Adoption Resources

This is not a comprehensive list. These are a selection of books, films, documentaries, and other resources that the collective has read/watched/listened to can recommend. We will continue to add to this list as we discover. Please contact us if you had a recommendation!

  • Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Marci. Last Train To The Midnight Market. Finishing Line Press, 2012.

    Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Marci. Hour of the Ox. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016. (Winner of the 2016 Florida Book Awards bronze medal and the 2015 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry)

    Dobbs, Jennifer Kwon. Paper Pavilion. White Pine Press, 2007. (Winner of the 2007 White Pine Poetry Prize and New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Motton Book Award)

    Dobbs, Jennifer Kwon. Interrogation Room. White Pine Press, 2018.

    Herrick, Lee. This Many Miles from Desire. WordTech Editions, 2007.

    Herrick, Lee. Gardening Secrets of the Dead. WordTech Editions, 2012.

    Herrick, Lee. Scar and Flower. Word Poetry Books, 2018.

    Kay, Jackie. The Adoption Papers. Bloodaxe Books, 1991.

    Lee, Julayne. Not My White Savior. Rare Birds Press, 2018.

    Lockington, Mariama J. The Lucky Daughter. Damaged Goods Press

    Moon, Ansley. How to Bury the Dead. Black Coffee Press, 2011.

    Nobile, Tiana. Cleave. Hub City Press, 2021.

    Roxas-Chua, Sam. Fawn Language. Tebot Bach, 2013.

    Roxas-Chua, Sam. Saying Your Name Three Times Underwater. Lithic Press, 2017.

    Roxas-Chua, Sam. Echolalia in Script: A Collection of Asemic Writing. Orison Books, 2017.

    Schildkraut, Nicky Sa-eun. Magnetic Refrain. Kaya Press, 2013.

    신선선영 Shin, Sun Yung. Skirt Full of Black. Coffee House Press, 2007.

    신선선영 Shin, Sun Yung. Rough and Savage. Coffee House Press, 2012.

    신선선영 Shin, Sun Yung. Unbearable Splendor. Coffee House Press, 2016.

    신선선영 Shin, Sun Yung. The Wet Hex. Coffee House Press, 2022.

    Silvieus, Leah. Anemochory. Hyacinth Girl Press, 2017.

    Silvieus, Leah. Season of Dares. Bull City Press, 2018.

    Silvieus, Leah. Arabilis. Sundress Publications, 2019.

    Worra, Bryan Thao. DEMONSTRA, Innsmouth Free Press, 2013.

  • Cottrell, Patrick. Sorry to Disrupt the Peace. McSweeney’s Publishing, 2018.

    Mattson, James Han: Reprieve: A Novel. William Morrow, 2021.

    Salesses, Matthew. The Hundred-Year Flood. Little A, 2015.

    Salesses, Matthew. How to Greet the Mother Who Bore You. Storyfront, 2015.

    Salesses, Matthew. Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear. Little A, 2020.

    Stephens, Alice. Famous Adopted People. Unnamed Press, 2018.

  • Brierley, Saroo. A Long Way Home. Putnam, 2013.

    Chung, Nicole. All You Can Ever Know. Catapult, 2018.

    Dobbs, Jennifer Kwon. Notes from a Missing Person. Essay Press, 2015.

    Guida-Richards, Melissa. What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee’s Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices. North Atlantic Books, 2021.

    Harness, Susan Devan. Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption. University of Nebraska Press, 2020.

    Ito, Susan. The Mouse Room. Shebooks, 2014.

    Miró, Asha. Daughter of the Ganges:The Story of One Girl's Adoption and Her Return Journey to India. 2011.

    Salesses, Matthew. Different Racisms: On Stereotypes, the Individual, and Asian American Masculinity. Audible Studios, 2015.

    Salesses, Matthew. Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping. Catapult, 2021.

    Sunée, Kim. Trail of Crumbs : Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home. Grand Central Publishing, 2008.

    Trenka, Jane Jeong. The Language of Blood. Graywolf Press, 2005.

  • Holt, Jeremy. Made in Korea. Image Comics, 2022.

    Sjöblom, Lisa Wool-Rim. Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption. Drawn and Quarterly, 2019.

  • Ireland, Meredith. The Jasmine Project. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

    Lockington, Mariama J. For Black Girls Like Me. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.

    Lockington, Mariama J. In the Key of Us. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.

    Oshiro, Mark. Anger is a Gift. Tor Teen, 2018.

    Oshiro, Mark. Each of Us a Desert. Tor Teen, 2020.

    Oshiro, Mark. The Insiders. HarperCollins, 2021.

    Oshiro, Mark. You Only Live Once, David Bravo. HarperCollins, 2022.

  • Rankin, Jo and Bishoff, Tonya, eds. Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology by Korean Adoptees. Pandal Press, 1997.

    “November Adoptee Literature Folio.” Hyphen Magazine, 9 Nov. 2017, https://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2017/11/november-adoptee-literature-folio

    신선선영 Shin, Sun Yung, ed. What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2021.

    Trenka, Jane Jeong, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin. Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. South End Press, 2006. Reissued by University of Minnesota Press, 2020.

  • Approved for Adoption. Directed by Laurent Boileau and Jung, performances by Maxym Anciaux, Cathy Boquet, and Mahé Collet. New Video Group, 2014.

    Daughter from Danang. Directed by Vicente Franco and Gail Dolgin, performances by Mai Thi Kim, Heidi Neville-Bub, Gerald Ford, Tom Miller, and Tran Tuong Nhu. PBS, 2004.

    Lion. Directed by Garth Davis, performances by Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Nicole Kidman, and Dev Patel. The Weinstein Company, 2016.

    Somewhere Between. Directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton, performances by Haley Butler, Jenna and Sara Cook, and Fang Lee. Long Shot Factory and Ladylike Films, 2011.

    Twinsters. Directed by Samantha Futerman and Ryan Miyamoto, performances by Anaïs Bordier and Samantha Futerman. Premiere Digital Services, 2015.

    Yellow Fever. Directed by Kat Moon, performances by Jenna Ushkowitz, Scott Patterson, and Nahanni Johnstone. Wham Bam Productions, 2017.

  • Adoptees On (Podcast)

    The Adoptee Next Door with Angela Tucker (Podcast)

    Adoptee Feels (Podcast)

  • Bhargava, Vinita. Adoption in India: Policies and Experiences. 2005.

    Kim, Eleana. Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging. Duke University Press, 2010. (Winner of the 2012 James B. Palais Prize from the association of Asian Studies and the 2012 Association of Asian American Studies Social Science book award)

    Park Nelson, Kim. Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism (Asian American Studies Today). Rutgers University Press, 2016.

    Pate, Soojin. From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption. University of Minnesota Press, 2014.

    Kim, O. M., Hynes, K. C., & Lee, R. M. “Searching for connection—Finding resolution: A grounded theory analysis of writings of Korean American adopted adults.” Asian American Journal of Psychology, 8(3), 235-247.

  • Adoption Museum Project: http://adoptionmuseumproject.org/

    Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (G.O.A’.L.): https://www.goal.or.kr/

    Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN): http://www.kaanet.org/

    International Korean Adoptee Association (IKAA): http://www.ikaa.org/