DNA testing and evolving adoption laws are blowing up family secrets. This groundbreaking anthology, curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by Libby Copeland, features 28 intimate essays by acclaimed and emerging writers that probe the profound impact of encountering unknown close relatives. These poignant stories demonstrate the healing power of truth at the same time they raise the question: what does it mean to be family?
Memoir
Scrap: Salvaging a Family
Scrap: Salvaging a Family is a hybrid flash memoir tracing the long shadow of childhood fear and the complexities of forgiving a dying parent. As a daughter uncovers her father’s painful origins, she begins to understand the man behind the anger—and reclaims pieces of herself in the process.
High Priestess of the Apocalypse
High Priestess of the Apocalypse is a lyrical exploration of disobedience, grief, and healing (often simultaneously). This is a memoir that reckons with climate grief, the impulse to fight for what we love, and how to turn dread into action.
Little Astronaut
Little Astronaut is a literary kaleidoscope blending the cerebral and emotional, and humor with darkness. These essays dig into the tiny, intimate moments that stitch us together: awaiting sunrise on Christmas mornings with a brother, the unexpected grief of finding a wounded bird, and the meaning of objects passed between sisters.
The Storyteller’s Sister
In The Storyteller’s Sister, Amber Holinger has mixed three genres into a perfect literary bowl, creating an original and remarkable work. Hollinger shows us “truth in pieces,” portrays Scheherazade in a new light, and molds veracity out of fiction until it becomes poetic and ultimately, unveils life’s Truths
