About Marian

I’m a writer specializing in psychology, behavior, and exceedingly gentle self-help. My books include Original Kin: The Search for Connection Among Adult Sisters and Brothers (Dutton Penguin) and The Invisible Alcoholics: Women and Alcohol Abuse in America (McGraw-Hill). My magazine pieces have won several writing awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, most recently for a first-person essay on my inconvenient attack of shyness during an interview with Dick Van Dyke.

Currently, I serve as the features editor of the National Magazine Award-winning Psychotherapy Networker magazine, where I get to write about my favorite topics—what’s really going on inside of us, and the small leaps of daring that can change our lives.

One of the leaps that changed own my life took place on June 17, 1994. I was scheduled to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show to promote my then-new book, Original Kin. But things didn’t go as planned. Not at all. For a long time, I couldn’t even talk about it. Then, finally, at a story slam performance in Philadelphia, I spilled the whole, surreal tale. Here it is: