Sharon Olds was born in San Francisco and educated at Stanford and Columbia universities. Her books include Blood, Tin, Straw; The Dead and the Living; The Father; The Gold Cell; and The Wellspring.
Ms. Olds teaches at New York University and helps run its writing workshop program at Goldwater Hospital, a public facility for the severely physically challenged. Ms. Olds served as the New York State Poet Laureate from 1998 to 2000.