She won the Pulitzer. She spent forty years loving a woman named Molly. She wrote more poems about birds than almost anything else. Hannah + Cleo celebrate Pride Month with Mary Oliver. A quiet queer icon, nature's poet, and the writer who convinced a generation that paying attention is a radical act.

32:10 Mary Oliver conversation starts

Music by fknsyd

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Sources

Primary Sources:

• Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems, Volume One. Beacon Press, 1992.
• Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. Beacon Press, 2005.
• Oliver, Mary. Why I Wake Early. Beacon Press, 2004.
• Oliver, Mary. Blue Horses. Penguin Press, 2014.
• Oliver, Mary. Upstream: Selected Essays. Penguin Press, 2016.
• Oliver, Mary. Our World (photographs by Molly Malone Cook). Beacon Press, 2007.
• Oliver, Mary. Felicity: Poems. Penguin Press, 2015. (Recommended acquisition for love story section)

Academic:

• Cardenas, Elijah. "'A Poem Should Always Have Birds in It': Birds in Mary Oliver's Poetry." The Macksey Journal, Vol. 3, Article 64, Johns Hopkins University, 2022.
• Keegan, Bridget. "The wisdom of the owls: gender, nature and spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver." Journal of Religion and Society, Supplement Series, Vol. 5, 2009.
• Burton-Christie, Douglas. "Nature, Spirit, and Imagination in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." CrossCurrents, Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 1996.
• Murphy, Patrick D. "Pollywogs and Polylogues: Material Spirituality in the Writings of Mary Oliver." ANQ, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2020.
• Davis, Todd. "The Earth as God's Body: Incarnation as Communion in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." Christianity & Literature, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2009.
• Ullyatt, Gisela. "'The Only Chance to Love This World': Buddhist Mindfulness in Mary Oliver's Poetry." Journal of Literary Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2011.
• Bonds, D.S. "The Language of Nature in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." Women's Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1992.

Biographical / Journalism:

• "Mary Oliver: Nature Poet." New Jersey Conservation Foundation. njconservation.org, April 2019.
• "Mary Oliver, Acclaimed Lesbian Poet, Dies at 83." The Advocate, January 18, 2019.
• "Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Lesbian Poet, Is Dead at 83." Autostraddle, January 2019.
• McDonald, Lexi. "Re-reading Mary Oliver as an Adult Lesbian: A Review of Felicity." Lesbrary, November 2025.
• "Felicity by Mary Oliver." Lambda Literary Review, April 2016.
• Thibodeau, Amy. "Big-Hearted Poems: A Review of Felicity." Medium, December 2015.
• "Mary Oliver on Love and Its Necessary Wildness." The Marginalian, October 2015.
• "Mary Oliver's World with Molly Malone Cook." Music and Musings, December 2020.
• Library of Congress Manuscript Division: "Mary Oliver Papers Newly Available." blogs.loc.gov, June 2024.
• "Mary Oliver: 10 Quotes from the Pulitzer-Winning Lesbian Poet." PinkNews, June 2019.
• "On the Overlooked Eroticism of Mary Oliver." Literary Hub, March 2019.
• "Epitaph to a Photographer." The Gay & Lesbian Review, 2008.
• Poetry Foundation biography: poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver
• Academy of American Poets biography: poets.org/poet/mary-oliver
• Library of Congress exhibit: "Mary Oliver: Poet of the Natural World," 2025.

Documentary:

• Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. PBS American Masters, Season 40, Episode 5. Premiere: August 25, 2026. pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/mary-oliver-documentary/37967/