One of Canada’s most respected nonfiction writers, Marni writes about a broad range of subjects, including family, motherhood, medical education, pain studies, the literary world, and wilderness expeditions.
Her books combine novelistic narrative elements with cultural analysis, and she is best known for her stylish and darkly comic family memoirs, The Mother Zone and the forthcoming companion volume, Home Free: The Myth of The Empty Nest. Her work has been published in Canada, the US and England.
In the course of her career, Marni’s columns, features and essays have appeared in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Life, Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Saturday Night, Explore, Outside, Rolling Stone, The London Sunday Times, Utne, and Brick magazine, among others.
Her journalism has won numerous National Magazine Awards, for travel, humor, columns, and personal journalism.
From 2006-2009, Marni was Rogers Chair of the Literary Journalism program at The Banff Centre, a month-long residency for professional nonfiction writers. She is also on the faculty of the Mountain Writing program at Banff, a unique three-week program for mountain climbers and others involved in mountain culture who are working on essays or books.
Marni was also a senior editor at the Walrus Magazine, which has won more National Magazine Awards in Canada than any other publication.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Marni now lives in Toronto with her husband, film critic and writer Brian Johnson. They have one son, Casey Johnson (The Rock and Roll Doctor).
Books:
Home Free: The Myth of The Empty Nest, (Thomas Allen & Son), Sept. 2010. A multigenerational family memoir about leaving home, coming back, and growing up.
Pain: The Science and Culture of Why We Hurt, 2002, Random House. (Bloomsbury in UK, Crown in US). (Originally published as Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign) A narrative exploration of the science and culture of pain studies. Nominated for the Writers’ Trust Pearson Nonfiction Prize.
The Mother Zone: Love, Sex and Laundry in the Modern Family, 1992 (Macfarlane, Walter & Ross). (Reissued by Vintage Editions). A memoir about motherhood. Nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award For Humour.
Anthologies:
Essays and short stories have been published in:
The Heart Does Break:Canadian Writers on Grief and Loss, edited by Jean Baird, Random House, 2009
Double Lives, edited by Shannon Cowan, Fiona Lam and Cathy Stonehouse
Caught in The Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, edited by Tanya Mars & Johanna Householder, YYZ Books, 2004
Dropped Threads, edited by M. Anderson and Carol Shields, 2000
Brick: A Literary Journal, Summer, 2003, and Spring 2002 issues
75 Readings Plus, edited by Buscemi, Smith & Wiznura, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2002
Contemporary Literary Criticism, v. 153, The Gale Group, 2002
Local Colour, edited by Carole Martin, Douglas & MacIntyre, 1994
The Thinking Heart, Best Canadian Essays, edited by George Galt, Quarry Press, 1992
Taking Risks: Literary Journalism From The Edge, edited by Barbara Moon and Don Obe, Banff Centre Press, 1998
Dropped Threads, edited by Carole Shields and Margaret Anderson, Random House, 2007.
Fiction
She’s at work right now on a collection of stories linked by celebrity invasions, one of which, “Bob Dylan Goes Tubing”, appeared in The Walrus.
Radio: A regular panelist on CBC Radio’s erstwhile “Talking Books”
TV: Co-host (with flopsweat) on TVO’s book show, Imprint, 1998-2000.
Theatre: Co-writer with The Clichettes of “Half Human, Half Heartache”, a successful product of the amazing performance scene in Toronto in the 1980′s. She also wrote “She-Devils of Niagara” a prophetic gender comedy produced at the Factory Lab Theatre in 1985.
Film: The usual unproduced feature-length screenplays, plus several years working in development, first at The Canadian Film Centre, then Telefilm Canada.
Personal: For other particulars of her private life, more than you may require, please consult her two family memoirs.