About

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Marlene grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and later attended New York University where she studied film. After graduating, she stayed in the city where she worked as a film development executive for top Hollywood producers: Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Richard and Lili Zanuck, and Matt Williams of Wind Dancer Films. She was involved in the development of such movies as: Mystic Pizza,  Rich in Love, Driving Miss Daisy and Rush.
 
For the last 20 years Marlene has earned her living as a freelance book editor. In her spare time she works on her own writing.  She has been awarded residencies to many artist colonies including The Macdowell Colony, Yaddo, The Wurlitzer Foundation, Fundacion Valpairiso, and MacNamara Foundation.
 
Her short stories and personal essays have appeared in a number of literary journals and blogs.
 
When she’s not reading other people’s manuscripts or writing her own, Marlene can be found walking local trails, thinking about new stories or on the lookout for abandoned birds' nests she collects.
 
Comfortable in a big city but preferring to make her home in a small town filled with artists, Marlene lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley where she loves to listen to the noise of the birds. Sophie Last Seen is her first novel.

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Author photo by Franco Vogt

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