A formalist, Oliver joins pop culture allusions with a gothic aesthetic and feminist ethos. Her work has been compared to Marilyn Hacker’s, and Hail has received a generous advance blurb from Molly Peacock, who calls Oliver “Canada’s sublime formal poet.”
Poet in the community: Oliver holds an MFA from the Stonecoast MFA program in Portland, ME. She has appeared recently in readings with established American poets, including Kim Addonizio and Juan Felipe Herrera. A poem from her previous collection was selected by Tracy K. Smith in 2020 for her NPR podcast The Slowdown.
Widely published: Her work has appeared widely in Canadian literary journals and in Best Canadian Poetry and twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.