61. Michele Kriegman: "A Chrismukkah present revealed a sister"

<p><strong>Michele Kriegman&nbsp;born Suzanne Gilbert </strong>is a storyteller by nature but she was missing her own backstory well into adulthood. Finding her birth-father helped complete it. She worked for many years in U.S. and Japanese journalism, including ABC News, iVillage.com, Lilith, Maine Public Radio, NYT Nippon TV's morning show, . More recent journalism has been for cybersecurity publications such as Info Security Professional.&nbsp;</p><p>Michele is an adoptee who searched successfully for her birth-father in New York before the state opened its records. She reclaimed her birth-name, Suzanne Gilbert, to write the novel,&nbsp;<em>Tapioca Fire</em>, that is the prequel to&nbsp;<em>The Birth-Fathers’ Club.&nbsp;</em>She teaches writing workshops for adoptees and donor-conceived people finding their #ownvoices. She speaks on panels for social workers, adoptive families, and intentional parents about birthright issues. Her approach, though well-researched,&nbsp;isn’t academic or clinical; she’s been an in-the-trenches adoptive stepmom too.</p><p>Most recently, a DNA test kit that came as a Chrismukkah present, revealed a sister! Their shared birth-father, and his complex effort at redemption later in life, inspired the story in one of the novellas.</p><p>Music by Corey Quinn</p>