Lisa Olstein

Lisa Olstein received a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Olstein is the author of five books of poetry including Dream Apartment (Copper Canyon Press, 2023); Late Empire (Copper Canyon Press, 2017); Little Stranger (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), a Lannan Literary Selection; Lost Alphabet (Copper Canyon Press 2009), a Library Journal best book of the year selection; and Radio Crackling, Radio Gone (Copper Canyon Press, 2006), winner of the Hayden Carruth Award. She is also the author of two books of prose: Pain Studies (Bellevue Literary Press, 2020) and Climate (Essay Press, 2022) with Julie Carr.

Of Olstein’s work, C. D. Wright says, “The poems appear straightforward to the eye, and then familiar to the ear. It is the content that jars. It is the quick, compact, exacting delivery that destabilizes the reading.”

Among Olstein’s honors and awards are a Lannan Literary Residency, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize.

A cofounder of the Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts & Action, Olstein is also the lyricist for the rock band Cold Satellite, an associate editor for Tupelo Quarterly, a contributing editor for jubilat, and an advisor for Bat City Review. She teaches in the New Writers Project and at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin and lives in Austin.