Over the past several years, Marianne Harding Burgoyne has published poetry and magazine articles, having written for Utah Holiday (1987-1992); and with her husband, Robert H. Burgoyne, M.D., professional articles in medicine and psychiatry. Their most successful collaboration is a study on Shakespeare and genetics entitled Shakespeare and the Genetics of Being (1994). Ms. Burgoyne is the recipient of a Governor’s Media Award for reporting on women’s issues and the Utah Psychiatric Association’s Annual Media Award for promoting public awareness of mental health issues. Her book publications include chapters in Worth Their Salt, Too (2000) and Brigham Young’s Homes (2002). She is most known for her beautiful poetry-photography book entitled Into the Okavango: The Africa Poems and Photographs (2005), which won or finalized in several national book competitions, including Fresh Voices, ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards, and USA Book News. She has written a novel, Familiar Strangers (1995), which remains unpublished.
Her venture into children’s literature came as a result of her great-nephew asking her which way paradise is. With echoes referencing William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” Ms. Burgoyne explores the possibility of premortal and postmortal existence. Which Way Is Paradise? (2017) is her way to honor her deceased sister and family.
Born in Hayden, Colorado, Ms. Burgoyne was graduated from Rowland Hall-St. Marks, an Episcopal boarding school in Salt Lake City, Utah. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University and then taught English for seven years in Salt Lake public schools, Bryant Intermediate and East High. She received her Master of Arts from the University of Utah, also completing her Ph.D. course work there in British literature. While studying, she taught writing and literature on assistantship and fellowship five and one-half years, and was one of three fellowship winners of the Clarice Short Teaching Award her first year as a fellow. After the death of her husband, Robert H. Burgoyne, M.D., Ms. Burgoyne returned to teaching at Salt Lake Community College, teaching expository writing six years, and, recently, at Olympus Junior High, teaching three levels of French. Her teaching career has often paralleled her writing career.
