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| Photo by carolinesphotos via Flickr |
The other day I came across this
lovely collection of adoptee poetry via the
Harlow's Monkey Facebook page (thank you, JaeRan Kim). It's a small portfolio curated by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs for
The Margins, an online magazine of the Asian American Writers' Workshop. Two poems by our friend, Lisa Marie Rollins, are included. The voices here are widely varied, but you're sure to find one that speaks to you. For me, it's Molly Gaudry in "Fruit": ". . . how one bite takes me to that morning thunderstorm a decade ago exactly beneath which I met my biological father . . . ."
Karen Pickell was born and adopted in Ohio in the late 1960s. She reunited with her birth mother in 2005 and with her birth father in 2007. Her husband is an adoptive father of two children, now grown, from his first marriage, one of whom was adopted from Korea. Karen and her husband live in Florida with their two biological children. Karen holds a Master of Arts in Professional Writing from Kennesaw State University in Georgia; she has published poems, essays, and stories, and is currently drafting a memoir. She previously served on the board of directors of the Georgia Writers Association, as editor for the Georgia Poetry Society, and as associate editor of the literary journal Flycatcher. She blogs about writing, adoption, and other topics at www.karenpickell.com.