Mary Oliver Biography

Mary Oliver's work has firmly established her in the upper echelon of American poets, thanks to her lyrical connection to the natural world. Her expressive and precise photography, which puts nature into sharp focus and transforms the commonplace environment into a place of enchantment and discovery, has earned her acclaim. “Mary Oliver's poetry is beautiful and profound; it reads like a blessing,” remarked poet Stanley Kunitz. Her unique talent is to connect us to our natural sources, with all of its wonders, terrors, riddles, and consolation.” She has won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and she continues to inspire future generations of poets while adding to her legions of devoted fans with each highly anticipated new book. Mary Oliver was born in 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. She went to Ohio State University and then Vassar Institution, which was a women's college at the time. As a young writer, she was deeply affected by the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's work, and she wrote to the late poet's sister, inviting her to come. Steepletop, the poet's rural estate in upstate New York, became her second home for the next few years. Mary Oliver then relocated to New York City and traveled to England. She returned to the United States in 1964. She has taught at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, Sweet Briar College, the University of Cincinnati, and Bennington College in Vermont throughout the last two decades. 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)), Thirst (2006), Red Bird (2008), The Truro Bear and Other Adventures (2008), and Evidence (2009). She's also the author of Molly Malone Cook's picture book Our World. The Night Traveler (1978), Sleeping in the Forest (1979), Provincetown (1987), and Wild Geese (UK Edition) are among her chapbooks and special editions, while 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 (2000) (2004). She served as a guest editor for the 2009 edition of The Best American Essays (November 2009). At Blackwater Pond and Many Miles: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver are two of her audio recordings (April 2010). Swan is Ms. Oliver's most recent collection of poems (fall 2010). Mary Oliver has received numerous honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (for American Primitive), the National Book Award for Poetry (for New and Selected Poems Volume One), the Lannan Foundation Literary Award, the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence, and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award. A Guggenheim Fellowship was also awarded to her. Mary Oliver is a writer and poet who resides in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

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