| Mary
Oliver’s poetry, with her lyrical connection to the natural
world, has firmly established her in the highest realm of American
poets. She is renowned for her evocative and precise imagery,
which brings nature into clear focus, transforming the everyday
world into a place of magic and discovery. As poet Stanley Kunitz
has said, “Mary Oliver’s poetry is fine and deep;
it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us
with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors
and mysteries and consolations.” She has received countless
distinctions, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National
Book Award, and continues to influence generations of younger
poets, as well as adding to her legions of loyal readers with
each eagerly awaited new book.
Mary Oliver was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1935. She attended Ohio State University
and Vassar College, then a women’s college. As a young
writer, strongly influenced by the work of the poet Edna St.
Vincent Millay, she wrote to the late poet’s sister and
was invited to visit. For the next several years Steepletop,
the poet’s country house in upper state New York, became
her second home. Subsequently Mary Oliver moved to New York
City, then visited England for one year. In 1964, she returned
to the United States. Over the past two decades she has taught
at various colleges and universities – Case Western Reserve,
Bucknell, Sweet Briar College, the University of Cincinnati,
and Bennington College in Vermont.
Mary Oliver is the author
of many books of poetry, including No Voyage and Other Poems
(1965), The
River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems (1972), Twelve
Moons (1978), American
Primitive (1983), Dream
Work (1986), House
of Light (1990), New
and Selected Poems, Volume One (1992), White
Pine (1994), West
Wind: Poems and Prose Poems (1997), The
Leaf and the Cloud (2000), What
Do We Know (2002), Owls
and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (2003), Why
I Wake Early (2004), Blue
Iris: Poems and Essays (2004), and New
and Selected Poems, Volume Two (2005). Her chapbooks and
special editions include The Night Traveler (1978), Sleeping
in the Forest (1979), Provincetown
(1987), Wild Geese (UK Edition); and her prose books
include A
Poetry Handbook (1994), Blue
Pastures (1995), Rules
for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
(1998), Winter
Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems (1999), and Long
Life: Essays and Other Writings (2004). In April 2006, a
CD of Mary Oliver reading her poems – entitled At
Blackwater Pond– was released by Beacon Press. In
October 2006, her book of poems, Thirst,
was published by Beacon. October 2007 Beacon Press published
the book Our
World, a collection of photos by Molly Malone Cook with
text by Mary Oliver. Her book of poetry, Red
Bird (April 2008), was an immediate national bestseller
upon publication. Her most recent collections of poetry are,
The
Truro Bear and Other Adventures, new poems and beloved
classics about creatures of all sorts (October 2008), and Evidence
(April 2009). She is guest editor for The Best American Essays
2009 (November 2009).
Mary Oliver has been awarded
the Pulitzer Prize (for American Primitive), the National
Book Award for Poetry (for New and Selected Poems), the
Lannan Foundation Literary Award, the New England Booksellers
Association Award for Literary Excellence, and the Poetry Society
of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, among others. She
has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Mary Oliver lives
in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
•••
“The gift of
Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds
in the world and makes it unforgettable.”
—The Boston Globe |
