Born near the Raritan River in central New Jersey, following a rollicking, dangerous childhood Marianne got her BA in English from Rutgers University, where she wrote fiction with James Guetti and learned to read poetry from Horace Hamilton and Alicia Ostriker. She spent every summer during college driving coast to coast with friends, hiking and camping in national parks and forests in every U.S. state but Alaska, with cross-border excursions through Mexico and Canada. One of those trips ended in California, to stay.

Marianne earned her MA in English: Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Her favorite teachers there included Frances Mayes, Gina Berriault, Leo Litwak, Kathleen Fraser, and Stan Rice.

Her PhD in Transformative Inquiry is from California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied most memorably with Alfonso Montuori, Jennifer Wells, and Daniel Deslauriers. 

Being the mother of Duncan Joe Rogoff has been the best part of life.

Marianne enjoys reading, roaming, music, and movies. Her body likes to walk, swim, float vertical, sit still, do sun salutations, kiss, hug, and dance salsa. 

When not traveling Marianne pretends she's a tourist in the place where she lives.