Jane Jeong Trenka: Why She Writes

Over the past few years, since my husband and I began the process to adopt a baby from China, I have been reading about adoption.

One of the writers I discovered is Jane Jeong Trenka. She is a Korean American transracial adoptee, and her memoir is called The Language of Blood. While much of adoption literature has been dominated by the voices of adoptive parents and agencies, adoptees and birth parents are beginning to add their stories to the chorus. Often, these stories tell of pain, loss, and isolation. They are difficult to hear, and no doubt difficult to tell.

Trenka's essay, "Why Write," delves into her experiences of the shadow side of international adoption, and why she is compelled to narrate these experiences for readers.

People always ask me why I write. Here's why: I write because the story I have to tell about my life is not the same story that I have been told. I write because I want to create a small mark on the historical record. I write because the master narrative is a master. I write because I refuse to be deployed to support someone else's agenda. I write to find the truth. I write so you will believe me. I write to remember who I am. I write to remember who my mother was. If my childhood memory is a site of amnesia, then I will make my adult memory a site of resistance. I will remember, I will remember, I will remember. I write, I resist, and I refuse to be erased.

Even as Trenka brings me a challenging perspective about adoption that I struggle to integrate into my own understanding, I am inspired by her courage and tenacity, and the reminder that our words have great power.