Sharon Olds facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sharon Olds
Olds in 2015
Born	(1942-11-19) November 19, 1942 (age 82) San Francisco, California, U.S.
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 many important awards for her writing. 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 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.

Early Life and Education

Sharon Olds was born in San Francisco, California, on November 19, 1942. She grew up in Berkeley, California, with her brothers and sisters. Her family had very strict religious rules. For example, she was not allowed to go to the movies. Her family also did not own a television.

However, her reading was not limited. She loved reading fairy tales. She also enjoyed Nancy Drew books and Life magazine. She felt that her church taught her about both great and not-so-great writing. She especially liked the psalms from the Bible. When she was about 15, she started to think differently about religion.

Olds went to Dana Hall School, an all-girls school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. There, she focused on English, History, and Creative Writing. She admired poets like William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. She even carried Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems in her purse.

After high school, Olds returned to California. She earned her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1964. Later, she moved to New York. She received her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University in 1972. Her doctoral paper was about Ralph Waldo Emerson's writing style. She liked how he did things in his own way. Today, she teaches creative writing at New York University.

Personal Life

Sharon Olds married Dr. David Douglas Olds in New York City on March 23, 1968. They had two children together. After 29 years of marriage, they divorced in 1997. She still lives in the same apartment in Upper West Side, New York. She has lived there for many years while working as a professor.

Sharon Olds also wrote moving poems about her longtime partner, Carl Wallman. He passed away in 2020.

In 2005, the First Lady, Laura Bush, invited Olds to a special event. This was the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.. Sharon Olds decided not to go. She wrote an open letter that was published in The Nation magazine. In her letter, she explained her reasons for declining the invitation.

Writing Poetry

After finishing her Ph.D., Sharon Olds started writing poetry in a new way. She decided to write about her family and personal experiences. She focused on her work and not on what others might think.

Olds has said that other poets like Galway Kinnell and Gwendolyn Brooks influenced her. She felt their styles were more helpful to her than some other famous poets. She admired their talent but wanted to find her own path.

When she first sent her poems to a magazine, she got a surprising reply. The magazine suggested she write about her subjects in a different publication. They said that the "true subjects of poetry" were usually "male subjects," not things like children.

Despite this, Olds published her first collection of poems, Satan Says, in 1980. She was 37 years old. This book showed her honest and direct style. The collection is divided into four parts: "Daughter," "Woman," "Mother," and "Journeys." These titles show how much her family influenced her writing.

Her next book, The Dead and the Living, came out in 1984. This collection has two sections: "Poems for the Dead" and "Poems for the Living." The first part includes poems about big problems in the world. These include historical events like the Armenian genocide and the Tulsa race riot.

Olds' book The Wellspring (1996) also uses strong language and clear images. It talks about family relationships and difficult situations. A reviewer from The New York Times praised her poetry. They said she celebrates a power stronger than political problems, much like Walt Whitman. Another writer, Alicia Ostriker, noted that Olds writes about family love and pain. Olds' poems are in over 100 different collections. Her work has been translated into seven languages. She was the New York State Poet Laureate from 1998 to 2000.

Stag's Leap was published in 2013. The poems in this book were written in 1997. They came after her divorce from her husband of 29 years. The poems focus on her husband and even his new partner. This collection won the T. S. Eliot Prize. Sharon Olds was the first American woman to win this award. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

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 she had never questioned why men held all the important jobs. This was a surprising thought for her at 20 years old. She started to think about what it felt like to be a woman in the world.

Awards and Recognitions

Sharon Olds has received many honors and awards throughout her career:

• 1978 Creative Artists Public Service Grant
• 1978 Madeline Sadin Award, New York Quarterly
• 1979 Younger Poets Award, Poetry Miscellany
• 1980 Satan Says inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award
• 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 The Dead and the Living National Book Critics Circle Award
• 1992 The Father, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize
• 1992 The Father, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
• 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 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
• 2009 One Secret Thing, shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry
• 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

See also

In Spanish: Sharon Olds para niños