Toby Olson (born 1937

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

) is an American novelist and winner of the 1983

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of ...

Life

Through high school and his four years in the Navy as a surgical technician, he lived in California, Arizona, and Texas. He graduated from

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...

and

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

. He co-founded and taught at the Aspen Writers' Workshop, and at

and

The New School For Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

, and since 1975

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

. Recently, he has collaborated with composer

Paul Epstein Paul Epstein (July 24, 1871 – August 11, 1939) was a German mathematician. He was known for his contributions to number theory, in particular the Epstein zeta function. Epstein was born and brought up in Frankfurt, where his father was a ...

, including chamber music, songs, a short story set for voice and piano, and two chamber operas, ''Dorit'', and ''Chihuahua''. Both operas were performed by the

Opera Theater. He lives in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and North Truro, on Cape Cod.

Awards

* 1983

PEN/Faulkner Award The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of ...

, for ''

Seaview Seaview or Sea View may refer to: Places * Clifton Beach, Karachi, also known as Sea View, a beach in Pakistan * Sea View, Dorset, a suburb in England * Seaview, Isle of Wight, a small village in England * Seaview, Lower Hutt, an industrial subur ...

'' * 1985

Guggenheim Fellowships Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

* 2015

Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards The Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards were established to honor the legacy of the founder of the Viscardi Center, Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr., a leading disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to ...

* Rockefeller Foundations * National Endowment for the Arts

Works

Novels

* * * * * * ''Utah'' * * * * * ''The Bitter Half''. * ''Tampico''.

Poetry

* ''The Wrestlers & other poems''. Barlenmir House, 1984 * * *

References

External links

"Toby Olson", ''Shearsman Books''Toby Olson letters to Carl Thayler collection
held b
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Toby 1937 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Occidental College alumni Long Island University alumni Long Island University faculty The New School faculty 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American male poets PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Pennsylvania