Ann Fessler is an author, filmmaker, artist and professor who has spent the last twenty-five years focusing on the subject of adoption and revealing the hidden stories of mothers who lost children to adoption in the 1950s to early 1970s, when an unprecedented number of babies were surrendered due to the social pressures of the time. Her recent film, A GIRL LIKE HER uses passages from interviews she conducted with over 100 women in the US, with archival footage from the time period.

Her critically acclaimed book on the same subject, The Girls Who Went Away (Penguin Press) was chosen as one of the top 5 non-fiction books of 2006 by the National Book Critics Circle. It also won the Ballard Book Prize, given annually to a female author who advances the dialogue about women’s rights.

More information about Ann can be viewed on her website: agirllikeher.com and www.annfessler.com

A report on the workshop is in Adoption Circles Newsletter Issue 75 and also in the Members Only area of this website.