Lance Olsen is author of more than 30 books of and about innovative writing, including, most recently, the novels My Red Heaven (Dzanc, 2020) and Skin Elegies (Dzanc, 2021). His short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, such as Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review, Fiction International, Village Voice, BOMB, McSweeney’s, and Best American Non-Required Reading. A Guggenheim, Berlin Prize, D.A.A.D. Artist-in-Berlin Residency, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, Pushcart Prize, and two-time N.E.A. Fellowship recipient, as well as a Fulbright Scholar (Finland), he teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah.
interviews
vita
education
Ph.D., Modern & Postmodern Literature,
University of Virginia, 1985.
M.A., Literature,
University of Virginia, 1982.
M.F.A., Fiction Writing,
Writers’ Workshop, University of Iowa, 1980.
B.A., English and Journalism (Honors),
University of Wisconsin, 1978.
novels
Skin Elegies (Ann Arbor, MI: Dzanc Books, 2021).
My Red Heaven (Ann Arbor, MI: Dzanc Books, 2020).
Dreamlives of Debris (Ann Arbor, MI: Dzanc Books, 2017).
There’s No Place Like Time: A Retrospective (Lake Forest, IL: &Now Books, 2016).
Theories of Forgetting (Tuscaloosa, AL: Fiction Collective Two, 2014).
Calendar of Regrets (Tuscaloosa, AL: Fiction Collective Two, 2010).
Head in Flames (Portland, OR: Chiasmus Press, 2009).
Anxious Pleasures (Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007).
Nietzsche’s Kisses (Tallahassee, FL: Fiction Collective Two, 2006).
10:01 (print version: Portland, OR: Chiasmus Press, 2005; hypermedia version: Iowa Revew Web 7.2 November 2005).
Girl Imagined by Chance (Tallahassee, FL: Fiction Collective Two, 2002).
Freaknest (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 2000).
Time Famine (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press, 1996).
Burnt (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 1996).
Tonguing the Zeitgeist (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press,1994).
Live from Earth (NY: Available Press/Ballantine Books,1991).
anti-textbooks
Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing (Washington, D.C.: Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2012).
Rebel Yell: Writing Fiction (San Jose: Cambrian Press, 1998).
nonfiction
[[ there. ]] (Fort Wayne, IN: Anti-Oedipus Press, 2014).
In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop, co-edited with Mark Amerika (SDSU Press, 1995).
Lolita: A Janus Text (NY: Twayne, 1995).
Surfing Tomorrow: Essays on the Future of American Fiction (Prairie Village: Potpourri, 1995), editor.
William Gibson (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1992).
Circus of the Mind in Motion: Postmodernism and the Comic Vision (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990).
Ellipse of Uncertainty: An Introduction to Postmodern Fantasy (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987).
short story collections
How to Unfeel the Dead: New & Selected Fictions (Toronto: Teksteditions, 2014).
Hideous Beauties (Portland, OR: Eraserhead, 2003).
Sewing Shut My Eyes (Normal/Tallahassee: Fiction Collective Two/Black Ice, 2000).
Scherzi, I Believe (La Grande, OR: Wordcraft, 1994).
My Dates With Franz (Amherst, MA: Bluestone Press, 1993).
poetry chapbook
Natural Selections, co-authored with Jeff Worley (Galloway Township, NJ: Still Waters Press, 1993).
fiction
Over 100 short stories in Iowa Review, Fiction International, The Literary Review, various anthologies, etc.; translated into Italian, Finnish, and Polish.
poetry
Over 30 poems in Willow Springs, DoubleTake, Alaska Quarterly, etc.
essays
Over 80 essays in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Bloomsbury Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Modern Fiction Studies, Village Voice, various anthologies, etc.
reviews
Over 100 reviews in Time Out New York, American Book Review, Electronic Book Review, Postmodern Culture, etc.
presentations
200+ readings and presentations in Berlin, London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, etc.
recognition, etc.
N.E.A. Fellowship, 2020; Artist-in-Berlin Grant, 2015-16; Mary Ellen von der Heyden Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy, 2013; Mellon International Visiting Senior Scholar, Rhodes University, South Africa, 2013; Guggenheim Fellowship, 2012; N.E.A. Fellowship, 2006; Science Fiction Research Association Pioneer Award, 2003; Chair of Board of Directors at Fiction Collective Two, 2002-2018; Fulbright in Finland, 2000; Idaho State Writer-in-Residence, 1996-1998; Pushcart Prize, 1998; Finalist for 1995 Philip K. Dick Award; etc.
teaching experience
2007-Present:
University of Utah
Professor
Department of English, Creative Writing Program
1996-2001:
University of Idaho
Professor
Department of English, Creative Writing Program
1990-1996:
University of Idaho
Associate Professor (with tenure)
1985-1990:
University of Kentucky
Assistant Professor
1981-1985:
University of Virginia
Instructor
1979-1980:
University of Iowa
Instructor