Sharon Olds facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sharon Olds
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Sharon Olds in Ezra Pound's birth house, Hailey, Idaho
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| Born |
Sharon Stuart Cobb
November 19, 1942 San Francisco, California, U.S.
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| Education | Stanford University (BA) Columbia University (MA, PhD) |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Spouse(s) |
David Douglas Olds
(m. 1969–1997) |
| Partner(s) | Carl Wallman |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, T. S. Eliot Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award |
Sharon Olds (born November 19, 1942) is a famous American poet. She has won several important awards for her poetry. These include the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980. She also won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984. In 2013, she received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sharon Olds teaches creative writing at New York University. She used to be the director of the Creative Writing Program there.
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Sharon Olds' Early Life and Education
Sharon Olds was born on November 19, 1942. Her birthplace was San Francisco, California. However, she grew up in Berkeley, California, with her brothers and sisters. She described her upbringing as very strict.
Her family had strong rules about what she could do. For example, Sharon was not allowed to go to the movies. Her family also did not own a television. But she was allowed to read anything she wanted. She loved fairy tales and read books like Nancy Drew. She also enjoyed Life magazine.
Her School Days
Sharon Olds went to Dana Hall School. This was a school just for girls in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She studied English, History, and Creative Writing there. She loved poets like William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. She also admired Walt Whitman and Edna St. Vincent Millay. A book called Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg was one of her favorites. She even carried it in her purse in 10th grade.
After high school, Sharon Olds went to Stanford University. She earned her bachelor's degree there in 1964. Later, she moved to New York. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University in 1972. Her doctoral paper was about "Emerson's Prosody." She liked how Emerson broke traditional rules in his writing. Today, she teaches creative writing at New York University.
Sharon Olds' Personal Life
Sharon Olds married Dr. David Douglas Olds in New York City. They got married on March 23, 1968. In 1969, they had their first child. They later had a second child. After 29 years of marriage, they divorced in 1997. She still lives in the same apartment in the Upper West Side of New York. She works as a professor at New York University.
In 2022, a book of her poems called Balladz was published. This book included moving poems about her long-time partner, Carl Wallman. He passed away in 2020.
In 2005, the First Lady, Laura Bush, invited Sharon Olds to an event. It was the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.. Sharon Olds decided not to go. She wrote an open letter explaining her reasons. This letter was published in The Nation magazine. She explained that she felt sad and ashamed about the country's actions at that time. She felt she could not enjoy the event.
Sharon Olds' Poetry
After getting her Ph.D., Sharon Olds changed her writing style. She started writing about her family and difficult experiences. She focused on her work, not on what people might think.
Olds has said that other poets influenced her. These include Galway Kinnell, Muriel Rukeyser, and Gwendolyn Brooks. She felt their work helped her more than poets like Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath. She admired Plath's talent but felt their paths were different.
When she first sent her poems to a magazine, she got a surprising reply. The magazine told her that her subjects were not "true subjects of poetry." They suggested she write for a women's magazine instead.
Her Published Collections
Sharon Olds published her first collection of poems in 1980. She was 37 years old at the time. This book was divided into four parts: "Daughter," "Woman," "Mother," and "Journeys." These titles show how much her family influenced her writing.
Her book The Dead and the Living came out in 1984. This collection has two main sections. One is "Poems for the Dead." The other is "Poems for the Living." The first part includes poems about global problems. These topics include the Armenian genocide and the Tulsa race riot. It also mentions the death of Marilyn Monroe.
The Wellspring (1996) is another book by Olds. It uses strong language and powerful images. These poems share truths about family relationships. They also touch on violence. Her poems are found in over 100 different collections. Her work has been translated into seven languages. She was the Poet Laureate for New York State from 1998 to 2000.
Stag's Leap was published in 2013. The poems in this book were written in 1997. They were written after her divorce from her husband of 29 years. This collection won the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. Sharon Olds was the first American woman to win this award. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Sharon Olds and the Women's Movement
Sharon Olds did not join the Women's Movement right away. Her first child was born in 1969. She remembers realizing that men seemed to have all the important jobs. This was a surprising thought for her at 20 years old. She started to think about what it meant to be a woman in the world.
Awards and Honors
Sharon Olds has received many awards for her poetry:
- 1978 Creative Artists Public Service Grant
- 1978 Madeline Sadin Award, New York Quarterly
- 1979 Younger Poets Award, Poetry Miscellany
- 1981–1982 Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- 1982–1983 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 1983 The Dead and the Living Lamont Poetry Prize
- 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Dead and the Living
- 1992 The Father, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize
- 1992 Finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award for The Father
- 1993–1996 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award
- 1998–2000 New York State Poet Laureate
- 2002 Academy of American Poets Fellowship
- 2002 The Unswept Room, Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry
- 2003 Judge, Griffin Poetry Prize
- 2004 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awards
- 2004 Became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2006–2012 Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets
- 2009 One Secret Thing, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize
- 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize, Stag's Leap
- 2012 Stag's Leap, named one of "Oprah's Favorite Reads of 2012"
- 2013 Pulitzer Prize, Stag's Leap
- 2014 Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry
- 2015 Elected to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 2016 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets
- 2020 Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, Arias
- 2022 Poetry Society of America's Robert Frost Medal awardee
- 2023 Awarded the inaugural Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize
More Information
You can find more about Sharon Olds in Spanish here: Sharon Olds para niños
