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, including for a first-person essay on my inconvenient attack of shyness during an interview with Dick Van Dyke. There, I got to explore something that I’ve always found fascinating—how small leaps of daring can change our lives.

A leap that altered my own 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: