Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care

"Wards of the State’ explores how to fix our broken foster care system

Journalist Claudia Rowe, author of “Wards of the State: the Long Shadow of the American Foster Care System,” will discuss her moving and groundbreaking book with Northwest Passages readers Oct. 15. 

Rowe will be in conversation with Spokesman-Review reporter Elena Perry at 7 p.m. at the Montvale Event Center.

"Wards of the State" follows six kids through the courtrooms, group homes, detention halls and adoption fairs that framed their lives. Much of the book is set in Washington state, including Spokane.

For 35 years Rowe has been writing about the places where youth and government policy clash. “Wards of the State” was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award. The judges lauded Rowe’s work exposing “systemic failures of America’s foster care system” and offering readers a deep understanding of the foster care-to-prison pipeline. 

“She gains the confidence of people with every reason to be wary, writing with compassion and rigor from inside their lives and traumas,” National Book Award judges wrote in their citation. “The result is narrative journalism at its very best: propulsive, deeply intimate, and damning. 

“Through original reporting, she reveals a system in urgent need of reform while giving voice to the unforgettable children it has failed.”

Rowe also is the recipient of a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism and multiple honors for investigative reporting. A member of The Seattle Times editorial board, Rowe also has written for The New York Times, Mother Jones magazine, and other publications. In 2018, her true crime memoir, “The Spider and the Fly,” won the Washington State Book Award.