Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Time: 6:30 p.m. / $10, $8 for students, call (312) 899-1229 for tickets.
Location: Rubloff Auditorium / Art Institute of Chicago / 280 South Columbus Drive
Participants: Mary Oliver (sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and the Poetry Center of Chicago)

Mary Oliver is known for work based in the natural world. Humorous and frank, she sometimes addresses poems to her dog, which, amazingly doesn’t serve to lower her status as a first rate (and highly acclaimed) poet. In fact, she just sold out a 2,700-seat concert hall in Seattle. According to the Poetry Foundation, thus far in the 21st century, Mary Oliver’s only competitors for “bestselling American poet” have been Billy Collins and whoever is the current U.S. poet laureate. Her work and an ode to it can be found here and here.

Oliver’s bio can be found here, and her honors include an American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, a Lannan Literary Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Prize and Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. If you’ve never seen her read, well, keep in mind that she’s 71, and this event is a middling $10. Just saying.