John Olson (writer)

John Olson (born August 23, 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American poet and novelist. Olson has lived for many years in Seattle, Washington. He has published eleven collections of poetry and five novels, including Souls of Wind, nominated for the 2008 Believer Book Award. 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. Olson's prose poetry has been reviewed in print and online poetry magazines. The poet Philip Lamantia said that Olson was "extraordinary...the greatest prose poetry [i've] ever read." and Clayton Eshleman said "he is writing the most outlandish, strange, and inventive prose poetry ever in the history of the prose poem."