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 grand mothering.

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 Open Salon, an online blogsite. Following its demise, Marlene continued writing on her own blog, Dunham’s Den.

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.