Jane Jeong Trenka

Jane Jeong Trenka is an activist and an award winning writer.^[1]

Trenka is the president of the organization TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea).

Biography

Jane Jeong Trenka was born in Seoul, Korea. In 1972, Trenka and her sister were adopted into a white family in rural northern Minnesota. In 2004, she returned to live in Korea where she became an activist for standard and transparent adoption practices to protect the human rights of adult adoptees, children, and families. Her Korean mother found her daughters in 1972, shortly after the girls were sent to the U.S. and before they were legally adopted. Trenka and her family physically reunited in Korea in 1995.

Trenka has also spoken publicly about her own stalking experiences, to raise awareness for the issue. Trenka was stalked when she was in her late teens and studying at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She discusses the incident in her book The Language of Blood.^[2] Her experiences were adapted for an episode of the television series Obsession: Dark Desires.^[3]

Books

• The Language of Blood, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2003; Graywolf Press, 2005^[4]
• 피의 언어, Y-Gelli Press 2005; Domabaem 2012^[5]
• Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, South End Press, 2006^[6]
• 인종간 입양의 사회학, KoRoot Press, 2012^[7]
• Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee's Return to Korea, Graywolf Press, 2009^[8]
• 덧없는 환영들, Changbi Publishers, 2012^[9]

Awards

• Minnesota Book Award for Autobiography/Memoir for The Language of Blood
• Minnesota Book Award for New Voice for The Language of Blood
• Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection for The Language of Blood

See also

• List of Asian American writers

References

External links

• Interview with Jane Jeong Trenka on adoptive parents
• TRACK: Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea
• An Adoptee Returns to Korea, and Changes Follow (New York Times, June 28, 2013)