Join us on Saturday, August 15, 2026 for our next installment of Adoptee Book Club: When the World Explodes: Essays by Amy Lee Scott! By age seven, Amy Lee Scott’s world had already ended—twice. First as an adopted infant, when she left her Korean motherland for a new American life in suburban Ohio. Then again, when her adopted mother and safe harbor died of cancer. Orphaned twice over, Scott picks through the emotional rubble to explore what it means to live in a terminal state of exile, and the grief, anxiety, and anger such a life demands. When the World Explodes | Essays is a haunting exploration of the many kinds of internal and external disasters that can strike a person down—and what it takes to stand back up again.

Amy Lee Scott’s When the World Explodes: Essays (Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press) won the 2023 Gournay Prize. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. Her illustrated essays have appeared in The Iowa Review, New Ohio Review, and Tin House Online. Past work received notable mentions in the Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. Adopted from South Korea as an infant, and raised in suburban Los Angeles, she now lives with her family and tabby cat in Southeast Michigan. Learn more at amyleescott.com.