Press Release -

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: B.K. Jackson, kate@bkjacksonwriter.com, 610-844-2732

What’s it Like to Discover Unknown Parents or Siblings? 28 Writers Tell Their Stories

Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, an anthology of literary essays, explores the human cost—and rewards—of discovering unknown close family.

MILFORD, PA, May 19, 2026—What happens when you find out the family you were raised in is not entirely—or not at all—your biological family? It’s a question millions face because—although these family secrets are revealed in many ways—as DNA testing soars in popularity, approximately one in four individuals who take a DNA test will discover an unknown close relative. Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, publishing on June 23 from ELJ Editions, shines a light on the experience of those who live in the aftermath of encountering unknown parents and siblings and cope with the fallout: identity disruption, family dysfunction, the longing for biological kin, the messy complexities of reunion, the sting of rejection, and the joy of connection.

These are intimate essays by adoptees and those with misattributed parentage, including donor conceived people, whose discoveries of previously unknown biological family have required them to reimagine who they are and reconsider their notions of what it means to be family.

With a foreword by Libby Copeland, author of the acclaimed book The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are, and advance praise from Dani Shapiro—whose bestselling memoir, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, brought the not-parent-expected (NPE) experience to a broad and eager readership—the anthology arrives during a seismic cultural shift in which our understanding of family is in flux.

According to Jackson, “Even in a time and place where genealogy is a national pastime, family is revered, and lineage is a source of pride, the desire to know one’s genetic identity and the challenges of not knowing are widely misunderstood by those who’ve never had to question where they come from.”

“If you’ve been affected by a DNA discovery that has brought you to your knees, run, don’t walk,” Shapiro says. “Press this book into the hands of anyone who asks: ‘What difference does it make?’ The answer to that question is in these pages.”

B.K. Jackson (www.bkjacksonwriter.com) is a writer, editor, and coach and the founder of Severance (Severancemag.com), a magazine and community for adoptees and people with misattributed parentage. Libby Copeland is a journalist and author of The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are, widely recognized as the definitive account of the consumer DNA testing phenomenon and its consequences for individuals and society.