In the Dream House Study Guide

Carmen Maria Machado was born in Pennsylvania in 1986. Stories were a large part of her childhood, thanks partly to her Cuban grandfather carrying on the oral tradition. She attended American University in Washington, D.C. before undertaking an MFA in Creative Writing at Iowa University. After leaving Iowa, Machado moved to Pennsylvania where she lived with her wife, though they have now separated. Machado frequently takes up writing residencies throughout the U.S. and has won a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lambda Literary Award, and the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Machado’s time in the Dream House coincides with Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, which signaled hope for many queer couples. Over Machado’s lifetime, laws concerning marriage equality changed dramatically in the United States. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which limited the definition of marriage to being between a man and a woman, became law in 1996. In the early 2000s, President Bush attempted to amend this act to make it even more restrictive. But by 2008, the Obama administration began working to repeal DOMA, and in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.

As well as being a memoirist, Machado is an author of short fiction. Reading Kelly Link’s short story collection, Magic for Beginners, encouraged her to explore fantasy and horror within her own stories. Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home, explores themes of queer relationships and coming out in a non-fiction genre just as In the Dream House does. Machado’s memoir heavily references Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk Literature, a six-volume work detailing hundreds of tropes across many different folk tales. It also mentions the 1987 play Behind the Curtains, a relatively rare exploration of lesbian abuse. Machado visits Millay Arts, the estate of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and reflects on Millay’s cruelty in her queer relationships. Millay’s poem “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed,” shares themes of lust and sexuality with In the Dream House.