Lisa Olstein

Lisa Olstein is the author of five poetry collections published by Copper Canyon Press: Radio Crackling, Radio Gone (2006), Lost Alphabet (2009), Little Stranger (2013), Late Empire (2017), Dream Apartment (2023), and Distinguished Office of Echoes (forthcoming 2025). Her nonfiction books include Pain Studies (Bellevue Literary Press/Dreamscape/Hanser 2020), a book-length lyric essay exploring the intersection of pain, perception, and language; and Climate (Essay Press 2022), an exchange of epistolary essays with the poet Julie Carr. Olstein is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lannan Residency Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, Hayden Carruth Award, Sustainable Arts Award, Writers League of Texas Book Award, and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, among other awards. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and periodicals including The Nation, A Public Space, PBS News Hour, and The Slowdown. She is a member of the poetry faculty at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches in the New Writers Project and Michener Center MFA programs. She is also the lyricist for the rock band Cold Satellite, fronted by acclaimed songwriter Jeffrey Foucault, and serves as an associate editor at Tupelo Quarterly where she curates an interview series with poets about their new books. Previously, she co-founded and for ten years directed the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she also served as associate director of the MFA program. Olstein earned a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, undertaking additional studies at the Aegean Center for Fine Arts and Harvard Divinity School.