Alice Stephens

Columnist and Book Reviewer at Washington Independent Review of Books

Author of FAMOUS ADOPTED PEOPLE @UnnamedPress. Columnist & book reviewer @WIRoBooks. Co-founder @AdopteeLitFest. @starlingscoll. @bloom_site. KAD. Hapa.

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Articles

When the World Explodes: Essays

2 weeks ago | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

By the age of 7, Amy Lee Scott has experienced the loss of two mothers: one through adoption from South Korea to the United States, and the other to cancer. In her debut collection of essays, When the World Explodes, Scott sees the violence and disruption of her personal history reflected in global catastrophes. Adopted as an infant into a white family which eventually grew to include six children, the author writes, “My childhood was riddled with a series of disasters, natural and otherwise.
Louder than the Lies: Asian American Identity, Solidarity, and Self-Love

Nov 3, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

While watching footage of the January 6, 2021, insurrection, I was shocked and dismayed to spy a Korean flag waving amidst the Confederate, America First, Kekistan, and other banners of white supremacy.
A Welcome Recharge

Oct 6, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

Fall is here, bringing one of my favorite events of the year. No, not that annual consumerist horror show of junky landfill decorations and toxic sweets called Halloween, but a women-writers weekend, a tradition now in its fourth year. The act of writing is generally a solitary endeavor, but being a writer is very much about finding community. My first writers community was formed through the Independent. Though I’d been writing for decades, I did it in isolation, and my work suffered for it.
Triumph of the Will

Jun 30, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

During recent travels, I visited Norway’s Resistance Museum in Oslo, dedicated to depicting the steep price that country paid during World War II: occupied by the Nazis from 1940-1945; its northern cities and towns flattened by bombings; King Haakon VII and the government exiled. The museum is arranged chronologically in a meticulous accounting of Germany’s invasion and occupation.
Alice by Kim Sook

May 27, 2024 | citronreview.com | Alice Stephens |Kim Eun Sook

by Alice Stephens I begin as Kim Sook, pliant and tender as freshly risen dough. Separated from my mother at two weeks, I am put in the care of a stranger who looks after me for money and keeps me tightly swaddled so I cannot move, so I stay in one place. The stranger only holds me at feeding time, forcing a rubber nipple past my trembling lips. It is then that she starts to come out.
An Interview with Rebecca Wellington

May 20, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

This is an exciting time for critical adoption studies, with several important books published within the last six months. Add to the list Who Is a Worthy Mother? by Rebecca Wellington, notable because the author is an adoptee.
The 23 and Me | Washington Independent Review of Books

Dec 17, 2023 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

Of the 49 books I’ve read so far in 2023 (with almost two weeks to go, I’d like to reach 52!), many were outstanding, some were pleasantly entertaining, and a few were disappointing. This year saw the publication of a rich trove of adoptee-authored books, marking what I hope will be an industry trend of authentic narratives about adoption from those who are most qualified to write about it.
Overcoming “Book Macho”

Sep 10, 2023 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Alice Stephens

“Book macho” is a term I coined in college to describe people who fetishize books, stockpiling their shelves with every volume that has ever meant anything to them. Almost everyone I know is afflicted with book macho. As someone who has moved frequently, I have an ambivalent relationship with books. I love reading them but hate that they are so cumbersome.