Marsha Kunin

Marsha Kunin died on Sunday, August 6, 2017.  She was born January 11, 1949, in Worcester, and lived most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was an award-winning poet and published four volumes of poetry: Out of Its Cage (2012), Ho Toy, Good Fortune (2013), This Garden, These Woods (2015), and Peregrines Nesting and Other Poems (2017). Her books can be found in the collections of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University; the Mt. Holyoke College Library; the Brandeis University Library; the library at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies; the Yiddish Book Center; and numerous public libraries in Massachusetts, including the Minuteman, CW Mars, and Cape Cod. Her poems also appeared in such publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Worcester Review.   Marsha was the recipient of numerous degrees, honors, and awards—from Mt. Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and Rutgers University, among them membership in Phi Beta Kappa. She edited hundreds of books, for companies such as Princeton University Press, Random House, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, and HarperCollins, in subject areas, far ranging, from literature and art history and economics; romance, mystery, and thriller; to evolutionary biology and optics. Marsha completed numerous oil paintings of villages, and whimsical drawings, which reside in private collections. Predeceased by her parents, Elliott and Eleanor, and her brother Paul, she is mourned by dear friends and cousins and doctors and healers, and by her much beloved sister, Lisa; brother Josh; uncle Mort, sisters-in-law Janet and Nina; brother-in-law, Jeff; and nephews and nieces Sarah, Kimani, Samara, Noah, Jake, Maya, Natan, and Rivkah. Donations in Marsha’s memory are welcome: to the Worcester County Poetry Association, and to the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.   A burial service will be held at B’nai B’rith Cemetery, Worcester, on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 11 a.m.   Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel, Worcester, is assisting with arrangements.