John Olson

Books by John Olson

Backscatter: New and Selected Poems

by John Olson

Black Widow Press, 2008.

Souls of Wind

by John Olson

Quale Press, 2008.

The Night I Dropped Shakespeare on th...

by John Olson

Calamari Press, 2006.

Free Stream Velocity

by John Olson

Black Square Editions, 2003.

Oxbow Kazoo

by John Olson

First Intensity Press, 2005.

About Me

I began writing poetry seriously, with passion and commitment, and not a trifling amount of delirium, circa 1966. Le bateau ivre, by Arthur Rimbaud, was my Rubicon. No turning back. Ironic. Considering that Rimbaud stopped writing at age 21. But that's another story. You can read about it in my novel Souls Of Wind. Which is a false story, but a true story, and a riproaring adventure.

I am married to a poet, Roberta Olson, and we live with a cat named Toby who loves high-protein treats, sleeping, watching squirrels, lying on my lap, and chewing my hand.

At this current time, I worry greatly for the welfare of our planet. Human consciousness baffles me.

Why do you write?

I have no idea why I write. Fewer and fewer people seem to read. I write from compulsion. I am driven to write. It is a joy in the moment. A frustration when I try to get it to the public.

Any favorite authors? Books?

Proust, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, Breton, Bachelard, Royet-Journod, Tzara, Shakespeare, Whitman, Dickinson, McClure, Dylan, Michaux, Lamantia, Barthes, Derrida, Thoreau, Emerson, Reverdy, Apollinaire, Cendrar, Roussel, Ponge, Ashbery, Padgett, Koch, O'Hara. And Gertrude Stein.

À la recherche du temps perdu, Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Tender Buttons, Le Pére Goriot, Le parti pris des choses, Poisson soluble, Anthologie de l'humour noir, Maldoror, Montaigne Essais, Manifestes du surréalisme, Impressions d'Afrique, Les champs magnétiques, The Selected Letters of John Keats, Shakespeare's plays, The Cantos of Ezra Pound, The Maximus Poems, The Dada Painters and Poets.