Mary Oliver: Saved By the Beauty of the World Film Screening
Join us at Two Frays Brewery on Thursday, October 8th for the Pittsburgh premiere of Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, a film by Sasha Waters. Before the film, three local poets and writers share nature-inspired readings of their own or Mary Oliver's.
Originally from Northeastern Ohio, Mary (the unofficial woods whisperer) visited Pittsburgh in November 1979 to participate in the International Poetry Forum alongside Howard Moss, longtime poetry editor of New Yorker magazine. Oliver read from her new book, TWELVE MOONS (1979), to an audience of students and Pittsburgh locals in Carnegie Lecture Hall.
Film co-presented by Allegheny Sport & Outdoor and the International Poetry Forum.
Schedule
6pm Social Hour
630pm Intro and Readings
7pm Film Begins
** Books will be available from local authors and magazines from ASO**
Readings from Local Writers and Poets
Andrew Moore - author, journalist and public speaker. The author of Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit, which was a James Beard Foundation Award nominee in Writing & Literature. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Daily Yonder. His most recent book, The Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness, was published by Mariner Books in June 2026.
Ryan Walsh - naturalist, teacher and poet. Author of the poetry collection, Reckonings by Baobab Press. He is a frequent walker in the woods of Frick Park.
Erin Frankel - author of Mary Oliver, Holding On to Wonder book, which was recently awarded the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Book Award honor.
Film Synopsis
If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Celebrated bestseller, Pulitzer Prize winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, openly queer but intensely private, Oliver was America’s unlikely contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly 50 years in order to open herself – and her readers – to the known and unknowable world. From a lonely childhood to literary fame, Oliver’s life was shaped by devotion to nature, paying attention, and the long journey toward learning to love and to be loved. Her poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites, speaking directly to contemporary anxieties about attention, presence, and the human relationship with the natural world – issues that feel especially pressing in an era of climate crisis, digital distraction, and social fragmentation. Featuring interviews with her close friends, including John Waters, never-before-seen personal photos, notebooks, and correspondence from her archive, and recitations of her work by Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Steve Buscemi, and Oprah Winfrey, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World considers the poet’s long lifetime of work in context, capturing the uniqueness of her world and the natural beauty that inspired her.