Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) was an American poet celebrated for clear, attentive lyric poems rooted in the natural world. Born in Maple Heights, Ohio, she studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College. Much of her life was spent in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where landscapes and daily observation shaped her work. Oliver’s poetry often joins close description with spiritual and ethical reflection, inviting readers toward wonder and presence. Her best-known poem, “Wild Geese,” helped bring her a wide audience. She won the Pulitzer Prize for *American Primitive* (1984) and the National Book Award for *New and Selected Poems* (1992). Oliver also wrote essays and prose about writing and nature.