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JULIE RYAN McGUE is an author, a domestic adoptee and an identical twin. She writes extensively about finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it.
Julie’s debut memoir, “Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging” is the story of her five-year search for birth relatives. Her weekly blogs That Girl, This Life and her monthly column at The Beacher focus on identity, family and life’s quirky moments.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Julie received a BA from Indiana University in Psychology. She earned a MM in Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University. She has served multiple terms on the Board of the Midwest Adoption Center.
Julie splits her time between Northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. If she’s not at her computer, she’s on the tennis court or out exploring with her Nikon. Julie is currently working on a collection of personal essays and a coming of age memoir. For more information, visit her website, www.juliemcgueauthor.com.
Follow Julie Ryan McGue on social media:
Facebook: @juliemcguewrites | Twitter: @juliermcgue | Instagram: @juliemcgue
“An engaging, endearing chronicle of a woman's quest to find her origins”
– Kirkus Reviews
Day job
Author, grandmother, competitive tennis player
Favorite author
Dani Shapiro
Favorite book
The Boys in the Boat
Favorite line from a book
It was the best of times...
Favorite word
precipice
Hometown
La Grange, IL
Passion in life
making people feel at ease
Unexpected skill or talent
skeet shooting
The Only Thing My Father Gave Me, 2020
How Closed Adoption Impacted Birth Mothers and Adoptees, 2020
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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