Rich Dunning’s explosive debut memoir, Silence Was My First Language, has received the Literary Titan Book Award, recognizing its emotional power, literary craftsmanship, and uncompromising examination of childhood trauma, addiction, accountability, and recovery.

Beginning in the Bronx, Dunning recounts a childhood shaped by poverty, neglect, hunger, violence, and the constant terror created by an abusive stepfather. Silence became more than a response to fear. It became a survival instinct that followed him into adulthood, influencing his relationships, ambitions, struggles with addiction, and understanding of his own worth.

Stripped of the polish and easy resolutions often associated with memoir, Silence Was My First Language presents an unfiltered survival document. Every memory is handled without embellishment or apology. The book does not offer a conventional arc of redemption or suggest that recovery erases the past. Instead, it records the difficult, continuing work of confronting trauma, accepting responsibility, and choosing a different way forward.

“For most of my life, silence was survival,” Dunning said. “This book was never written to settle scores or seek sympathy. It was written to tell the truth.”

Dunning began writing the memoir more than fifteen years ago, revisiting and refining the manuscript through sustained reflection and revision. The resulting work uses tightly constructed, scene-driven passages to immerse readers in the experiences that shaped him, from childhood instability and homelessness to marriage, fatherhood, professional success, addiction, relapse, treatment, and sobriety.

Literary Titan praised the memoir as “a bruising and deeply personal” account of a boy who learns silence as a survival instinct and later spends much of his adult life trying to unlearn it. The review highlights Dunning’s ability to transform vivid objects and settings into emotional markers, including a Bronx basement, a fire escape used as a child’s watchtower, hidden blue Nike sneakers, sugarcane fields in the Dominican Republic, and the procedural dignity of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The review also recognizes the memoir’s moral complexity. Dunning does not use childhood trauma to excuse the harm he later caused. Instead, he examines how an abused child can become a wounded adult who wounds others, confronting addiction’s impact on his family and the difficult transition from fear and avoidance to honesty and accountability.

Although the memoir contains painful and unsettling experiences, its message is not without hope. Dunning’s story affirms that trauma can shape a life without being allowed to define its final direction. For readers who recognize parts of themselves in his experiences, the book offers the possibility of feeling less alone and more understood.

The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that demonstrate exceptional storytelling, thoughtful execution, and a meaningful impact on readers. The recognition places Silence Was My First Language among works distinguished by their literary quality and emotional resonance.

Pre-orders for Silence Was My First Language began July 7, 2026. Readers can reserve their copy at richdunningbooks.com. The memoir is recommended for readers drawn to candid accounts of childhood trauma, family rupture, addiction, faith, masculinity, personal responsibility, and the long, uneven process of recovery.

About the Author

Rich Dunning is an author and senior executive in the medical device industry with more than three decades of experience leading in high-stakes environments where precision, accountability, disciplined execution, and effective risk management are essential.

Raised in the Bronx amid instability, violence, and the absence of reliable protection, Dunning developed an early awareness of danger and a need for control that shaped both his personal life and professional leadership. Those formative experiences became the foundation of his debut memoir, Silence Was My First Language.

Dunning spent more than fifteen years developing the memoir, committing the equivalent of approximately 10,000 hours to writing, reflection, structural development, and revision. His work is characterized by scene-driven storytelling, narrative precision, and an unwillingness to soften difficult truths.

In addition to Silence Was My First Language, Dunning has completed two novels, The Jaguar and Selling Arteries to the Devil, which draw upon real-world experience and transform it through fiction. He is also developing additional manuscripts, including The Executive and the Escort and When in Puglia.

Dunning has been sober since July 7, 2017. His writing explores trauma, accountability, identity, leadership, addiction, recovery, and the choices that allow people to move beyond the circumstances that shaped them.

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Website: https://www.richdunningbooks.com/