Upstream: Selected Essays

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was an American poet, essayist, and keen observer of the natural world whose work became synonymous with clarity, attention, and quiet wonder. In the Women’s Review of Books, poet Maxine Kumin describes Oliver as “an indefatigable guide to the natural world.” Over a career spanning more than five decades, Oliver produced poetry and prose inspired by her walks through the woods, ponds, marshes, and coastal inlets of New England. Her work is critically regarded while recognized for its accessibility. In Upstream (2016), Oliver widened her focus beyond poetry to reflect directly on the forces that shaped her as a writer: Nature, solitude, reading, and the liberating imagination. This personal volume reveals Oliver not just as a poet of nature but as a thinker and storyteller whose life and art are inseparable.

Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, a semi-rural suburb of Cleveland. Her childhood was marked by difficulty: She would later describe her family as turbulent and emotionally withholding. These early experiences fostered her instinct to seek refuge outdoors, where she developed the attentive habits that would define her poetic voice. The woods became both sanctuary and schoolroom, and the creatures she encountered there—birds, foxes, turtles, and geese—became lifelong figures in her writing.