unknown close relatives. These are intimate stories by those who’ve spent years longing and searching for their unknown biological families and by others shocked to discover they have parents or siblings they never dreamed of—blindsiding revelations that demand both a radical recalibration of identity and a redefinition of family. Each addresses the myriad emotions that arise in the wake of these discoveries and encounters, demonstrating that what we don’t know can hurt us, that secrets are toxic, and that truth can bring healing, redemption, and, sometimes, estrangement. Woven through is a universal question: What does it mean to be family?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Danna Schmidt is a Bellevue-based adoptee and funeral celebrant. Her writing has appeared in The Sun and Severance magazines, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Okay Donkey, Bending Genres, and elsewhere. She’s working on a speculative memoir about family secrets and the prices we pay to keep them. You can find her at https://altaredmoments.substack.com.
Danna Schmidt is a Bellevue-based adoptee and funeral celebrant. Her writing has appeared in The Sun and Severance magazines, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Okay Donkey, Bending Genres, and elsewhere. She’s working on a speculative memoir about family secrets and the prices we pay to keep them. You can find her at https://altaredmoments.substack.com.
Kara Rubinstein Deyerin is the founder of Right to Know, a nonprofit empowering those affected by misattributed parentage, adoption, donor conception, and DNA surprises through education, support, advocacy, and community engagement. A storyteller, public speaker, and policy advocate, she’s testified nationwide, passed fertility fraud legislation, and built initiatives advancing truth and transparency in family building while centering the best interest of the child. She’s the author of My Re-Birthday Book, host of the podcast Unraveling Me, and publisher with Black Sheep Library. Kara’s DNA surprise shapes her work, blending personal truth to create systemic change. www.RightToKnow.us, www.KaraDeyerin.com
Sara Easterly is co-author of Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations From Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies (Bloomsbury), and author of the award-winning memoir Searching for Mom (Heart Voices). She is Founder of Adoptee Voices and a Professional Associate with the Neufeld Institute, which informs Sara’s insights on the intersection of attachment, child development, brain science, and adoption. Her essays, articles, and book reviews have been widely published in outlets that include Newsweek, Psychology Today, Red Letter Christians, and Severance.
Where
When
Tuesday, September 1st at 6:30 PM
