Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. From memoir to children’s tales, she explores identity, family, belonging, and the ways love and loss transform us. Julie believes in writing that heals, uplifts, and reminds us that finding our place in the world is a lifelong adventure. She is the author of three award-winning books: Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging (She Writes Press, 2021), Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family, and Kinship (Muse Literary, 2023), and Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood (She Writes Press, 2025). In 2025, Julie published Jack and Lulu Go to the Tree Farm (Muse Literary), the first book in her children’s book series: Let’s Go with Lulu. Her work has appeared in various online publications such as Writers Digest, Chicago Story Press, and Brevity Nonfiction Blog. Her personal essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis (She Writes Press, 2022), and Real Women Write: In the Garden (Story Circle Network, 2025). She splits her time between Michigan City, Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. 

My twin sister and I were adopted together at three weeks old. I have always known I am adopted. For most of my life, my closed adoption prevented me from knowing my birth circumstances, family medical history, and genealogy. Then at 48, I was sent for a breast biopsy.

It was this health scare that compelled me to launch the search for my “personal story.” 

For five years, I battled rigid state adoption statutes, search roadblocks, misinformation, lies and profound rejection before claiming the information most people take for granted. To access my “personal story,” I needed the help of a search angel, my adoption agency, a social worker, a confidential intermediary, a PI, and a genealogist. I chronicle this adoption search journey in my debut memoir Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging, which comes out in May 2021 by She Writes Press (2019 Indie Publisher of the Year). 

I have always loved to write. Before I crafted my quest memoir for publication, I was engrossed in writing a novel–I still plan on finishing it! I’m also a committed journaler. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been filling notebooks with reflections, reminiscences, quotes, and stories. I just love notebooks–it doesn’t matter if they’re the spiral bound variety or the Mead black-and-white composition books. Even though I spend most of my time writing on a laptop, there is a bound notepad within my reach. There’s something about squeezing thoughts into tidy black lines that sparks unexpected creativity. 

My weekly That Girl, This Life blog which focuses on identity, family and life’s quirky moments is published on my website. In addition to memoir and personal essays, I write a monthly column for my local paper The Beacher. Some of my guest blogs have appeared on Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, Dear Adoption, and Lifetime Adoption-The Adoptive Families Blog. In the spring of 2018, I was selected to read the opening chapter of my memoir at AmpLitFest in New York City.