Adoptee Voices & Perspectives

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A Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Roots
Katy Robinson
A memoir about Robinson's return to Korea and her search for information about her birth family, identity, and the circumstances surrounding her adoption.

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After the Morning Calm: Reflections of Korean Adoptees
Edited by Sook Wilkinson and Nancy Fox
A collection of personal reflections from Korean adoptees exploring identity, family, race, culture, and the lifelong impact of adoption.

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Dear Wonderful You: Letters to Adopted and Foster Youth
Edited by Diane Rene Christian and Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman
A collection of letters written for adopted and foster youth, offering perspectives, encouragement, and reflections from people with lived experience.

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Flip the Script
Edited by Diane Rene Christian, Amanda H. L. Transue-Woolston, and Rosita Gonzalez
A collection centering adoptee voices and perspectives while challenging commonly held assumptions and narratives about adoption.

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Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee's Return to Korea
Jane Jeong Trenka
A memoir examining Trenka's experiences returning to Korea and navigating adoption, family, belonging, culture, and identity.

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Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences
Kim Park Nelson
An exploration of Korean American adoptee identity and the ways adoption intersects with race, culture, family, and the broader Asian American experience.

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The Language of Blood
Jane Jeong Trenka
A memoir about family, identity, adoption, and Trenka's search for connections to her Korean family and heritage.

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Lucky Girl
Mei-Ling Hopgood
A memoir following Hopgood's experiences reconnecting with her birth family in Taiwan and exploring the complexities of family, culture, and belonging.

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Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption
Edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin
A collection of essays, personal narratives, and creative works by transracial adoptees examining race, identity, family, culture, and adoption.

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Voices from Another Place
Edited by Susan Soon-Keum Cox
A collection highlighting the experiences and perspectives of Korean adoptees and their connections to adoption, identity, and Korea.​

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Sites with more reading resources:​​

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• Kimberly McKee PhD

• Harlow's Monkey

• Musing on the Korean Diaspora, Children's Literature, and Adoption

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Previously Published by KAAN

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• A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China
  Chris Winston
  Part memoir and part parenting reflection, Winston shares her family's experiences raising two transracially and internationally adopted children while working to build meaningful connections to Korean culture and community.

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• Pushing Up the Sky: A Mother's Story
  Terra Trevor
  A memoir about transracial adoption, family, identity, loss, and belonging. Trevor reflects on raising children adopted from Korea, including the challenges of helping them maintain connections to culture while navigating difficult family experiences and profound loss.