17 Facts About Mary Oliver

Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Mary Oliver found inspiration for her work in nature and had a lifelong habit of solitary walks in the wild.

Mary Oliver's poetry is characterized by wonderment at the natural environment, vivid imagery, and unadorned language.

Mary Oliver was born to Edward William and Helen M Oliver on September 10,1935, in Maple Heights, Ohio, a semi-rural suburb of Cleveland.

Mary Oliver's father was a social studies teacher and athletics coach in the Cleveland public schools.

Mary Oliver graduated from the local high school in Maple Heights.

Mary Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College in the mid-1950s but did not receive a degree at either college.

Mary Oliver was Poet In Residence at Bucknell University and Margaret Banister Writer in Residence at Sweet Briar College, then moved to Bennington, Vermont, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College until 2001.

Mary Oliver's work turns to nature for inspiration and describes the sense of wonder it instilled in her.

Mary Oliver was the editor of the 2009 edition of Best American Essays.

Mary Oliver's poetry is grounded in memories of Ohio and her adopted home of New England.

Mary Oliver's poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home: shore birds, water snakes, the phases of the moon, and humpback whales.

Mary Oliver often carried a 3-by-5-inch hand-sewn notebook for recording impressions and phrases.

Mary Oliver was compared to Emily Dickinson, with whom she shared an affinity for solitude and inner monologues.

Mary Oliver is known for her straightforward language and accessible themes.

Mary Oliver is a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making.

Mary Oliver valued her privacy and gave very few interviews, saying she preferred for her writing to speak for itself.