John Olson (born August 23, 1947 in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

) is an American poet and novelist. Olson has lived for many years in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. He has published eleven collections of poetry and five novels, including ''Souls of Wind'', nominated for the 2008

Believer Book Award Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by '' The Believer'' magazine to novels and story collections, nonfiction books or essay collections, poetry collections, and, beginning in 2021 (awarding to books published in 2020) ...

. In 2004, Seattle's weekly newspaper, '' The Stranger'', for whom he has written occasional essays, gave Olson one of its annual "genius awards." His writing notebooks have been exhibited at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Olson's

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

has been reviewed in print and online poetry magazines. The poet

Philip Lamantia Philip Lamantia (October 23, 1927 – March 7, 2005) was an American poet and lecturer. His poems were often visionary, ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic, exploring the subconscious world of dreams and linking it to daily experiences, while so ...

said that Olson was "extraordinary...the greatest prose poetry

've A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations ...

ever read." and

Clayton Eshleman Clayton Eshleman (June 1, 1935 – January 29/30, 2021) was an American poet, translator, and editor, noted in particular for his translations of César Vallejo and his studies of cave painting and the Paleolithic imagination. Eshleman's work has ...

said "he is writing the most outlandish, strange, and inventive prose poetry ever in the history of the prose poem."

Bibliography

Poetry * ''Weave of the Dream King'' (Boston: Black Widow Press, 2021) * ''Dada Budapest'' (Boston: Black Widow Press, 2017) * ''Larynx Galaxy'' (Boston: Black Widow Press, 2012) * ''Backscatter: New and Selected Poems'' (Boston: Black Widow Press, 2008)] * ''The Night I Dropped Shakespeare On The Cat'' (New York: Calamari Press, 2006) * ''Oxbow Kazoo'' (Lawrence, Kansas: First Intensity Press, 2005) * ''Free Stream Velocity'' (New York: Black Square Editions, 2003) * ''Echo Regime'' (New York: Black Square Editions, 2000) (lineated poetry) * ''Logo Lagoon'' (San Diego: Paper Brain Press, 1999) * ''Eggs & Mirrors'' (Seattle: Wood Works Press, 1999) * ''Swarm of Edges'' (Seattle: bcc press, 1996) Fiction * ''Mingled Yarn'' (Ekstatsis Editions, 2020) * ''In Advance of the Broken Justy'' (Quale Press, 2016) *''The Seeing Machine'' (Quale Press, 2012) *''The Nothing That Is'' (Ravenna Press, 2010) *''Souls of Wind'' (Quale Press, 2008) Essays * ''Strange Matter: The physics and poetics of the search for the God particle,'' published online by The American Scholar, December 1, 2009. * "A Garden in the Pocket", published online by "the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica" * "Extreme Reading", published online by "the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica" * "Gutenberg Blues", published online by "the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica" * "Lightning on Paper: Poetry Is The Drug Of Choice" The Stranger, Oct 19–Oct 25, 2000 issue

References

External links

''Tillalala Chronicles''
(Olson's blog) {{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, John American male poets Surrealist poets Living people 1947 births Writers from Minneapolis