MEDIA KIT
MEDIA KIT
A Memoir by Patricia Knight Meyer
Published by Unsolicited Press
Patricia Knight Meyer was trafficked as an infant along a Texas hospital curb in 1970 and never legally adopted. She received her first legal birth certificate at 47, after a search that reunited her with both birth parents. She tells the story in her award-winning debut memoir, WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption (Unsolicited Press, November 3, 2026). A UT Austin journalism graduate, Patricia serves on the NAAP board, runs the My Adopted Life, speaks nationally on adoption topics, teaches memoir writing, and advocates for adoption reform. She has been published in Ms. Magazine and elsewhere. She splits her time between the Texas Hill Country and New Orleans.
Patricia Knight Meyer is an author, speaker, and adoption reform advocate. She was trafficked as an infant along a Texas hospital curb in 1970. No agency. No judge. No paperwork. She was never legally adopted. She grew up with a fraudulent birth certificate and no legal documentation of who she was. The attorney who arranged her placement extorted roughly $30,000 from her raising parents over the years that followed.
Her road to true identity began at 39. She started with no original records, no known birth name, and no confirmed date or place of birth. Using public record databases, she tracked down the trafficking attorney and uncovered a biological cousin trafficked by the same man.
She reunited with both of her birth parents. Her reunion video with her birth father has been viewed more than 280,000 times on YouTube. She received her first legal birth certificate at 47. Patricia tells this story in her debut memoir, WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption (Unsolicited Press, November 3, 2026). The book arrives as an IndieReader Award Winner in True Crime, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, a Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist, and an Indies Today Memoir Finalist. Patricia also narrates the audiobook, released through her imprint YAYDNA Press.
She serves on the board of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP), where she hosts the monthly NAAP Happy Hour. She is connected to Concerned United Birthparents, Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, Support Texas Adoptee Rights, Saving Our Sisters, and other advocacy organizations.
Her blog, My Adopted Life, reaches a community of more than 30,000 adoptees and advocates. She keynotes adoption conferences and leads memoir writing workshops. Patricia has appeared on Al Jazeera’s The Stream and HuffPost Live. Her essays have been published in Ms. Magazine, Severance Magazine, Narrative Arc, and Kinsmen Quarterly.
Patricia left high school before graduating, earned her GED, and worked her way through community college. She was admitted to the journalism program at the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated as a single mother. She went on to a twenty-year career in books and digital marketing.
She is also the founder of YAYDNA Genetic Greeting Cards, cards made for the complicated joy of DNA discovery and reunion, available on Amazon.
She splits her time between the Texas Hill Country and New Orleans with her grumpy Chihuahua, Ollie. She is mom to a photographer daughter and GiGi to two grandsons.
Trafficked along a Texas hospital curb in 1970—no judge, no paperwork, no questions asked—Patricia grew up celebrating a made-up birthday, haunted by nightmares of “The Dark Man.” Her parents, blackmailed by the attorney they hired to skirt the adoption system, faced an impossible choice: go to the police or pay up. They paid $30,000 to keep their paperless baby.
Navigating her bi-polar mother’s alcoholism and caring for her disabled 600-pound father, Patricia spent her childhood trying to save her saviors—unaware of the lifelong threat that haunted them: at any moment, someone could come back for their child.
At eighteen, pregnant and standing in her birth mother’s shoes, Patricia discovers a shattering secret that launches a lifetime search for answers. But it takes decades—and her adoptive mother’s death—before Patricia realizes the secret-keepers won’t live forever. Guided by her mother’s ghost, she races to uncover the truth.
Part detective story, part searing family portrait, part historical reckoning, WONDERLAND exposes what happens when maternal desperation meets need and greed, when falsified documents, dark family secrets, and systemic abuses can no longer sustain one woman’s relentless search for truth. A tumble down the rabbit hole of America’s baby trade, Patricia delivers a haunting reckoning with Baby Scoop Era exploitation that asks: as reproductive rights disappear, are we ready for Baby Scoop 2.0?
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Patricia Knight Meyer has appeared on dozens of podcasts and media outlets telling the story of America’s hidden black-market adoption era — and why it matters more than ever today.
Featured Appearances include:
Speaking:
NAAP Monthly Happy Hour Host
Patricia brings a rare combination of lived experience and storytelling craft to every conversation. Whether she’s talking about reproductive rights, the Baby Scoop Era, DNA discovery, or the long road to identity.
Invite Patricia to Speak at Your Event
Patricia is an experienced keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who has presented at national adoption conferences, memoir writing events, and advocacy retreats across the country.
Patricia speaks on:
Email:
Instagram:
@patriciaknightmeyer
@somebodys__baby
Facebook:
@wonderlandthememoir
@patriciaknightmeyer
TIK TOK:
@myadoptedlife
Blue Sky:
@myadoptedlife.bsky.social
Threads:
@somebodys__baby
To book Patricia for your podcast, conference, event, or to schedule an interview, reach out at [email protected]. She’s available for virtual and in-person engagements and is especially interested in events aligned with her November 3, 2026 book launch for WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption (Unsolicited Press).
