“Inheritance” Author Dani Shapiro on Genetics and the Meaning of Family

The Osborn welcomes bestselling author, Dani Shapiro, at the first of the fall WellSpring Speaker series. In Ms. Shapiro’s recent book, Inheritance, the author’s world is turned upside down when she learns through a personal DNA test that her beloved father, a pillar in the Jewish community, is not her birth-father. “All my life I had known there was a secret,” she writes. “What I hadn’t known: the secret was me.” This discovery leads her on a mission to uncover the hidden story about her conception and the surprising identity of her birth father.

Ms. Shapiro’s talk will take place on Tuesday, September 17 at 7:30 pm at The Osborn (101 Theall Road, Rye, NY). The event is free and open to the public: RSVP@theosborn.org or 914-925-8218. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Dani Shapiro is the best-selling author of the memoirs Inheritance, Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels, and is the host of the forthcoming podcast Family Secrets. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, Vogue, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on This American Life. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, The New School, and Wesleyan University; she is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Italy. A contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler, Dani lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.