Coming Soon: An Anthology By Ethiopian Adoptees
Cover Art by Nahosenay Negussie
I’m thrilled to announce that our anthology Lions Roaring Far From Home is in its final stages of production. The anthology is a collection of personal essays and poems written by adoptees from various parts of Ethiopia, edited by Aselefech Evans, Maureen McCauley and myself. The adoptees hail from the U.S., Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Australia and Ethiopia. Their ages range from 8 to 50 years old, meaning they were adopted during various waves of adoption from Ethiopia. Some were adopted in the 1970s to Sweden, others were adopted to France in the 80s, while others were sent to the U.S. in the 2000s. The anthology is not organized by country or wave of adoption, but I feel that it’s important to emphasize the diversity of experiences within Ethiopian adoptee communities.
The idea behind producing an anthology written solely by Ethiopian adoptees was for the world to hear our voices, experiences and stories, told by us. For far too long, adoptees stories and experiences have been told (and continue to told) by non-adoptees - adoptive parents, researchers, adoption professionals or journalists hungry for a good story. Often times, our stories become their stories and they no longer fully belong to us.
In Lions Roaring Far From Home, adoptees got to tell their own stories, whichever ones they wanted to share, uncensored. In fact, what I love most about this anthology is that we gave the writers “carte blanche” to write about whatever they wanted, as long as it was connected to Ethiopia.
As you will see, they were very generous with us and with their readers - they let us into their worlds by recounting deeply personal stories and experiences of love, loss, grief, gratitude and more. I don’t take their willingness to be so open and vulnerable lightly. Writing for adoptees can be cathartic, but also deeply triggering and traumatic. I know this firsthand and so does, Aselefech, my co-editor, as we’ve both contributed essays to this anthology.
I’m incredibly grateful to every adoptee who entrusted us with their story and waited patiently for this book to come together. The process of writing a book (well, this book in particular) has been a labour of love. We started collecting essays back in 2015, however due to many unforeseen circumstances, we’ve had to take a number of breaks.
It is thanks to my co-editors endurance and dedication to this project, as well as our community of adoptees and allies, that this book will see the light of day, very soon!
I’m very excited and look forward to providing more details as we edge closer to the publication date. Please stay tuned for more updates!
Special mention: Nahosenay Neguissie created the original and very beautiful artwork for the book’s cover.
- Kassaye
