July 9, 2010
10-46
The staff at the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve extends an invitation to local residents and visitors to join an upcoming LSR book club discussion of American Primitive, a collection of poems by Mary Oliver and the 1984 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The book club discussion will take place on Thursday, July 15, from 4:30–5:30 p.m. at the LSR Preserve Center on the Moose-Wilson Road in Grand Teton National Park. The book discussion will be followed by a short hike on the Preserve.
In an effort to inspire a spirit of conversation stewardship, the LSR Preserve book club was created in the summer of 2009 and designed to explore literature that examines our connection to the natural world. This will be the sixth LSR Preserve book club discussion.
Mary Oliver’s poetry has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a Lannan Literary Award. Her first collection of poems, No Voyage, and Other Poems, was published in 1963. Since then, Oliver has published numerous books, including Why I Wake Early: New Poems, Thirst: Poems, West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems, and House of Light. Her books of prose include Long Life: Essays and Other Writings, Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse, and A Poetry Handbook.
Oliver’s writing is well known for its clear and poignant observations where her central themes focus on place and the intersection between the human and natural worlds. Literary critics have compared her work to that of great American lyric poets and celebrators of nature such as Walt Whitman, John Muir, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Space is limited and participants are required to sign up in advance. To sign up for the book club discussion or learn more about this event, please call the LSR Preserve at 307.739.3654.
