Sharon Olds (born November 19, 1942) is an American poet and author of eight volumes of poetry.

Life

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Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco. She was raised as a "hellfire Calvinist." After graduating from Stanford University she moved east to earn a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. Olds teaches creative writing at New York University. Olds has been the recipient of many awards including the San Francisco Poetry Center Award, the Lamont Poetry Prize, The National Books Critics Circle Award, and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

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