Join us at Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma Heights Branch for a conversation with Marianne Novy, author of "Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories." We are thrilled to be a partner of this event.

Registration will take place through Cuyahoga County Public Library's website. Register here: https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/10756248

Novy is Professor Emerita of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is author of Reading Adoption: Family and Difference in Fiction and Drama and editor of Imagining Adoption: Essays on Literature and Culture.

"Adoption Memoirs" tells inside stories of adoption that popular media miss. Marianne Novy shows how adoption memoirs and films recount not only happy moments, but also the lasting pain of relinquishing a child, the racism and trauma that adoptees such as Jackie Kay and Jane Jeong Trenka experienced, and the unexpected complexities of child-rearing adoptive parents Emily Prager and Jesse Green encountered.

Novy considers 45 memoirs, mostly from the 21st century, by birthmothers, adoptees, and adoptive parents, about same-race and transracial adoption. These adoptees, she recounts, wanted to learn about their ancestry and appreciated adoptive parents who helped. Birthmother Amy Seek shows why open adoption is not simple, and many other memoirs tell stories that continue past reunion.

"Adoption Memoirs" will enlighten readers who lack experience with adoption and help those looking for a shared experience to also understand adoption from a different standpoint.