In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir In the Dream House chronologizes her experiences in an abusive relationship with a woman. In the Dream House was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Folio Prize and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction. The memoir discusses potential modes for queer representation through the use of multiple narrative techniques. As of 2022, Machado lives in Pennsylvania with her wife and works at the University of Pennsylvania.

Other work by this author includes the short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties.

This guide is based on the 2019 paperback version published by Graywolf Press.

Content Warning: This guide discusses physical and psychological domestic abuse.

Summary

To address “archival silence”—the absence of queer abuse stories in contemporary culture and academic archival evidence—Carmen Maria Machado writes her experimental memoir In the Dream House. The narrative follows her initial meeting, relationship, and breakup with an abusive woman. As Machado is a recognized writer and graduate of the Iowa Workshop MFA program, In the Dream House features different modes of narration, using the memoir genre to break this “silence.”

The author begins her story: While living in Iowa City and beginning her MFA program, Machado meets her partner (who will remain unnamed) through mutual friends.