Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. "

Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of twenty-three.

Over the course of her long career, she has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award in 1984. She has led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Hennington College, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching.

In 2007 The New York Times described her as "far and away, this country's best-selling poet." She died in January 2019