Lance Olsen
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| Born | October 15, 1956 New Jersey, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Writer, Professor |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genres | Novel, Short Story, Criticism |
| Spouse(s) | Andi Olsen (1981-Present) |
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[[1] [2]] |
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Lance Olsen is an American postmodern writer.
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[edit] Biography
Lance Olsen (born 14 October 1956; New Jersey) received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1978, honors, Phi Beta Kappa), an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (1980), and an M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1985) from the University of Virginia. For ten years he taught as associate and then full professor at the University of Idaho; for two he directed the University of Idaho's M.F.A. program. He has also taught at the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia, the University of Kentucky, on summer and semester-abroad programs in Oxford and London, on a Fulbright in Finland, and at various writing conferences. Currently he teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah [1] and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at FC2, or Fiction Collective Two;[2] founded in 1974, FC2 is one of America's best-known ongoing literary experiments and progressive art communities. He is Fiction Editor at Western Humanities Review.[3]
[edit] Writing
Olsen is author of ten novels, one hypermedia text, four critical studies, four short-story collections, a poetry chapbook, and a textbook about fiction writing, as well as editor of two collections of essays about innovative contemporary fiction. His short stories, essays, poems, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Conjunctions, Fiction International, Iowa Review, Village Voice, Time Out New York, BOMB, Hotel Amerika, and Best American Non-Required Reading.
He is an N.E.A. fellowship and Pushcart Prize recipient,[4] and was the governor-appointed Idaho Writer-in-Residence from 1996-1998.[5] His novel Tonguing the Zeitgeist (Permeable Press,1994) was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and his work has been translated into Italian, Polish, Turkish, and Finnish.
The hypertext version of his novel 10:01, created in collaboration with multimedia artist Tim S. Guthrie, was published by the Iowa Review Web in 2005 and included in the Electronic Literature Organization Collection.
Lance Olsen’s story “News Feed| Status Updates| Photos| Posted Items| Live Feed” won an &NOW award in 2009 and was published in The &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Writing.[6] Olsen is also a regular participant in the biennial &NOW festival, a celebration of experimental and innovative writing.[7]
Olsen's wife, assemblage-artist Andi Olsen, and he divide their time between the mountains of central Idaho and Salt Lake City.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Live from Earth (NY: Available Press/Ballantine Books,1991)
- Tonguing the Zeitgeist (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press,1994)
- Burnt (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 1996)
- Time Famine (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press, 1996)
- Freaknest (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 2000)
- Girl Imagined by Chance (Tallahassee, FL: Fiction Collective Two, 2002)
- 10:01 (print version: Portland, OR: Chiasmus Press, 2005; hypermedia version: Iowa Review Web 7.2 November 2005)
- Nietzsche's Kisses (Tallahassee, FL: Fiction Collective Two, 2006)
- Anxious Pleasures: A Novel After Kafka (Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007)
- Head in Flames (Portland, OR: Chiasmus, 2009)
- Calendar of Regrets (Tuscaloosa, AL: Fiction Collective Two, 2010)
[edit] Textbook
- Rebel Yell: Writing Fiction (San Jose: Cambrian Press, 1998)
[edit] Critical Studies
- Ellipse of Uncertainty: An Introduction to Postmodern Fantasy (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987)
- Circus of the Mind in Motion: Postmodernism and the Comic Vision (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990)
- William Gibson (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1992)
- Surfing Tomorrow: Essays on the Future of American Fiction (Prairie Village: Potpourri, 1995), editor
- Lolita: A Janus Text (NY: Twayne, 1995)
- In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop, co-edited with Mark Amerika (SDSU Press, 1995)
[edit] Short Story Collections
- My Dates With Franz (Amherst, MA: Bluestone Press, 1993)
- Scherzi, I Believe (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 1994)
- Sewing Shut My Eyes (Normal/Tallahassee: Fiction Collective Two/Black Ice, 2000)
- Hideous Beauties (Portland, OR: Eraserhead, 2003)
[edit] External links
- Interview (2010) with Lance Olsen about Head in Flames with Rain Taxi
- Interview (2008) with Lance Olsen on the FC2 Blog
- Interview (2006) with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche's Kisses, by The Nietzsche Circle
- Interview (2003) with Lance Olsen about Girl Imagined by Chance and Hideous Beauties with FlashPoint
[edit] References
- ^ University of Utah
- ^ Fiction Collective 2
- ^ Western Humanities Review
- ^ "UI PROFESSOR HONORED WITH PUSHCART PRIZE". The Spokesman Review. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-27241568.html. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
- ^ Lewis, Chris. "Gem State Laurels". Idaho Center for the Book newsletter. http://lili.org/icb/newsletter/ICB-NewsletterOctober2008.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
- ^ The &NOW AWARDS: The Best Innovative Writing (Volume 1)
- ^ &NOW Festival
