Pre-order
1
of
1
Owls and Other Fantasies
Brief Description
Coming down out of the freezing sky with its depths of light, like an angel, or a buddha with wings, it was beautiful and accurate. -from 'White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field' Mary Oliver's Owls and Other Fantasies brings together twenty-six of the...
Read More
Format: Hardback
$2999
$3499
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Pre-order
Releases
6th
October 2026
(Approx. Date)
Pre-order "Owls and Other Fantasies" now to secure your copy from our first shipment
Found a better price? Request a price match
Owls and Other Fantasies
$2999
$3499
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
New Hero Alert! Meet Theresa – our new Warehouse Sidekick
We’re thrilled to welcome Theresa to the Book Hero team! Whenever we bring a new...
Our Rolife Range Is Getting Even Bigger!
Our Rolife range is getting even bigger! We’ve got a huge new shipment on the...
How to Make 1000 Piece Puzzles Easier
1000 piece puzzles can seem a little intimidating, but a few simple tricks can make...
Pick up a Microhistory (and become a very niche expert)
If you've seen people talking about a book about Salt and wondered what was happening...
Lizzy's August Reading
Book Hero team member Lizzy is rounding up her reads for August! Check out what...
See moreMary Oliver's classic collection, newly published in a beautiful hardback edition: a perfect gift for Oliver's longtime readers and for a fresh generation to discover the beauty and solace of one of the world's most beloved poets.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Coming down out of the freezing sky with its depths of light, like an angel, or a buddha with wings, it was beautiful and accurate.
-from 'White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field'
Mary Oliver's Owls and Other Fantasies brings together twenty-six of the Pulitzer Prize-winner's poems about the birds that played such an important role in her life. Here are hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows, and the snowy owl, among others.
Unique to this collection are two beautifully crafted essays: 'Owls,' selected for the Best American Essays series, and 'Bird,' an essay of resilience that takes its place among the classics of the genre.
In the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, 'Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.'
For anyone who values poetry and essays, for anyone who cares about birds, Owls and Other Fantasies will be a treasured gift; for those who love both, it will be essential reading.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781472160935
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 08 October 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Corsair
Illustration: 11 b/w illustrations of feathers
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 22.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 204.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 80
About the Author
Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1962 at the age of twenty-eight. Over the course of her long career, she wrote more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, as well as two essay collections, and received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. Mary Oliver died in 2019.
Also by Mary Oliver
View all-
Devotions
New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah's 'Books That Help Me Through' for Oprah's Book Club Chosen by Poetry Book Society as their special commendation 'No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important,...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
A Thousand Mornings
I go down to the shore in the morning and depending on the hour the waves are rolling in or moving out, and I say, oh, I am miserable, what shall - what should I do? And the sea says in its lovely voice: Excuse me, I have work to do. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New and Selected Poems, Volume One
Mary Oliver was awarded the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems, Volume One. Since its initial appearance, it has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry in the country. This collection features thirty poems published only in this volume as well as selections from the poet's first eight books. Mary Oliver's perceptive, brilliantly crafted poems about the...Paperback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
20% offA Poetry Handbook
With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver explains the basic ways a poem is built—meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space. A Poetry Handbook is a master class in writing and...Paperback$2800Usually:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Blue Horses
Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us. In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life's work. Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a...Paperback$2199Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Felicity
And just like that, like a simpleneighbourhood event, a miracle istaking place. "If I have any secret stash of poems, anywhere, it might be about love, not anger," Mary Oliver once said in an interview. Finally, in Felicity, we can immerse ourselves in Oliver's love poems. Here, great happiness abounds. Our most delicate chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver has described...Paperback$2199Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
West Wind
The New York Times has called Mary Oliver's poems "thoroughly convincing—as genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring." In this stunning collection of forty poems—nineteen previously unpublished—she writes of nature and love, of the way they transform over time. And the way they remain constant. And what did you think love would be like? A summer...Paperback$4700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Goldfinches
Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet gorgeously illustrates the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver for the first time in picture book form. Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet gorgeously illustrates the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver for the first time in picture book form. Have you heard them singing in the wind, above the final fields? Have you ever been...Hardback$3600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Long Life
"Poets must read and study, but also they must learn to tilt and whisper, shout, or dance, each in his or her own way, or we might just as well copy the old books. But, no, that would never do, for always the new self swimming around in the old world feels itself uniquely verbal. And that is just the...Paperback$5000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Little Alleluias
A curated compendium of poetry and prose from the award-winning poet Mary Oliver, including the book-length masterpiece The Leaf and the Cloud, the collection What Do We Know, and essays from Long Life — with a foreword by fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Postcolonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz. For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's breathtaking poetry of touch and...Paperback$6100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Selected Poems
A luminous tour through the poems of one of nature's most brilliant and devoted observers. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I...Paperback$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Dog Songs
'The popularity of Dog Songs feels as inevitable and welcome as a wagging tail upon homecoming' Boston Globe In Dog Songs, Mary Oliver celebrates the special bond between human and dog, as understood through her connection to the dogs who across the years accompanied her on her daily walks, warmed her home and inspired her work. The poems in Dog...HardbackSold Out
More from Arts & Culture
View all-
Dylan's PickBold Types
A tribute to 32 truly independent bookshops throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, from north of Auckland down to Dunedin, and coast to coast. Jane Ussher's photographs show every bookstore in its unique nature - including behind the counter, smoko rooms, the mess which tells the hardworking story behind the joy of matching books with customers. Jemma Moreira's careful editing has crafted...Hardback$5999Elsewhere:$7000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseHome Again
Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseDisney Moana: The Official Cookbook
Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far you’ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$5299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Did I Ever Tell You This?
In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his...Paperback$3799Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
This Angry Pen of Mine
This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...Hardback$7299Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
They Bloom Because of You
Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Odyssey
Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage and family; about travellers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative....Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
14% offLeaves of Grass
A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...Hardback$1900Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
37% offGreat Writers and the Cats who Owned Them
Throughout history, cats and writers have bonded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship and inspiration. The famous authors featured here range from Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, and Edward Lear, whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Margaret Mitchell, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy L. Sayers, who rescued her kitten Blitz from...Hardback$2500Usually:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Beautiful Chaos
The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Odyssey
The Odyssey by Homer is a monumental epic that has enthralled readers for centuries with its rich tapestry of adventure and human struggle. It chronicles the perilous journey of Odysseus, the cunning King of Ithaca, as he strives to return home after the fall of Troy. During this ten-year odyssey, Odysseus confronts myriad dangers, both natural and supernatural, that test...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Odyssey
The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles. A Penguin Classic Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the...Paperback$3500Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Arts & Culture lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listArts & Culture
Poetry of Aotearoa
Check out some of the amazing local talent we are spoilt with right here in Aotearoa.View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listArts & Culture
Poetry for Beginners - Where to Start
10 Books I'd recommend to someone new to reading poetry - a mix of old and new, all magical introductions to the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listArts & Culture
Lizzy's Favourite Books of Poetry
If I could only have 10 poetry collections to survive on for the rest of my life, these are them. Or maybe...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listArts & Culture
Books to read for Women in Translation month!
August is Women in Translation month, but at any time of year it's worth checking out these incredible novels written by women...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listArts & Culture
Inside the World of Film
Step behind the scenes of the world of filmmaking! Discover iconic directors and movie history of some of the world's memorable films.View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listArts & Culture
Books to Celebrate NZ Music Month
New Zealand Music Month happens every May, it's a reminder that we have so many talented musicians, singer, songwriters here in Aotearoa....View the list
