Marianne Burke (b. 1957) Funeral Home LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY Marianne Burke (b. 1957) Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Marianne Burke started writing poetry in her sophomore year at Vassar. She went on to Stanford University, where she earned an M.A. She won writing fellowships to both Yaddo (1991) and McDowell (1992), and has published her poems in various magazines, including the Southern Poetry Review, the Threepenny Review, and the New Yorker. Until recently she worked in the New Yorker's editorial department. She lives in New York City. When asked to comment about her work she pointed out that "one of my earliest teachers, the poet William Heyen, used to say that it was possible to write too much. I'm just beginning to understand what he means. For instance, my poem 'Funeral Home' took two years to write. I needed that much time to write both feelingly and impersonally about my mother's death. Having lost both my parents at too early an age, death is one of my favorite subjects. I don't write poems to merely record my losses or to open old wounds, but to recover some of life's sweetness and mystery."