This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with Vanessa A. Bee, author of the memoir Home Bound: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging (Astra Books). Vanessa’s adoptive, multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-national, and transcontinental upbringing has caused her to grapple for years with a foundational question: What is home? From her birth in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to her adoption by her aunt and her aunt’s white French husband, to experiencing housing insecurity in Europe and her eventual immigration to the U.S., Home Bound approaches the question from multiple directions and with multiple definitions of the word, which begin each chapter of the memoir.
This conversation was recorded in Spokane, Washington, in the Spokane Public Radio studios, in partnership with both SPR and the 2023 Get Lit! Literary Festival, where Vanessa appeared as a participating author.
About Vanessa:
Vanessa A. Bee is a consumer protection lawyer and essayist. Born in Cameroon, she grew up in France, England, and the United States. Vanessa holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada and a law degree from Harvard. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Vanessa A. Bee recommends:
For long, sweeping chapters that feel like a memoir in essays, on politics and identity and immigration: Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (Little, Brown and Company)
For a complicated relationship between a father and his secret daughter, set in France: The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine (Hogarth)
For a wild ride told in the voice of your eccentric uncle who can only tell seven-headed stories: Deacon King Kong by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
For a wild ride about the cringe-iest scammer you‘ve never met: The Guest by Emma Cline (Penguin Random House)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Home Bound: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging by Vanessa A. Bee (Astra House)
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung (Catapult Books)
Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness (University of Nebraska Press)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Alfred A. Knopf)
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine Books)
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This conversation was recorded in Spokane, Washington, in the Spokane Public Radio studios. The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer and editor.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
