CapeCodToday Featured Event

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver to speak at Cape Cod Community College

Renowned poet and author to read from her works in October

   Poet Mary Oliver. Photo courtesy of Beacon Press.

One of the most celebrated and best-selling poets in America, named by the Boston Globe as one of the “Seven Wonders of Massachusetts,” Pulitzer Prize winning poet and author Mary Oliver will read from her works at the Tilden Arts Center on Cape Cod Community College’s West Barnstable campus, Wednesday October 14th at 7 p.m. 

“The College is very excited to partner with Titcomb’s Bookshop of  East Sandwich and Beacon Press of Boston as Titcomb’s celebrates its 40th year by offering the public this rare chance to hear Mary Oliver speak, read from her works, and greet the public at a book signing immediately following her presentation. This event is free and open to all, and we strongly urge the public to take advantage of this unique opportunity,” stated Kathleen Schatzberg, President of CCCC.

“This event is free and open to all, and we strongly urge the public to take advantage of this unique opportunity.” - Kathleen Schatzberg, President of CCCC.

Mary Oliver has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She’s received The National Book Award, an American Academy and Institute of the Arts and Letter Achievement Award, a Lannan Literary Award, The Christopher and LL Winship/PEN New England Award, The New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence, and the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Prize.

Her most recent book of poetry, Evidence, again explores the wonder of the natural world around us. Oliver is a skilled guide to the rarest and most exquisite insights of the natural world. “After a few hours in her quiet, exuberant presence,” writes Los Angeles Times columnist Susan Salter Reynolds, “one feels as though the raw sunlight in the room, the brightness of the water, the white wood and flashing wings outside the window are bleaching unimportant details from the day.”

Ms. Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio. As a teenager, she lived briefly in the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, where she helped Millay's family sort through the papers the poet left behind.  In the mid-1950s, she attended both Ohio State University and Vassar College. She makes her home in Provincetown, MA.

Ms. Oliver’s talk is part of a 4-month long series of book related events scheduled by Titcomb’s Bookshop to celebrate the Bookshop’s 40th anniversary.   Ms. Oliver’s books will be available for sale at the event.  

For further information, or to reserve a signed copy of one or more of Mary Oliver’s books, you may contact Titcomb’s Bookshop at 508-888-2331.  Titcomb’s Bookshop is a family-owned independent bookstore selling new and used books since 1969.

Courtesy of Cape Cod Community College.