Jessica O’Dwyer is the adoptive mother to two teens born in Guatemala and author of the novel, Mother Mother and the memoir, Mamalita, named Best Memoir by the San Diego Book Awards. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Adoptive Families magazine, and elsewhere. Jessica is a vocal proponent of open adoption and lifelong connection to birth country, and speaks on these subjects at culture camps, book clubs, and adoption gatherings. She and her family travel to Guatemala for a month every summer to visit with her children’s birth families. Jessica grew up at the Jersey shore, the daughter of a high school shop teacher and Radio City Music Hall Rockette. She now lives in California with her husband, son, and daughter.