The Booksmith is thrilled to host the paperback release of Adoption Unfiltered, joined by all three co-authors and select panelists. RSVP is not required, but is greatly appreciated! Seats are limited and can be reserved with the purchase of a book.

About the event

What is too often missed in conversations about adoption? Join the authors of Adoption Unfiltered, together with a panel of others from the San Francisco area with expertise in the many complexities of adoption, for an important and timely discussion around ethics in adoption. How do adoption practices and messages affect those who live and breathe adoption every day? What does the future hold for people considering adoption? How can everyone work together to bring adoption practices out of the twentieth century for the betterment of the 100 million families affected by adoption? It’s not a stretch to believe that with the benefit of information from the voices in the evening’s panel, we can re-envision healthier and ethical ways of doing adoption when it’s truly necessary.

About the book

Adoption is a complex experience with an extensive reach, affecting adoptees and their birth/first families in ways that can impact generations, as well as others in the adoption constellation. In this deeply honest and necessary book, an adoptee, a birth parent, and an adoptive parent come together to illuminate the often-unspoken realities of adoption. Drawing from their own journeys and interviews with adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, social workers, therapists, and allies, the authors reveal the complex emotions, challenges, and questions that surround adoption at every stage. Grounded in attachment science, rooted in a commitment to truth and transparency, and shaped by lived experience, this book offers vital insight and guidance for anyone affected by adoption.

Adoption Unfiltered Authors

Sara Easterly, Adoptee

Sara Easterly is author of the award-winning memoir Searching for Mom, Founder of Adoptee Voices, and a Professional Associate with the Neufeld Institute, a lens that informs Sara’s insights on the intersection of attachment, child development, brain science, and adoption. Her essays, articles, and book reviews have been widely published in outlets that include Newsweek, Psychology Today, Red Letter Christians, and Severance.

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, Birth Parent

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard is the Director of Advocacy and Policy at Ethical Family Building, where she works on federal and state policy issues surrounding adoption reform. She is a birth mother in an open adoption who is passionate about raising the standards in adoption to better serve all people affected by family separation. Adoption has been a monumental part of her entire life, as it is woven through four generations of her family.

Lori Holden, Adoptive Parent

Lori Holden, a veteran parent of two young adults, is an adoptive parent and adoption educator. She writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcast Adoption: The Long View. She is the co-author of The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption, written with her daughter’s birth mom and featured on adoption-agency required-reading lists across the country.

Panelists

Susan Ito

Susan Ito is the author of the memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen, The Bellevue Literary Review, Agni, Guernica, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and Blue Mountain Center. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater.

Erika Gonzales

Erika is a California native and birth mother specializing in trauma-informed care and Crisis Intervention. As the Volunteer Program Coordinator for San Mateo County’s only rape crisis center, she directs the Volunteer Program, training and supporting others as they work with those impacted by sexual violence. As a longtime Court Appointed Child Advocate (CASA), Erika also supports and mentors youth within the dependency system. As a birth mother of almost 8 years, Erika understands the need for resources to help others heal from trauma and hardship.

Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D.

Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D. is the author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. She is a research sociologist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, where she studies abortion and adoption in the United States.

About the bookstore

The Booksmith is an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco since 1976.

Please note:

• Check-in for the event will begin at 6:45pm.
• Priced ticket holders (Book+seat, Pay it Forward!+seat) will have seats held until 7pm. Arrivals after 7pm will be allowed admission, but seats are not guaranteed.
• General admission ticket holders will be offered seats at check-in on a first-come, first-served basis. May be standing room.
• Space at the door on the day of the event is usually available, but not guaranteed.
• Books will be for sale on the night of the event.
• ADA accessible. Bathrooms on site during event hours.
• Events typically end between 8:30 and 9pm.
• Questions? [email protected]