Adoption Memoirs, just published by Temple
University Press, discusses 45 published books
and two memoir-like films, by birthmothers,
adoptees, and adoptive parents. 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.

Marianne Novy is Professor Emerita of English
and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the
author of Reading Adoption: Family and
Difference in Fiction and Drama and the
editor of Imagining Adoption: Essays on
Literature and Culture, which was a Choice
Outstanding Academic Title, and a member of
the Pitt Adoption Community for Education.