Julie writes about finding out who you are, where you come from, and making sense of it.
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“An engaging, endearing chronicle of a woman’s quest to find her origins.” – Kirkus Review
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I’m an author – memoirist, essayist, and columnist – who writes about finding out who you are, where you come from, and making sense of it.
On this site, you will find information about my books, media events, links to bi-monthly blog posts, and material relating to adoption. While many of my “That Girl This Life” essays focus on identity, family, and belonging, I also love to spotlight the quirky and tender moments which add color to daily life.
At 48, I was sent for a breast biopsy. This incident highlighted what closed adoption prevented my twin sister and me from knowing: our birth circumstances, family medical history, and genealogy. The subsequent search for our “personal story” consumed five years.
I chronicle the adoption search journey in my debut memoir Twice a Daughter: A Search for Family, Identity, and Belonging (She Writes Press, May 2021). The prequel, a coming-of-age story about what it was like to grow up as a twin and an adoptee, titled Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss & Sisterhood released in Feb. 2025 (She Writes Press).
My collection of essays, Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family & Kinship (Muse Literary, Nov. 2023) is a compilation of my favorite “That Girl This Life” blog posts, essays from the monthly column I write under the same name for The Beacher Newspapers in Michiana, and other published work. Belonging Matters serves as a companion piece to both memoirs, supports the adoption community, and creates a conversation with those not touched by adoption.
Besides being an author, identical twin, and adoptee, I’m a mother, grandmother, and a recent widow. Because life has given me many roles to play, as well as experiences and challenges to champion, I plan to continue to craft material for publication that feels right to share.
My wish is that you stay here, linger, and find writing that resonates. Upon leaving this site, I hope you take with you a fresh new idea, perspective, or a topic to discuss with others.
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2025
Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
PRESS KIT FOR “TWICE THE FAMILY”
DOWNLOAD PRESS KIT HERE
Twice the Family
A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood
By Julie Ryan McGue
From the award-winning author of Twice a Daughter comes the much- anticipated prequel. In this coming-of-age memoir–set in Chicago’s western suburbs between the 1960s and 80s–adopted twins, Julie and Jenny, provide their parents with an instant family. The twins’ sisterly bond holds tight as the two strive for independence, individuality, and belonging. But as Julie’s parents continue adding children to their family, several painful and tragic experiences test family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds.
Faced with these hurdles, Julie questions everything—who she is, how she fits in, and even her adoption circumstances. She understands her adoptive family is held together by love, faith, support, and her parents’ commitment to each other and their children.
And yet, the life her parents have constructed is not one Julie wants for herself. As she matures, she chooses her own unique path. In the process, she realizes how the experiences that formed her have provide a road map for the person and mother she wants to be.
That Girl, This Life
Weekly posts that focus on identity, family, and life’s quirky moments.
An Interview with author Jean Kelly Widner
When we fail to evolve our understanding of the possibilities and consequences of key issues, society suffers.
Pride, Aging, and the Importance of Friendship
Where would we be without friends to listen and advise?
Beyond the Book Booth
Attending book festivals means more to authors than just book sales.
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April 29 from 1:30-2:30 ET Julie will teach a webinar for the Author Learning Center, titled “How to Write Memoir That Reads Like Fiction.” You can sign up, here.
May 12: Julie will be a featured speaker at Cleveland Adoption Network Monday Evening Speaker Series from 8-9 ET. Sign up via the website, here.
May 24: Twice the Family is the “Book of the Day” at the OnlineBookClub.com.
June 18: Julie has been invited back to the Pottawatomie CC Book Club in Michigan City, IN at 6 PM CT to discuss her recent release, Twice the Family.
Aug. 13: Julie will join the Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Book Club at 7 PM CT to discuss Twice the Family.
Aug. 24-28: Julie will attend the HerSpirit Writing Retreat at the Chaminade Resort & Spa in Santa Cruz, CA organized by StorySummit.
If you missed Julie’s participation in the virtual author panel: Inside the Adoption Experience on 3/11, you can listen to the recording here.
Follow Julie by visiting her website, subscribe to her bimonthly newsletters, and listen to previous podcast recordings where she discusses topics like adoption, identity, family relationships, sisterhood and belonging.
