The Fertile Circle: From Egg Donors to Adoption––and Everything in Between

Using their artistic expression to draw long overdue public attention to the health risks, bioethical concerns and emotional traumas linked to assisted reproductive technologies, former egg donors and fertility patients will present The Fertile Circle, a dramatic reading hosted by Art Research Office on Saturday, October 19, 2013.

The three artists/activists––Raquel Cool, Leah Campbell and Miriam Zoll––met online through the group, We Are Egg Donors.

The Fertile Circle aims to weave solitary narratives together to create a tapestry that represents a common culture: intersecting narratives capture the often-private duress of infertility; bringing a voice to a struggle shared by an estimated one in six couples in the United States.

About Miriam Zoll - Author

An award-winning writer, public speaker and an international health and human rights advocate and educator, Miriam is the author of the new memoir-expose, Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility and the Pursuit of High Tech Babies (Interlink-June 2013). She is the founding co-producer of the Ms. Foundation for Women’s original “Take Our Daughters To Work Day”, and a member of the boards of Our Bodies Ourselves and Voice Male Magazine. A 2005 MIT Research Fellow, her  writing has been published by the United Nations, The Royal Tropical Institute, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Slate, the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe, among other venues. After six failed fertility treatments–including two donor egg attempts in which both donors were diagnosed as being infertile-she became a mom through adoption.

About Leah Campbell -- Author

Living in Alaska, Leah Campbell has traveled the world and written extensively on topics relating to infertility, adoption and societal issues. She holds a degree in psychology from San Diego State University and is a former egg donor who went on to experience infertility after donating. Her first book, Single Infertile Female, was released in April of this year - just two months after she adopted her beautiful baby girl and started out on a whole new adventure.  

Raquel Cool

Raquel is an international speaker, artist, and writer residing in Santa Cruz, California. She is a founding member of We Are Egg Donors, an international self-advocacy group for egg providers. Her work has been featured in Hyphen Magazine, Sex & Design Magazine, Our Bodies Ourselves, the National Post, and others. She is currently traveling around the world, interviewing egg donors about their experiences; this storytelling project is a collaboration with The Center for Genetics and Society. Her book, Work in Progress: On Hauling Cadavers, Selling My Eggs, and Other Unlikely Jobs, will be released in 2014.