Join us for a powerful evening featuring five BIPOC adoptee authors sharing their work and engaging in conversation. More than a reading, this event creates space for storytelling, connection, and empowerment—reclaiming narratives that are often overlooked or overshadowed. Through spoken word and discussion, we aim to elevate adoptee voices, challenge dominant cultural narratives, and build community.
This event is open to the public and made possible by our sponsors: Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), Alberta Abbey, the City of Portland, Bishop & Wilde Books, and the Arts Access Fund.
Please note: This is an in-person event and will not be livestreamed.
📖 Book Signing & Sales: Books will be available for purchase immediately following the event, provided by Bishop & Wilde Books. Authors will be available to sign both new and previously purchased copies.
⏰ Doors Open: 6:30 PM
More About the Authors
Leah Altman
Leah Altman (Oglala Lakota) is a Native American transracial adoptee and second-generation Persian immigrant. She has worked as a freelance journalist and editor for over 15 years, alongside her work in fundraising and grant writing for Native and BIPOC-led nonprofit organizations serving families and the environment. Leah lives in the Pacific Northwest and is an alum of the Institute of American Indian Arts and Portland State University's Book Publishing program. Her work has been featured in publications such as Oregon Humanities, The Oregonian, Underscore, and Indian Country Today. She is an avid pool player, bead worker, fickle hiker, fair-weather kayaker, and mama bear of two young girls. She lives in Washington State.
Connect with Leah on Instagram @ln8ive
KE Garland
K E Garland (she/her) is a same-race, domestic adoptee and an award-winning creative nonfiction writer and blogger. She writes to demarginalize women's issues. Her essays have been published in several anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Soul's I'm Speaking Now: Black Women Share their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope and Mamas, Martyrs, and Jezebels. Her work has also appeared in online magazines such as midnight & indigo and Raising Mothers. Garland's debut memoir, In Search of a Salve: Memoir of a Sex Addict, illustrates how unresolved, interrelated trauma, including adoption, can lead to a behavioral addiction. Her book was long listed for the 2023 Santa Fe Writers Project. She is also a co-founder of the Black Adoptees Meetup.
Connect with KE on Instagram @kegarland // Find KE on the web www.kegarland.com
Matan Gold
Matan Gold keeps trying to be a writer.
Find Matan on the web www.matangold.com
Dani Janae
Dani Janae is a poet and journalist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work has been published by Longleaf Review, SWWIM, Palette Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal, and others. Hound Triptych (Sundress Publications) is her first collection of poetry. She lives in South Carolina.
Connect with Dani on Instagram @bell.biv.dahoe // Find Dani on the web www.danijanae.com
Kailee Pedersen
Kailee Pedersen writes haunted, unsettling speculative fiction. She graduated with a BA in classics from Columbia University, specializing in ancient Greek. Kailee was adopted from Nanning, China and grew up in Nebraska, where her family owns a farm. She is the author of the queer poetry chapbook Pastorale and the novel Sacrificial Animals, which was named one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2024 and a finalist for Best Horror at the 2025 Libby Book Awards.
When not scribbling down her next book, you can catch her studying opera performance at the Mozarteum University, playing video games, or working as a software engineer in New York City. The Minimalist is her second novel.
Connect with Kailee on Instagram @kailee_pedersen // Find Kailee on the web www.kaileepederson.com
About The Organizers
Our mission is to shape how society views and engages with adoption and adoptees by centering storytelling, movement-building, and community resources led by racially marginalized adoptees.
Find us on the web www.bipocadoptees.org and connect with us on Instagram @bipocadoptees.
VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Community is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS. Your contribution is tax deductible. Our tax identification number is EIN: 93-2517170.