Our 2025 Keynote Speaker: Shannon Gibney
(Photo Credit: Maya Washington)
With her long history of writing and speaking about the complexities of adoption, our keynote speaker Shannon Gibney is a vital force in the adoptee literary community. Author of children’s books, YA, historical fiction, essays, novels, and a sui generis speculative memoir, Shannon is also an editor, academic, and social justice activist.
Her books, include The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption, which received a Michael L. Printz Honor and a Minnesota Book Award; See No Color and Dream Country, both winners of Minnesota Book Awards; Where We Come From (co-authored), winner of the 2023 Carter G. Woodson Award; and the children’s picture books Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight and We Miss You, George Floyd (published November, 2024). A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, Gibney teaches at Minneapolis College, where she was named Educator of the Year in 2023. She lives with her two children in Minneapolis.
Adoptee Literary Festival 