This week marks the release of “All You Can Ever Know” by Nicole Chung on paperback. Chung, 38, sat down for an interview earlier this year during the Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network conference, where she gave the keynote. Her book, published by Catapult, is a memoir of growing up as a Korean transracial adoptee and navigating the complexities around race, identity and family, and is widely celebrated for its honesty and observations from the adopted person’s point of view. A writer and editor, Chung reflects about her book and of finding a place within the wider Korean adoptee community.

Music by license with Blue Dot Sessions
Audio reading of “All You Can Ever Know” courtesy of Audible
Logo by Rusty Detty

LA-based filmmaker and Korean adoptee Jon Maxwell had once struggled to put a lens to his own adoption story in a way that felt satisfying. But he found that by helping to tell the stories of other adoptees, his own came more into frame. Listen as Maxwell, 39, shares his own story about adoption, career and fatherhood.

Music by license with Blue Dot Sessions/
Logo by Rusty Detty/
“aka Dan” appears with permission of Dan Matthews/ISA TV
Photo by Ajarina Hitomi

Korean adoptee and self-described “southern belle” Cindy Wilson, 43, shares a fascinating life story of growing up in the Deep South, adopted transracially by African-Americans and navigating identity, belonging and being true to herself.

Music:
Under license, Blue Dot Sessions
Audiobinger The First Time I Laid Eyes / China Town / New Hope / Sunday Soul / The Planest / Memory Lane

Logo: Rusty Detty

Julie Yackley’s path to motherhood was not a common one. But then again, this 33-year old Korean adoptee has faced many challenges that perhaps might uniquely qualify her for her current role as a mother of two children — one she shares a biological connection with, and the other, a transracial adoptee one. A blogger and author, Yackley shares her very personal story on the podcast about how her feelings of abandonment and grief of losing two mothers has shaped how she approaches being a mother herself.

All Music by Blue Dot Sessions:
Step In Step Out/ Kallaloe/ Stack Me Up/ A Calendar Spread/ Stakes And Things/ Kirkus/ Scalloped

Logo by Rusty Detty

Mayda Miller, 34, is a Korean adoptee and fronts her namesake rock band in the Twin Cities. From Incheon, South Korea, Miller was adopted to Minnesota spent a lot of her youth competing in sports and classical piano competitions but later found her true calling to make funk, blues and punk-influenced rock music. Miller’s story includes meeting her Korean biological parents and living with complicated emotions about them and Korea as a result.

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Credits:

Mayda Miller “The Han”
Mayda Miller “Sylvia”
Mayda Miller “Verite”
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Entwined Oddity”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lupi”
Blue Dot Sessions “Gatinha Rosa”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tartaruga”
Rusty Detty Logo

Korean adoptee Annie Malecek, 24, learned as an adult she was conceived from rape. Violence also played a role at a pivotal moment for the Chicago resident when she first realized that having white parents and being raised in a privileged environment would not shield her from racism, prejudice and of being a target for aggression. To find where she fit in America, Malecek had to travel back to Korea, to see and feel and think in the land where it had all begun. Along the way, she found answers, and a peace.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Swell”
Blue Dot Sessions “Entwined Oddity”
Blue Dot Sessions “Slimeheart”
Blue Dot Sessions “Holo”
Blue Dot Sessions “Basketliner”
Blue Dot Sessions “Pelliu”
Blue Dot Sessions “Loom”
Blue Dot Sessions “Lovers Hollow”
Rusty Detty: Logo

The notion of family is a complicated one for Korean adoptee Jimmy Byrne. The 35-year old Chicagoan shares his story of profound loss and reunion — and how each continues to shape his life and relationships. Byrne also talks about coming to terms with all aspects of his identity as a gay Asian male, a musician, a transracial adoptee, and as a Korean-American. Through it all, Byrne’s humanity and quiet strength shines through.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “November Mist”
Blue Dot Sessions “Glass Beads”
Blue Dot Sessions “Pictures Of The Floating World”
Blue Dot Sessions “Insatiable Toad”
Blue Dot Sessions “Stucco Blue”
Blue Dot Sessions “Paper Feather”
Blue Dot Sessions “Taoudella”
Blue Dot Sessions “City Limits”
Blue Dot Sessions “Um Pepino”
Blue Dot Sessions “Entrance Shaft”
Rusty Detty: Logo

Elliot Mark, 23, is a Korean adoptee who is also Jewish. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois, the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants and credits his close-knit family with helping him forge a strong identity. Mark also embraces his Korean origins and has recently joined a local group for Korean adoptees to help build his community. Mark shares how he has learned to find his place between cultures and time, with the love and support of all his family.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “This Our Home”
Blue Dot Sessions “The Coil Winds”
Blue Dot Sessions “Doghouse”
Blue Dot Sessions “Home Home At Last”
Blue Dot Sessions “O Holy Still”
Blue Dot Sessions “Vengeful”
Blue Dot Sessions “The Big Ten”
Blue Dot Sessions “Curio”
Blue Dot Sessions “Sine And Wither”
Rusty Detty: Logo

Korean adoptee Milton Washington, 48, has learned how to live between two worlds ever since he was adopted at the age of eight by an African-American military family. Washington, or Pak Milton-ah, spent his early years under the shadow of rejection by Korean society because of his mixed-blood heritage and outcaste because of his mother’s profession and association with black U.S. soldiers. After being adopted into a loving and somewhat unusual family, and raised in the American midwest, he realized he still had demons to overcome. As a black Korean, Washington also had to make sense of his identity in the U.S., and has come to understand and embrace both sides of his history. And what he would like to say to his Korean eomma, Pak Young-ja, one day.

Credits:
Jahzzar “Schmaltz”
Blue Dot Sessions “Tower of Mirrors”
Blue Dot Sessions “Peacetime”
Blue Dot Sessions “Bivly”
Blue Dot Sessions “Pacing”
Blue Dot Sessions “PlataZ”
Blue Dot Sessions “This Our Home”
Blue Dot Sessions “Platax”
Blue Dot Sessions “Grey Grey Joe”
Rusty Detty: Logo