About me: I’ve been a writer my entire life and a journalist ever since I realized I could annoy my high school principal with an editorial that I refused to retract. After many years of writing and editing for Roll Call, Moment Magazine, Legal Times, and other publications, I became a freelance writer, choosing subjects the way a magpie would pick pretty shiny things. That led me to some fun assignments, especially during the three years when my husband and I were based in Beijing, where I wrote stories for the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Atlantic about 10K races in Angkor Wat, a baijiu bar in Beijing, and how to create a Passover seder with foods from the local wet market.

Our two adult children also spent a few years in China while we were there, and that led to great family memories and an e-book that my husband and I wrote together, Beijing from A to Z: An Expat Couple’s Adventures in China.

My world changed when I stumbled upon a harder truth — that my Dutch ancestors in the Hudson Valley had been enslavers. It gave me a larger purpose. I hadn’t known about New York’s 200 years of enslavement, and I had no idea that my small hometown held so many hidden stories.

Meeting Eleanor Mire, a woman who is a direct descendant of some of the enslaved people who lived in my town, and whose ancestors were enslaved by my family, gave me a sense that our story had to be told. When we realized that we were also connected by genetic ties, our friendship grew.

My 2020 article about our story drew hundreds of comments, emails, and interviews, a response that told me we had to keep going. My book, A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in my Dutch American Family, will be published by Cornell’s Three Hills on Oct. 15. You can follow my progress on Goodreads.

For speaking engagements, contact Luke Neilssen at BrightSight Speakers.

Email me at debbruno333@gmail.com