Nathan Dunne is the author of When Nothing Feels Real (Murdoch Books, 2025). The book is a memoir about living with depersonalisation, a mental illness that is frequently misunderstood.

Read a major profile on Dunne’s life and work in The Guardian
Listen to Dunne’s interview with Richard Fidler on ABC Conversations

As a journalist and critic, he has contributed to many publications, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Slate, Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, Catapult and Artforum, among many others. He has reported stories from four continents on a range of cultural and historical topics, from a museum in Armenia to a heavy metal band living in the Simpson desert. 

His short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, Meanjin and Quadrant.

Dunne was born in Brisbane, Australia and grew up in India. After graduating from the University of Sydney with the University Medal, he studied art history at Cambridge University and received a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has lectured at Harvard and Yale, and also worked for several years at Tate Modern. 

He appeared on screen in this documentary about the artist Roy Lichtenstein.