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William O'Daly

Goodreads Author

Born

Santa Monica, CA, The United States

Website

http://williamodaly.com

Genre

Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction

Member Since

September 2010

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William O’Daly was raised in the San Fernando Valley and as a late teen escaped the city on the backpacking trails of the southern Sierra Nevada. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, as an economics major but before the end of his freshman year began to study literature and write poetry. At UCSB he studied with poets Kenneth Rexroth, Alan Stephens, Fredrick Turner, and John Ridland, and with modernist critic Hugh Kenner; under friend and mentor Sam Hamill, he served as assistant editor of Spectrum magazine. In 1972 he left UCSB for Denver, Colorado, where he co-founded Copper Canyon Press. Upon returning to California, he studied with poet Philip Levine at CSU, Fresno, and there earned his B.A. He received his M.F.A. in William O’Daly was raised in the San Fernando Valley and as a late teen escaped the city on the backpacking trails of the southern Sierra Nevada. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, as an economics major but before the end of his freshman year began to study literature and write poetry. At UCSB he studied with poets Kenneth Rexroth, Alan Stephens, Fredrick Turner, and John Ridland, and with modernist critic Hugh Kenner; under friend and mentor Sam Hamill, he served as assistant editor of Spectrum magazine. In 1972 he left UCSB for Denver, Colorado, where he co-founded Copper Canyon Press. Upon returning to California, he studied with poet Philip Levine at CSU, Fresno, and there earned his B.A. He received his M.F.A. in Poetry, Translation, and Literary Editing from Eastern Washington University.

His published works include eight books of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (Still Another Day, The Separate Rose, Winter Garden, The Sea and the Bells, The Yellow Heart, The Book of Questions, The Hands of Day, and World’s End), and two chapbooks of his own poems, The Whale in the Web and The Road to Isla Negra, from Copper Canyon Press and Folded Word Press, respectively. As a finalist for the 2006 Quill Award in Poetry, he was profiled by NBC news correspondent Mike Leonard on The Today Show. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, his poems, translations, essays, and reviews have been published in a wide range of journals and anthologies. With co-author Han-ping Chin, he recently completed a historical novel, This Earthly Life, set amid the fascinating and deadly Chinese Cultural Revolution. This Earthly Life was selected as a “Finalist” in Narrative magazine’s 2009 Fall Story Contest.

Currently a resident of the Sierra foothills of northern California, he has worked as a college professor, a literary and technical editor and writer, and an instructional designer, and has received national and regional honors for literary editing and instructional design. ...more

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William O'Daly’s books

Average rating: 4.19 · 4,814 ratings · 550 reviews · 12 distinct works

	The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.01 avg rating — 4,490 ratings — published 1974 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sea and the Bells by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.24 avg rating — 679 ratings — published 1972 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Yellow Heart by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.89 avg rating — 541 ratings — published 1974 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Book of Twilight by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translation) 3.90 avg rating — 511 ratings — published 1923 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Winter Garden by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.96 avg rating — 409 ratings — published 1974 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Separate Rose by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.97 avg rating — 224 ratings — published 1973 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Still Another Day by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.86 avg rating — 209 ratings — published 1969 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Water Ways by William O'Daly (Goodreads Author), J.S. Graustein (Goodreads Author) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Road to Isla Negra by William O'Daly (Goodreads Author), Galen Garwood (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Yarrow and Smoke 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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All About Books: Still Another Day (XVIII) by Pablo Neruda / 22nd December 2014	14	56	Dec 29, 2014 08:43AM
The Reading For P...: Greg's Reading Corner	32	48	Jan 27, 2023 08:23AM
The Life of a Boo...: A to Z Authors	3981	1141	Dec 25, 2025 07:35AM

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