The Girls Who Went Away
In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open the hidden social
history of adoption in the 28 years following WWII when more than 1.5 million women lost children to adoption due to the social pressures of the time.
An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.
Ann Fessler is a non-fiction author, artist, and educator with a wide-ranging practice. Her work brings the untold stories of ordinary people into the public sphere where they can contribute to a more expansive and inclusive understanding of history. The majority of her work over the last 30 years has addressed the themes of family and adoption.
Her non-fiction book, The Girls Who Went Away (2006, Penguin Press), was chosen as one of the top five non-fiction books of the year by the National Book Critics Circle, and was the recipient of the Ballard Book Prize. She has produced three documentary films including A Girl Like Her (2012, Women Make
Movies, NY), which has been screened widely at colleges and film festivals and was subtitled in five languages.
Fessler is Professor Emerita at Rhode Island School of Design, where she taught for 24 years. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including an Artist’s Fellowship from National Endowment of the Arts, and a Radcliffe Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, where
she completed her extensive research for this book. An adoptee herself, she begins and ends the book with the story of her own successful quest to find her mother.
The Girls Who Went Away
In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open the hidden social
history of adoption in the 28 years following WWII when more than 1.5 million women lost children to adoption due to the social pressures of the time.
An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.
Ann Fessler is a non-fiction author, artist, and educator with a wide-ranging practice. Her work brings the untold stories of ordinary people into the public sphere where they can contribute to a more expansive and inclusive understanding of history. The majority of her work over the last 30 years has addressed the themes of family and adoption.
Her non-fiction book, The Girls Who Went Away (2006, Penguin Press), was chosen as one of the top five non-fiction books of the year by the National Book Critics Circle, and was the recipient of the Ballard Book Prize. She has produced three documentary films including A Girl Like Her (2012, Women Make
Movies, NY), which has been screened widely at colleges and film festivals and was subtitled in five languages.
Fessler is Professor Emerita at Rhode Island School of Design, where she taught for 24 years. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including an Artist’s Fellowship from National Endowment of the Arts, and a Radcliffe Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, where
she completed her extensive research for this book. An adoptee herself, she begins and ends the book with the story of her own successful quest to find her mother.