Joan Griffin was one of the one million infants adopted in the United States during the 1950s. Growing up as an adopted child can be wonderful, but it’s also curious and complicated. Joan says, "I won the Adoption Lottery!" Joan’s birth-mother hired a private-eye to find her in the 1990s, then dropped suddenly into her life, before disconnecting completely less than two decades later. It was AncestryDNA that introduced Joan to her East Coast paternal half-siblings just before the Pandemic. To them, Joan was a complete mystery, a total surprise. Joan will discuss her adoption origin story, the curiosities of growing up adopted, and the journey of discovery she’s been on while writing her upcoming adoption memoir, Strangers in My Blood, to be released in spring 2027 by Black Rose Writing, publisher.

Bio:

Author Joan Griffin lives under the spell of wanderlust. She takes wing, whenever possible, for actual destinations near and far and for literary locales in the pages of books. A native Californian and proud UCLA Bruin, Joan lives in the Northern California foothills of the majestic Sierra Nevada, a world she loves exploring. Joan navigated her way through two careers—marketing computers, then sailboats—before applying her love of storytelling to her dual passions of teaching and writing. Retired after 25 years of teaching middle school, Joan currently teaches classes in literature and history at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Sierra College. Joan’s adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, was published in 2023 by Black Rose Writing. She is currently writing her second memoir about growing up adopted, Strangers in My Blood, scheduled for release in 2027.

​ Coffee, Cookies, and Chat after the meeting in the Kilaga Café.