Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds (born November 19, 1942) is an American poet. Olds has been the recipient of many awards including the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980 She currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

Early life

Sharon Stuart Cobb was born on November 19, 1942 in San Francisco, California, but was brought up in Berkeley, California along with her siblings.. She was raised as a "hellfire Calvinist", as she describes it. Her father, like his before him, was an alcoholic who was often abusive to his children. In Olds’ writing she often refers to the time(or possibly even times) when her father tied her to a chair. Olds’ mother was often either unable or too afraid to come to the aid of her children.

The strict religious environment Olds was raised in had certain rules of censorship and restriction. Olds was not permitted to go to the movies and the family did not own a television. As for the literature granted in the household Olds once said she won a singing contest in church choir. "[The prize] was a book of child martyrs who had been killed for their belief and died very politely." She liked fairy tales, and also read Nancy Drew and Life Magazine. As for her own religious views and her exposure to religious literary art she says she was by nature "a pagan and a pantheist" and notes "I was in a church where there was both great literary art and bad literary art, the great art being psalms and the bad art being hymns. The four-beat was something that was just part of my consciousness from before I was born." She adds "I think I was about 15 when I conceived of myself as an atheist, but I think it was only very recently that I can really tell that there's nobody there with a copybook making marks against your name."

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Sharon Olds

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Tom Morello teases “huge superstars who are gonna be surprises” for final Black Sabbath show

NME 31 Mar 2025
Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi tell us about Black Sabbath’s finale ... Sharon also told NME that ‘Back To The Beginning’ would be “just about celebrating the old music that still lives on”, rather than Black Sabbath releasing any new music.

‘My son told people we were lesbians’: The sisters raising their children together

AOL 30 Mar 2025
For the past 12 years, Lauretta and Sharon Gavin have been co-parenting, co-living and co-working ... When Carter was one year old, Sharon’s marriage ended and she moved in with her sister Lauretta who was already a single mum with a three-year-old.

Canada’s snowbirds reconsider calling America their second home

CNN 30 Mar 2025
Sharon Savoy, a 65-year-old retiree from just outside of Toronto, had planned a typical three-month stay at her vacation home in Miami earlier this month ... “I should be there right now,” Savoy told CNN ... Some want to sell their US properties,” Fine said.

25-year-old killed, 2 others injured in motorcycle crash Thursday night in Medina County

Akron Beacon Journal 28 Mar 2025
The Medina County Sheriff's Office is investigating a fatal motorcycle crash that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old man and the hospitalization of two others in Sharon Township, Beacon Journal news partner News 5 Cleveland reported.

100 years, 100 stories

Post Bulletin 28 Mar 2025
The old saying, “defense wins championships,” proved true, as John Marshall High School dominated its opponent, St ... Brom had killed his parents, his 13-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother with an ax.

The Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (So Far)

The Atlantic 27 Mar 2025
Yet the medium evolves even when it isn’t the center of attention, and over the past 25 years, its authors have pursued astonishing new forms and reinvented old ones ... By Sharon Olds ... Olds is remarkably generous to her ex.

Will Hopewell or Petersburg become first Blue Zone in Virginia? Learn more at health fair

Progress Index 26 Mar 2025
unbranded - Lifestyle ... At noon, Dr. Cliff V ... Hopewell ... "Dr ... Blue Zones are communities where people not only lived longer but also enjoyed a high quality of life in their old age.". In addition to Morris and Couch, Sharon O'Neal of Randolph Market, Dr.

Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist Zakk Wylde teases that the frontman could be in a “throne that ...

NME 24 Mar 2025
Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi tell us about Black Sabbath’s finale ... Sharon also told NME that ‘Back To The Beginning’ would be “just about celebrating the old music that still lives on”, rather than Black Sabbath releasing any new music.

Inside the town boycotting self-checkouts: 'Very important' reason why pensioners in Bridgwater refuse to use ...

The Daily Mail 23 Mar 2025
Next to the line of customers was a completely empty self-service area containing seven computerised check-out terminals ... Mother and daughter Sharon, 56, and 31-year-old Kirsty both said they prefer to be served by a person ... Mum Sharon, 56 agreed ... .

Quick-thinking three-year-old saves great-grandmother after fall

AOL 21 Mar 2025
Sharon Lewis, 77, was bringing three-year-old Bridger into her home on the night of February 23 when she tripped and hit her head on the concrete ... .

Israelis return to streets in anger over Netanyahu's policies

Knoxville Daily Sun 20 Mar 2025
"We've all been taken hostage by the government of blood," some chanted ... "We are all hostages." ... +7 ... Earlier, outside the parliament, 18-year-old Roni Sharon, a student from the city of Rehovot, told AFP that she had skipped school to join the protest.

Gabriel Olds' lovers write twisted letters of support for his violent sexual fantasies before his ...

The Daily Mail 19 Mar 2025
Olds, 52, was arrested in Los Angeles last August ... His mother, Sharon Olds, 82, has been dubbed the ‘laureate of sex’ for her provocative literature which included a poem about her son’s genitals when he was aged six.

From Our Files: March 19, 2025

The New Era 18 Mar 2025
The group is collecting old newspapers to be recycled at Smurfit Newsprint to fund the project. Project organizer Sharon Beard said the school looks bare and stark now that the trees are gone, so she ...

Two Texas men arrested in Columbus after human trafficking operation

The Columbus Dispatch 17 Mar 2025
The 26-year-old from Houston was arrested by a Columbus SWAT team in collaboration with the Sharon Township Police Department after the suspect barricaded himself inside of a home Thursday evening on West Kanawha Avenue in Sharon Township.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Baltimore | PHOTOS

Baltimore Sun 17 Mar 2025
(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) At 93 years old, Gwen Shipley of Forest Park jumps up and down with her daughter Sharon Shipley as they cheer the participants of the annual St ... At 93 years old, Gwen Shipley of Forest Park still insists on attending the St.
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