散文家、诗人、葬礼承办人托马斯·林奇1948年出生于密歇根州底特律。他广受好评的诗集包括《食罪者:祈祷书》(2011)、《行尸走肉》(2010)、《米尔福德的静物》(1998)、《格里马尔金和其他诗歌》(1994)和《与希瑟·格蕾丝滑冰》(1986)。林奇还著有文集，如《遗言:关于存在和停止存在的新论文集》(2019年)、《美好的葬礼:死亡、悲伤和关怀社区》(2013年)和《事业:来自萧条行业的生命研究》(1997年)。他获得了来自国家图书基金会、国家艺术基金会、密歇根艺术委员会和爱尔兰艺术委员会的众多奖项和资助。林奇经常在北美、英国、爱尔兰和澳大利亚的大学担任客座讲师，是密歇根大学安娜堡分校创意写作的兼职教授。林奇用自己的日常生活作为诗歌素材，把为死者做准备的平凡任务变成了一件肯定生命的事情。他的抒情挽歌诗描述了密歇根州米尔福德死去的公民，他自己的家庭关系，以及他在爱尔兰天主教成长过程中的场景和神话。林奇的作品有时被形容为加里森·凯勒(Garrison Keillor)和叶芝(W.B. Yeats)的结合体，用优雅和智慧剖析了人类经历的变迁。他的第一本诗集《与希瑟·格蕾丝一起滑冰》以密歇根、爱尔兰和意大利为背景。《图书馆杂志》的书评人罗莎莉·戴梅奥斯·罗夫曼发现，这些诗歌“在歌颂生者不断变化的关系的同时，谦逊地排练着临终者的梦想”。 Lynch, according to Roffman, crafts poems that weave symbolism and mythology into the human experience. His subsequent volumes of poetry likewise contain elements of his professional and personal life, mixed with ruminations about Irish culture and history. Lynch is a well-known contributor to publications like the New York Times, The Times, Newsweek, and Harper’s. His essays offer a fascinating peak into a profession few of us have ever imagined. The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade (1997) reflects the author’s “eloquent, meditative observations on the place of death in small-town life,” according to a critic in Kirkus Reviews. Lynch’s poetic vision is indelibly colored by his undertaking business, and what he sees often contrasts with what lies on the surface. Dispelling the myths about people in his trade, Lynch wrote, “I am no more attracted to the dead than the dentist is to your bad gums, the doctor to your rotten innards, or the accountant to your sloppy expense records.” His profession has provided him not only with a living, but with a unique vantage point from which to observe the entire cycle of life. The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade won the Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction and the American Book Award, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Lynch’s prose book Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality (2000) explores his Roman Catholic childhood and family, being a father, and the relationship between “mortuary and literary arts.” In 2005 Lynch published Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans, a memoir-travelogue and cultural exploration of the ties that bind two countries with inextricably linked histories. His foray into short fiction, Apparition and Late Fictions (2010), addresses themes found in his poetry and essays, offering sensitive portraits of ordinary people coping with grief. Lynch divides his time between his home in Milford, Michigan and his ancestral home in Moveen, County Clare, Ireland.