Mary Ellen Gambutti

Neither Here Nor There - always arriving, never belonging. In twenty-two lyrical essays, vignettes, and verses, Mary Ellen Gambutti connects threads from her early life. On the first day of fall, 1951, a mother leaves the maternity ward, her newborn still in the nursery. The infant waits for her to return. Waits for someone to claim her. Five months later, a couple brings her home, and she is both blessed and uncertain.
Air Force transfers. Suitcases. Temporary homes. A new stage. An unfamiliar cast. And often, no goodbyes. For readers of memoir, adoptee narratives, and the literature of severance, loss, and belonging.