Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
17 Facts About Mary Oliver
2.
Mary Oliver's work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild.
3.
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.
4.
Mary Oliver's father was a social studies teacher and an athletics coach in the Cleveland public schools.
5.
In 2011, in an interview with Maria Shriver, Mary Oliver described her family as dysfunctional, adding that though her childhood was very hard, writing helped her create her own world.
6.
Mary Oliver graduated from the local high school in Maple Heights.
7.
Mary Oliver studied at The Ohio State University and Vassar College in the mid-1950s, but did not receive a degree at either college.
8.
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.
9.
Mary Oliver's work turns towards nature for its inspiration and describes the sense of wonder it instilled in her.
10.
Mary Oliver was the editor of the 2009 edition of Best American Essays.
11.
Mary Oliver's poetry is grounded in memories of Ohio and her adopted home of New England, setting most of her poetry in and around Provincetown after she moved there in the 1960s.
12.
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.
13.
Mary Oliver often carried a 3-by-5-inch hand-sewn notebook for recording impressions and phrases.
14.
Mary Oliver has been compared to Emily Dickinson, with whom she shared an affinity for solitude and inner monologues.
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Mary Oliver is known for her unadorned language and accessible themes.
16.
Mary Oliver is a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making.
17.
Mary Oliver valued her privacy and gave very few interviews, saying she preferred for her writing to speak for itself.