Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education
Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture
RCDL 2013
The Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture, a signature event of the Center, works to bring public intellectuals to southwest Florida to discuss issues such as sustainability, ethics, democracy, and literature. This year the Center is excited to be hosting the acclaimed American Poet, Mary Oliver, to give this year's lecture.
Reserved Seating
The Lecture is free and open to the public but it is a ticketed event. Reserved seating will be provided to those who contribute to the Ninth Annual Fundraising Celebration. Tickets will be issued at the church on the night of the Lecture to non-contributors and to contributors. For more information or to request an invitation to the Lecture and Fundraising Celebration, please contact the Center by email at cese@fgcu.edu or by phone at (239)-590-7166.
Biography
Photograph of Mary Oliver. Copyright 2005 Rachel Giese Brown
The biography below was compiled by the Stephen Barclay Agency.
Mary Oliver's poetry, with her lyrical connection to the natural world, has firmly established her in the highest realm of American poets. She is renowned for her evocative and precise imagery, which brings nature into clear focus, transforming the everyday world into a place of magic and discovery. As poet Stanley Kunitz has said, "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." She has received countless distinctions, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and continues to influence generations of younger poets, as well as adding to her legions of loyal readers with each eagerly awaited new book.
Mary Oliver was born in Ohio, in 1935. She attended Ohio State University and Vassar College, then a women's college. As a young writer, strongly influenced by the work of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, she wrote to the late poet's sister and was invited to visit. For the next several years Steepletop, the poet's country house in upper state New York, became her second home. Subsequently Mary Oliver moved to New York City, then visited England for one year. In 1964, she returned to the United States. Over the past two decades she has taught at various colleges and universities – Case Western Reserve, Bucknell, Sweet Briar College, the University of Cincinnati, and Bennington College in Vermont.
Mary Oliver is the author of many books of poetry, including No Voyage and Other Poems (1965), The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems (1972), Twelve Moons (1978), American Primitive (1983), Dream Work (1986), House of Light (1990), New and Selected Poems, Volume One (1992), White Pine (1994), West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems (1997), The Leaf and the Cloud (2000), What Do We Know (2002), Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (2003), Why I Wake Early (2004), Blue Iris: Poems and Essays (2004), and New and Selected Poems, Volume Two (2005)), Thirst (2006), Red Bird (2008), The Truro Bear and Other Adventures (2008), Evidence (2009), and Swan (2010). She is also the author of Our World, a collection of photos by Molly Malone Cook. Her chapbooks and special editions include The Night Traveler (1978), Sleeping in the Forest (1979), Provincetown (1987), Wild Geese (UK Edition); and her prose books include A Poetry Handbook (1994), Blue Pastures (1995), Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse (1998), Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems (1999), and Long Life: Essays and Other Writings (2004). She was the guest editor for The Best American Essays 2009 (November 2009). Her audio recordings include At Blackwater Pond and Many Miles: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver (April 2010).
Mary Oliver has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize (for American Primitive), the National Book Award for Poetry (for New and Selected Poems Volume One), the Lannan Foundation Literary Award, the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence, and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award, among others. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Mary Oliver lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts and Hobe Sound, Florida.
Credit to Rachel Guise Brown for the photograph above.
A Complete List of Mary Oliver's Poetry Books
1963- No Voyage, and Other Poems. (Dent (New York, NY), expanded edition, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1965.
1972- The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems. Harcourt (New York, NY) ISBN 9780151777501
1978- The Night Traveler. Bits Press
1978- Twelve Moons. Little Brown (Boston, MA), ISBN 9780316650007
1979- Sleeping in the Forest. Ohio Review Chapbook
1983- American Primitive. Little, Brown (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780316650045
1986- Dream Work. (Atlantic Monthly Press (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780871130693
1987- Provincetown. Appletree Alley, limited edition with woodcuts by Barnard Taylor
1990- House of Light. (Beacon Press (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068106
1992- New and Selected Poems. Beacon Press (Boston, MA), ISBN 9780807068182
1994- White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems. Harcourt (San Diego, CA) ISBN 9780156001205
1995- Blue Pastures. Harcourt (New York, NY) ISBN 9780156002158
1997- West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems. Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780395850855
1999- Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems. Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780395850879
2000- The Leaf and the Cloud. Da Capo (Cambridge, MA), (prose poem) ISBN 9780306810732
2002- What Do We Know. Da Capo (Cambridge, MA) ISBN 9780306812064
2003- Owls and Other Fantasies: poems and essays. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068687
2004- Why I Wake Early: New Poems. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068793
2004- Blue Iris: Poems and Essays. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068823
2004- Wild geese: selected poems. Bloodaxe, ISBN 9781852246280
2005- New and Selected Poems, volume two. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068861
2005- At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver (audio cd)
2006- Thirst: Poems. (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068960
2007- Our World with photographs by Molly Malone Cook, Beacon (Boston, MA)
2008- The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays. Beacon Press, ISBN 9780807068847
2008- Red Bird. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068922
2009- Evidence. Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068984
2010- Swan: Poems and Prose Poems.(Boston, MA) ISBN 9780807068991 2012- A Thousand Mornings. (Boston, MA) ISBN 978159420477
Other Resources
2012 Concept Statement for the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture
"An Attitude of Notcing": Mary Oliver's Ecological Ethic by Kirstin Hotelling Zona
For access to past lectures in their entirety please download a copy of the Center's publication, The booklet is a compilation of our Rachel Carson Distinguished Lectures from 2004-2010.
Please click here! to view Mary Oliver reading "Wild Geese" and other selected poems.
The following comments were selected from a recent interview with O, The Oprah Magazine guest editor Maria Shriver:
“They say if Mary is taking a walk, and she begins to walk slower and slower, and finally she’s standing still scribbling, you know it was a successful walk.”
“I have a rule that if I wake up at 3 in the morning and think of something, I write it down. I can’t wait until morning—it’ll be gone.”
“I like to think of myself as a praise poet…I acknowledge my feeling and gratitude for life by praising the world and whoever made all these things.”
In response to Shriver’s question on whether Oliver has a favorite poem:
“That I wrote? Not yet. You’re supposed to love all your children [laughs]. Actually, my favorite poem is always the one I’m working on.”
Past Lectures
 |
Mary Oliver: A Poetry Reading with Commentary Friday, February 17, 2012, 7:30 pm Download full sized poster |
 |
The Africa You Don't Know: A Women's Perspective Friday, April 1, 2011, 7:30 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
Working on Behalf of the Beauty and Bounty of Earth: An Earth Charter Scholars Panel Friday, February 20, 2009, 10:00 am Download full sized poster
|
 |
Finding Beauty in a Broken World: An Ensemble for Earth Friday, September 5, 2008, 5:30 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
Eyes to See Otherwise: The World of Homero Aridjis Friday, February 23, 2007, 1:30 pm Friday, February 23, 2007, 7:30 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
Lessons from Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma: Environment, Politics, and Global Destabilization Friday, February 18, 2006, 10:30 am Friday, February 18, 2006, 7:00 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
A Barbara Kingsolver Weekend Friday, February 25, 2005, 7:00 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
Open Space of Democracy Tour with Terry Tempest Williams Monday, October 25, 2004, 10:00 am Monday, October 25, 2004, 7:00 pm Download full sized poster
|
 |
Ethics of Sustainability: A Dialogue with Mary Evelyn Tucker and Alison Hawthorne Deming Thursday, March 25, 2004, 7:00 pm Friday, March 26, 2004, 10:30 am
|
