Mary Oliver's classic collection, newly published in a beautiful hardback edition: a perfect gift for Oliver's longtime readers and for a fresh generation to discover the beauty and solace of one of the world's most beloved poets.

Coming down

out of the freezing sky

with its depths of light,

like an angel,

or a buddha with wings,

it was beautiful

and accurate

-from 'White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field'

Mary Oliver's Owls and Other Fantasies brings together twenty-six of the Pulitzer Prize-winner's poems about the birds that played such an important role in her life. Here are hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows, and the snowy owl, among others.

Unique to this collection are two beautifully crafted essays: 'Owls,' selected for the Best American Essays series, and 'Bird,' an essay of resilience that takes its place among the classics of the genre.

In the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, '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.'

For anyone who values poetry and essays, for anyone who cares about birds, Owls and Other Fantasies will be a treasured gift; for those who love both, it will be essential reading.

Details

ISBN13: 9781472160935
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 80
Edition:
Publication Date: 06 Oct 2026
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x13.4(L)x1.4(W)168
Weight (gm): 168

Author Biography

Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1962 at the age of twenty-eight. Over the course of her long career, she wrote more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, as well as two essay collections, and received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. Mary Oliver died in 2019.

Reviews