In 1969, I was a student in an all-girls Catholic high school. The nuns gave each of us a list of banned books—books that were a sin to read. I was thrilled. Rather than avoid those books, I considered the list a bibliography and read every book on it. I fell in love with all the banned books and writers, and have pursued reading and writing ever since. An only-child, I was born and raised in Seattle, where I still live. My exploration of the world beyond my front yard began with books and continues with books—reading them and writing them. My first book is a memoir called White Lady, Black Sons: a memoir of adoption, abuse and awakening, published in June 2015. Writing memoir is an honest and crucial look at our past. It springs from a deep seated need within us to tell our stories to each other and, as Christopher Isherwood said when he switched from fiction to memoir: “Why invent, when life is so prodigious?”