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Praise & Awards

Awards

• 1970, Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award
• 1972, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• 1973, Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, Poetry Society of America
• 1980–1981, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
• 1983, American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters Achievement Award
• 1984, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for American Primitive
• 1991, Christopher Award for House of Light
• 1991, L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light
• 1992, National Book Award for New and Selected Poems
• 1998, Lannan Literary Award
• 1999, New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence

Praise

For Mary Oliver

“One of the astonishing aspects of Oliver’s work is the consistency of tone over this long period [of her career]. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets . . . There is no complaint in Ms. Oliver’s poetry, no whining, but neither is there the sense that life is in any way easy . . . These poems sustain us rather than divert us. Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.” —Stephen Dobyns, New York Times Book Review

“It has always seemed, across her 15 books of poetry, five of prose and several essays and chapbooks, that Mary Oliver might leave us at any minute. Even a 1984 Pulitzer Prize couldn’t pin her to the ground. She’d change quietly into a heron or a bear and fly or walk off forever. Her poems contain windows, doors, transformations, hints on how to escape the body; there’s the ‘glamour of death’ and the ‘life after the earth-life’…The new poems teem with creation: ravens, bees, hawks, box turtles, bears. The landscape is Thoreauvian: ponds, marsh, grass and cattails; New England’s ‘salt brightness’; and fields in ‘pale twilight.’ The poems from Why I Wake Early (2004) are, in contrast, full of white things and ‘untrimmable light’; from Owls and Other Fantasies (2003), of watery sounds, singing, rain; from West Wind (1997), of starry distances and traveling.”  —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review

“In a region that has produced most of the nation’s poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1984, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the natural world. Her “Wild Geese” has become so popular it now graces posters in dorm rooms across the land. But don’t hold that against her. Read almost anything in New and Selected Poems. She teaches us the profound act of paying attention—a living wonder that makes it possible to appreciate all the others.” —Renée Loth, Boston Globe

“Oliver’s poems are thoroughly convincing—as genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring.” —New York Times Book Review

“She is, far and away, this country’s best selling poet.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review

“Provincetown is blessed with two linked national treasures: the Provincelands and their best interpreter, the poet Mary Oliver . . . Oliver’s lines about the Provincetown landscape, accessible and yet often calling readers to encounter pain, grief, and death, live in the minds of readers all over the country.” —Oona Patrick, Provincetown Arts

“Like Henry David Thoreau of Transcendentalist fame she is a naturalist whose attention to what used to be called the Book of Nature borders on both devotion and experimentation. Her poems . . . speak about the mysteries of mortality in a language that feels like home . . . mindfulness seems to be Oliver’s métier, looking and listening her scientific method and contemplative practice.” —Stephen Prothero, Search

Poets on Mary Oliver

“Mary Oliver’s poems are natural growths out of a loam of perception and feeling, and instinctive skill with language makes them seem effortless. Reading them is a sensual delight.” —May Swenson

“Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.” —Alicia Ostriker, The Nation

“I have always thought of poems as my companions—and like companions, they accompany you wherever the journey (or the afternoon) might lead. . . . My most recent companion has been Mary Oliver’s The Leaf and the Cloud. . . . It’s a brilliant meditation, a walk through the natural world with one of our preeminent contemporary poets.” —Rita Dove, Washington Post

“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.” —Stanley Kunitz

“Far beneath the surface-flash of linguistic effect, Mary Oliver works her quiet and mysterious spell. It is a true spell, unlike any other poet’s, the enchantment of a true maker.” —James Dickey

“Poems like ‘Some Questions You Might Ask,’ The Hermit Crab,’ ‘Wings,’ ‘Turtle,’ Roses, Late Summer’ take my breath away. What I feel is an immense gratitude that they are written, and that I can read them over and over. I think of Oliver as a fierce, uncompromising lyricist, a loyalist of the marshes. Hers is a voice we desperately need.” —Maxine Kumin

“Her poems are wonderingly perceptive and strongly written, but beyond that they are a spirited, expressive meditation on the impossibility of what we call lives, and on the gratifications of change.” —Hayden Carruth

For Evidence

“A ‘nature’ poet in the league of Wordsworth, whose poetry is said to have inspired this volume. There is still almost audible excitement in her literary voice, but her nature mysticism seems to have reached a stage more of stillness—a quiet that is not so much a quality as a presence that informs most of her images . . . a subtle collection that sometimes teaches but never preaches. All the usual Oliver themes—the divine in the physical world, the importance of having loved, the power and consolation of words—are present.” —Tim Pfaff, Bay Area Reporter

“Gloriously alive, inquisitive, and welcoming. A prolific and cherished poet, [Oliver] makes readers feel as though they’ve been part of the quest for wisdom and grace she records in her lucid, giving, prayerful poems. . . Gratitude is the mode here, and sustained attention is the vehicle. . . Within each lifting lyric, Oliver declares all of life holy.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist

For The Truro Bear

“From the small, the curious, and the commonly overlooked—grasshoppers, snow crickets, and whelks, for example—to the wild and intimidating, like coyotes, and, of course, the possibly mythical bear that haunts the Truro woods, the natural world is made more real and dangerous and, yet, inexplicably inviting in these poems . . . There is even a baker’s dozen of poems about Percy, her dog, a lovable recurring character in her work. In all, this book is an affirmation . . . Recommended for all contemporary poetry collections.” —Library Journal, starred review

“The pleasures that await the reader just discovering the work of the Pulitzer-prize-winning poet are those delivered by her previous 18 volumes: her keen eye for telling detail, the surprise of the unexpected and, most important, the authoritative voice that portrays our world as both ordinary and enchanted, full of natural beauty and supernatural holiness.” —Angela O’Donnell, America

For Red Bird

“Mary Oliver ranks among the finest poets the English language has ever produced. Whether she’s describing a caterpillar’s transformation . . . or describing her own mystical connection to birdsong . . . she almost always can come up with striking, resonant images. . . Oliver observes with great sensitivity, and puts her impressions in verse in a way that few can match . . . her poetry is rigorous, beautiful, well written, and offers genuine insights into the natural world.” —Eli Lehrer, Weekly Standard

“Few poets address mortality, grief, love, our relationship with nature and the totality of the human experience as skillfully as Pulitzer Prize–winning lesbian poet Mary Oliver . . . Red Bird is filled with resurgence, renewal, love, faith and hope as well as elegy and critique of the violence against people, creatures and the ecology of this world. . . Grounded in the problems of the modern age, such as the war in Iraq, Oliver’s political and lyrical pieces keep the collection from being sentimental or other worldly . . . Oliver’s imagery, spirit and lyricism shine in this vibrant volume.” —Kathi Wolfe, Washington Blade

“Last April, Book Sense’s poetry bestseller list included two titles by Billy Collins. This year the Top 5 can be summed up in six words: Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver. Oliver’s impressive feat reflects both an enduring popularity and an unparalleled ability to touch readers on a deep, almost primal level.” —Elizabeth Lund, Christian Science Monitor

“Mary Oliver celebrates the creatures she observes on Cape Cod…. A longtime resident of Provincetown, Oliver, at 72, is among the nation’s most popular poets . . . Oliver’s grief ripples through the book, as does an unwavering sense of gratitude for the moment, the memories, and her trusty dog, Percy.” —Jan Gardner, Boston Globe

“One of few avidly read living poets, Oliver revels in the beauty of the living world, and takes to heart its lessons in patience and pleasure, cessation and renewal. As piercingly observant as ever in this substantial and forthright collection, Oliver is rhapsodic. But she is also wry, caustic, and elegiac in critiquing our habit of violence, ‘the debris of progress,’ and the cruel fate of rivers, polar bears, and all the wild places and animals we’ve endangered, and from which we still have so much to learn.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist

For Our World

“The work of Mary Oliver is one of those rare and lovely convergences. She is a lyric artist with a riveted eye and an enormous heart, one of the nation’s great spiritual sentinels. She was also graced for more than 40 years with the love of her life, the late photographer Molly Malone Cook. Here the two hearts are braided gently together within covers—some 50 of Cook’s pictures, with notes, comments and poems by Oliver . . . The great virtue of this small book, the great gift Oliver gives her beloved, is that Our World is not biography, elegy, epitaph or rage against loss; it is that quieter and far stronger thing, witness . . . Readers who savor Oliver’s exquisite gifts of attentiveness, her lean lines, her celebration of the holiness of what is, will delight in her gifts applied to the being she loved longest. And anyone who sees the best of Cook’s photographs here will celebrate a remarkable eye, now returned to the Light.” —Brian Doyle, Christian Century

“Poet Mary Oliver displayed a sparkling wit and puckish charm before a reverential crowd Monday night for Seattle Arts & Lectures. The appearance by the 71-year-old writer from Massachusetts, arguably the country’s most popular poet, had sparked the fastest sell-out in the 20-year history of the hallmark [Seattle Arts & Lectures] literary series….“Oliver . . . offered her most affecting work not in verse but in prose. These were remembrances of her relationship with photographer Molly Malone Cook, who died two years ago. Oliver’s half-dozen passages recalling her partner from Our World were heartfelt, intimate, loving.” —John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

For Thirst

“Mary Oliver’s new collection begins on a confident note: ‘My work is loving the world’ is its first line. We’ve no reason to disbelieve her given her commitment in a growing body of work. Her recognizable strength as a witness of and to Nature is in the opening 10 or11 poems. She is fully in her stride . . . How America, and American literature with all its worst excesses, needs a voice as clear, transparent, humane and truly spiritual as this.” —Jay Ramsay, Caduceus

“I should be clear that Mary Oliver is, to my mind, one of the most gifted American poets working in English today. In her hands, the language acquires a lucidity approaching translucence; the accuracy of her vision and the precision of her voice are unique in their refreshing simplicity. Perhaps most singular is the tendency of her poems to be at once powerful and appealing; an affection for the natural world and a sympathy toward the reader abide.” —Katherine Hollander, Pleiades

For Why I Wake Early

“The gift of Oliver’s poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable.” —Miami Herald

“Oliver has the ability to transform everyday life events into something extraordinary. She shows us a natural world that is too often forgotten, in all its humor, grace and absolute loveliness.” —Emily Nicklin, Nature Conservancy

For Blue Iris

“Blue Iris fortuitously offers an extended sequence and new contexts for a writer whose precise eye and instinct for surprising images have made her one of the best practitioners of the lyrical revelation . . . Oliver’s often quiet persona almost always rides a storm of discovery.” —R. T. Smith, Shenandoah

“These 32 poems and four essays offer rich meditations on flowers in nature, showing how plant life reflects the life of the human heart . . . A companion to Oliver’s recent Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays, this work presents poetry in free verse, which Oliver has perfected in all of its musicality and rhythm.” —Library Journal

For Owls and Other Fantasies

“Mary Oliver is beautiful and accurate in this book of poetry and prose about birds . . . all rendered with the precision of a line-drawing of a single feather that puts the entire wing into perspective.” —Orion

“Oliver has gained enormous popularity in recent years for the accessible yet highly articulate and profound treatment she gives each poem . . . This new title will bring much pleasure to the many readers who claim Oliver as their favorite poet, as well as to people new to her work.” —Library Journal

“What we have here are moral essays in prose and verse, passionate meditations on the conduct of life. You will be the wiser—as I believe I am—for having read them.” —Frank Wilson, Philadelphia Inquirer

For House of Light

“Placing the self in the stream of natural change, these quiet but forceful poems evoke the fears, sorrows, and joys of the solitary spirit. At their most exuberant, they celebrate the spirit’s light, whether it manifests itself in fish bones, lilies, snow, or a luminous vision of death-that ‘scalding, aortal light,’ wherein we are ‘washed and washed / out of our bones’.” —Poetry

“Lilies, turtles, kingfishers, herons and moccasin flowers flourish in their habitats in Oliver’s new volume of poetry, in which she expresses her continuing wonderment at the juncture of complexity and simplicity in nature and her own life. The poet’s gift here is her joy—expressed in a fluidity of lyrical tone and in rhythms smoothly mimicking the graceful intricacy of creatures comfortably alive. . . Nothing’s static in these poems. They pulse with a drama that Oliver’s slippery lines persuade us is the necessary ferment of the natural order of things.” —Publishers Weekly

“House of Light should secure Oliver’s rank as a literary master.” —Minneapolis Star

“Her poems pop up at many of life’s turning points, including death. Readers go to her for solace, regeneration and inspiration. Her name is passed between generations, with a knowing look. After a few hours in her quiet, exuberant presence, one feels as though the raw sunlight in the room, the brightness of the water, the white wood and flashing wings outside the window are bleaching unimportant details from the day.” —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

More About Mary Oliver

“One would have to reach back perhaps to [John] Clare or [Christopher] Smart to safely cite a parallel to Oliver’s lyricism.” —David Barber, Poetry

“The music in Oliver’s writing is unmistakable. Her poetry can be read as the best of the real lyrics we have these days, and it’s no surprise that she’s already won a Pulitzer Prize for it, as well as many other honors.”—Los Angeles Times

“Mary Oliver is a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making. The humbling effect of that perspective is her lasting gift to readers.” —Harvard Review

“Even if Mary Oliver’s poems had no meaning, their spare, fluid music would take the breath away.” —Village Voice

“From the chaos of the world, her poems distill what it is to be human and what is worthwhile about life. Echoing the Romantics and Whitman, she affirms the value of aloneness with nature, of watching and listening.” —Library Journal

“The lightness, the airiness of [Oliver’s] sheer delight in life curls around paragraphs and prose poems like disappearing fog.” —Los Angeles Times