Vitaly Kirkpatrick

Green Card, Gold Ring — a memoir, coming 2026

Two governments had to sign off
before I could call this a marriage.

I landed at JFK in 2005 with three dollars, a bandura, and a folder of documents — and a story nobody back home believed.

This is that story, told whole for the first time: immigration and marriage, as the one story they always were.

Read the opening scene → Email me when it's out

Author of The Misadventures of a Ukrainian Orphan — on Amazon since February 2022, now in its second printing.

Vitaly Kirkpatrick

Vitaly Kirkpatrick
Author of Green Card, Gold Ring

The story, in five moves

A folder, a flight, and a form nobody had a box for.

Two books, one arc. The timeline below is the spine of both — the first covers the beginning, the second covers what happened after the plane landed.

  1. Chernivtsi

    The orphanage

    "The winters were harsh and biting cold... even inside, I would wear a hat, gloves, and a scarf around my mouth."

    A childhood in western Ukraine, and a folder of documents that decided more than I did.

    Book one
  2. 2005

    JFK, three dollars

    "My luggage was overflowing — one emergency potato, for luck, a beat-up bandura..." Then, at JFK: the last of the cash, gone.

    I landed with three dollars, a bandura, and a visa I barely understood, in a country that didn't owe me anything.

    Book one
  3. 15 May 2006

    Not the plan

    Love arrived with two careful messages and a dollar movie ticket. Nothing about it was strategic.

    Book two
  4. May 15 & Aug 16, 2008

    Two years to the day

    "A marriage certificate dated August 16, 2008. Proof that we didn't wait for permission."

    California's Supreme Court ruled we could marry — exactly two years, to the day, after we'd become a couple. We married for real that August, in San Diego.

    Book two
  5. 2013 → now

    Five more years

    It took the fall of DOMA before the rest of the country agreed. Green Card, Gold Ring is that decade, told whole for the first time.

    Book two
“In that moment, I forgot about the three dollars in my pocket.”

— Book 1, The Misadventures of a Ukrainian Orphan

Read the full scene →

❧

From the manuscript

Chapter one, as it stands today.

GREEN CARD, GOLD RING — excerpt pending

The opening chapter excerpt is being finalized and will be posted here soon — not yet ready to share.

Send me the full chapter early readers · 2026

From the stories index

Orphanage

The protagonist, Vitaly Kirkpatrick, reflects on his childhood in an orphanage, emphasizing the importance of studying and striving for self…

Personal Journey

Vitaly explores themes of identity, gender confusion, and societal expectations, questioning the concept of 'normal' and the impact of lonel…

Woman of Power

The woman in the story is portrayed as powerful despite her struggles with illness and alcohol. Her ability to endure suffering while findin…

Life in Chernivtsi

The setting of Chernivtsi in November 1979 is depicted as a town influenced by the gloomy weather and the shadow of communism. The people fi…

Books

cover — book one
Published

The Misadventures of a Ukrainian Orphan

Memoir · Immigrant · LGBTQ+. Growing up in an orphanage in Chernivtsi, and starting over in a country that didn't owe me anything.

On Amazon since Feb 2022 · Second printing · Edited by Linda Forrest · Cover by Jake Naylor

Read more →
cover — book two
Coming 2026

Green Card, Gold Ring

We married in 2008, on the same date we became a couple two years earlier. California said we could. It took the rest of the country five more years — and this is what those years were actually like.

Manuscript in progress · Sample chapters available to early readers

Get launch updates →
portrait — casual

About

I write the parts people skip.

Not the arrival montage — the sixteen months of waiting that came after it. Not the wedding photo — the interview room. I grew up in an orphanage in Chernivtsi, landed at JFK in 2005, and spent the next decade learning that belonging somewhere is mostly an administrative act performed by people who are very tired.

My first book covered the beginning. The second covers what it cost to stay.

  • Born Chernivtsi, Ukraine
  • Since United States, 2005
  • Writes memoir, immigration, queer family life

Vitaly

One email when the book is out.

No newsletter, no drip sequence. One message when Green Card, Gold Ring has a date, and one when it's available.