What’s it like when a complete unknown is actually close family? In Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship—a provocative anthology curated by B.K. Jackson, with a foreword by Libby Copeland, twenty-eight acclaimed and emerging writers explore the transformative experience of encountering unknown close relatives. These are intimate stories by those who’ve spent years longing and searching for their unknown biological families and by others shocked to discover they have parents or siblings they never dreamed of—blindsiding revelations that demand both a radical recalibration of identity and a redefinition of family. Each addresses the myriad emotions that arise in the wake of these discoveries and encounters, demonstrating that what we don’t know can hurt us, that secrets are toxic, and that truth can bring healing, redemption, and, sometimes, estrangement. Woven through is a universal question: What does it mean to be family?
Editor: B.K. Jackson
Adoptee Authors: Darcy Ballantyne, Louise Browne, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Aimee Seiff Christian, Lisa “L.C.” Coppola, Lisa Grunberger, Michèle Dawson Haber, Susan Devan Harness, B.K. Jackson, Liz Prato, Danna D. Schmidt, Emily Sinagra
Publication Year: 2026
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