ABOUT MARLENE

Most of Marlene Dunham’s stories are based in the place she was born and raised, New York City. After twenty years working in the city government offices of a Seattle suburb, Marlene has now retired to spend her time writing, traveling, mothering, and grandmothering.

Marlene caught the travel bug after discovering her maternal grandfather’s place of birth in a tiny southern Italian hill town. There, she met relatives she didn’t know existed. As she studied her own genealogy, Marlene became even more fascinated with the intersection of family history and mental health history.

This love of storytelling, family history, and mental health issues was on full display with her contributions to OpenSalon, an online blogsite. Following its demise, Marlene continued writing on her own blog, https://MarleneDunham.com.

Marlene Dunham’s first non-fiction narrative, EMBRACING THE SHADOWS: NAVIGATING A FAMILY’S MENTAL ILLNESS, tells of her own family’s struggles with Bipolar Disease, Schizophrenia, suicide, and acute mental disability. Additionally, this memoir serves to illustrate how our society has progressed in its treatment, diagnosis, and destigmatization of mental illness.

Marlene is working on her Second non-fiction narrative  – with a working title of “Lured”  – Everything you wanted to know about Cults from her perspective of being involved with one for 14 years.  Stay tuned.