Mary Oliver Presentation by Sarah Vesel
General Biographical Information Mary Oliver was born September 10 th, 1935 in Maple Heights, Ohio, a semi-rural suburb of Cleveland. Her father was Edward William, a social studies teacher and athletics coach in the Cleveland public schools, and Helen M. V. Oliver her mother. At 14, she began writing poetry. At 17, She lived for several years at the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in Austerlitz, upper New York state, companion to the late Pulitzer Prizewinning poet s sister Norma Millay and assisted with organizing the late poet's papers. Oliver attended both Ohio State University and Vassar College briefly in the mid-1950s, but received no degree.
Personal Life Upon return to Austerlitz in the late 50s, she met photographer Molly Malone Cook. For more than forty years, Cook and Oliver made their home together, largely in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they lived until Cook s death in 2005. Oliver lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the inspiration for much of her work. She is an avid walker, taking in nature as she walks in the woods around her home; her poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home. Oliver values her privacy, and doesn t do many interviews, leaving her work to speak for itself.
The Work Itself Mary Oliver's poetry is established in memories of Ohio and her adopted home of New England, setting most of her poetry in and around Provincetown since she moved there in the 1960 s. Influences in her writing include Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Rumi, and James Wright. Known for her clear and moving observances of the natural world, her creativity is stirred by nature; her poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home. Her main themes throughout her writing conserves the intersection between the human and the natural world, as well as the limits of human consciousness and language in articulating such a meeting. Behind the scenes Interview with Maria Shriver in 2013 On Being with Krista Tippett February 2015
All of Mary Oliver s Poetry 1965 No Voyage and Other Poems 1972 The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems 1979 Twelve Moons 1983 American Primitive (Pulitzer Prize) 1986 Dream Work 1990 House of Light 1992 New and Selected Poems, Volume One (National Book Award) 1994 White Pine 1997 West Wind 2000 The Leaf and the Cloud 2002 What Do We Know 2003 Owls and Other Fantasies 2004 Why I Wake Early Blue Iris Wild Geese 2005 New and Selected Poems, Volume Two 2006 Thirst 2008 Red Bird The Truro Bear and Other Adventures 2009 Evidence 2010 Swan 2012 A Thousand Mornings 2013 Dog Songs
All of Mary Oliver s other works (including prose and audio) 1978 The Night Traveler Sleeping in the Forest 1980 Provincetown 1988 (Author of introduction) Frank Gaspar, Holyoke 1994 A Poetry Handbook 1995 Blue Pastures 1998 Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse 1999 Winter Hours 2004 Long Life: Essays and Other Writings 2006 (Audio CD) At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver 2007 Our World, with photographs by Molly Malone Cook 2010 (Audio CD) Many Miles: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver
Awards accomplishing her Professional Life (continued) Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. Awards on poetry: She also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence. Prose published in many noted periodicals: essays have appeared in Best American Essays 1996, 1998, 2001; the Anchor Essay Annual 1998, as well as Orion, Onearth and other periodicals. Oliver was editor of Best American Essays 2009.
Awards accomplishing her Professional Life Oliver s works in education: her books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. She has led workshops at various colleges and universities, and held residencies at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, and Sweet Briar College. From 1995, for five years, she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She is an acclaimed reader and has read in practically every state as well as other countries. Awarded Honorary Doctorates: The Art Institute of Boston (1998), Dartmouth College (2007) and Tufts University (2008).
Quotes Starlings in Winter Evidence The Summer Day What I Have Learned So Far
Mary Oliver is now living in southern Florida waking up to see the sun, standing at her front door with notebook in hand, walking and praying, until she finds something to write about. At age 80, she just released her latest book of poetry, Felicity.
Resources "Behind the Scenes with Maria Shriver and Poet Mary Oliver." Oprah.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. "Mary Oliver." Mary Oliver About Mary Oliver Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015. "Mary Oliver." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2015. Mary Oliver. The Norton Anthology American Literature. Eds. Jerome Klinkowitz and Patricia B.Wallace. Vol. E: Literature Since 1945. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 2792-2794. Print. 3 vols. Oliver, Mary. "Transcript for Mary Oliver Listening to the World." Interview by Krista Tippet. On Being with Krista Tippett. N.p., 5 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://www.onbeing.org/program/mary-oliverlistening-to-the-world/transcript/7271>.