“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?“
- Name: Mary Oliver
- Born: September 10, 1935
- Died: January 17, 2019
- From: Maple Heights, Ohio
- Pronouns: She/her
- Contribution/Impact: Mary Oliver is acknowledged as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet” and has received much recognition for her work.
- Occupation: Poet
- Known For: A Thousand Mornings (2012), Wild Geese, New and Selected Poems (1992)
- Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for American Primitive (1984), PEN New England Award for The House of Light (1991), National Book Award for Poetry for New and Selected Poems (1992)
Mary Oliver is another author that keep their personal life private and secret as she wanted her poetry to speak for itself. After leaving college, Oliver worked as a secretary for Edna St. Vincent Millay and it was during this time that she would meet her future partner Molly Malone Cook. The couple would spend the next forty years together in Provincetown, Massachusetts until Cook’s death in 2005.
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