Andrea Ross

"What will this world be like now that the earth seems to have cracked open?"

Living through the huge Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 prompted me to ask that question, and it launched me on a journey of searching for my biological family, hoping to uncover my identity.

And I did it while I was working as a wilderness guide throughout the American West.

My book, Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness tells the story of what happened next.

These uncertain times make it seem like our world has cracked open--

We are all launching on a new journey, one that requires us to take stock of who we are and what we can do to make the world, and ourselves, more whole.

As a writer and speaker, I explore how outdoor experiences and adventures can enrich our sense of identity and wholeness.

Andrea Ross, Writer

Unnatural Selection:

A Memoir of Adoption

and Wilderness

“...everyone has family secrets, truths we squint at through obfuscated

hints...the finding of hidden stories is the work of becoming humanly whole."

--from the Foreword by Miriam Peskowitz

"Beautifully written. A must read!

--Nancy Verrier, author of The Primal Wound and Coming Home to Self

"Read this for the stories of wild places and wild people and, in the end,

the moving story of family."

--David Gessner, author of Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore

Roosevelt’s American Wilderness

Order Now

Bio

Andrea Ross

writes essays, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. She formerly worked as a National Park Service ranger and wilderness guide throughout the American West. As an adopted person, she is passionate about bringing to light the experiences of adopted people. She teaches writing at the University of California, Davis.

Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 1.55.05 PM.png

PROSE

Online:

"Double Vision" (in Parks and Points)
"Questions I Dare Ask: Interview with Amy Irvine" (in Terrain)
"A Feminist Look at Ed Abbey's Conservationist Writings" (in Ploughshares)
"Effects of the Edge" (in Ploughshares)
"Empty Boots" (In Portrait of an Adoption)
"Ruins and Ladders" (In Portrait of an Adoption)
"Slapped" (in Raising Mothers)
The Dirtbag Diaries (Podcast)
The Sought-after (Andrea's Blog)

In Print:

"Ask a Ranger," Permanent Vacation, Vol. 2, Bona Fide Press, 2018
"Half-Sister,” Connected: What Remains as We All Change, Wising Up Press, 2013
“Wilderness Culture in the Pacific Region,” in Pacific Regional Culture, Greenwood Press, 2004
“Terry Tempest Williams,” American Literary Biographies, University of Oxford Press, 2003