David Olsen is the author of five full-length poetry collections published in Britain, and four chapbooks published in the United States. Unfolding Origami (2015) won the Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award. Past Imperfect (2019), is also from Cinnamon Press. After Hopper & Lange (2021) is from Oversteps Books. Nocturnes (2021) and The Lost Language of Shadows (2022) are from Dempsey & Windle.
David's fourth poetry chapbook, Exit Wounds, (2019) is from Finishing Line Press, publisher of his second and third chapbooks, Sailing to
Atlantis (2013) and New World Elegies (2011). His Greatest Hits (2001) is among the volumes in the Greatest Hits invitational series of
poetry chapbooks from Pudding Publications.
David’s work has appeared in dozens of British and American anthologies and literary journals. Since 2008 he has placed work in Britain’s Acumen, Magma,
Envoi, Poetry News, Dream Catcher, The Interpreter’s House, Orbis, Prole, South, Frogmore Papers, Ink Sweat & Tears, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, London Journal
of Fiction, Lunar Poetry, The Journal, Proletarian Poetry, Assent, Northampton Poetry Review, International Times, SAW Poetry, Poetry Nottingham, Oxford Magazine,
The Dawntreader, Gold Dust, The Stare's Nest, Morphrog, and several anthologies, including six from Cinnamon Press, two from Templar Poetry, three from Albion
Beatnik, and one each from BelgravePress, Writing Magazine, Babel, The Poetry Kit, and the University of London’s Human Rights Consortium.
Since 2012 he has placed poems in Blueline, Lunch Ticket, Vermont Literary Review, Pedestal, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Turtle Island Quarterly, The Aurorean, Pinyon, Pilgrimage, California State Poetry Society Poetry Letter, Plath Profiles, Strong Voices, Touch: The Journal of Healing, The Lake, Bohemian Renaissance, Months to Years, Scintilla, Ash & Bones, Poetry and Business, Devilfish Review, Cyclamens and Swords, Pyrokinection, District Lit, Winning Writers Newsletter, and anthologies from Main Street Rag (2), Concrete Wolf, Mutabilis, WaterWood, Blue Lyra, Origami Poems Project, Origami Poems Project, San Francisco Peace and Hope (2), Kind of a Hurricane Press (3), and Medusa's Laugh Press (US); Salzburg Poetry Review (Austria); The French Literary Review and Paris Lit Up (both France); ROPES (Ireland); The Deronda Review (Israel/US); and anthologies from Voices Israel (Israel/US) and Sense (Netherlands).
In 1998 he was the only living North American anthologized in The Literature of Poverty at the World Bank’s internet website.
His poems, plays and stories have earned recognition in more than 50 literary competitions in North America and UK. In 1990 David became the
fourth recipient (in 11 years) of the Daly City Arts Commission trophy for excellence in poetry. Since 2008 David’s poems have won UK competitions
sponsored by Cinnamon Press, Writing Magazine and the Deddington Festival, and earned commendations from Cinnamon Press, the Bedford Prize,
Nottingham Open, Newark Poetry Society, Yeovil Literary Prize, and Cannon Poets.
David has twice read by invitation at the Derwent Poetry Festival and once in London, Reading, Northampton, Ludlow, Upper Heyford, and performs about six times per year at charity benefits and other readings in Oxford in such diverse venues as the Ashmolean Museum, Blackwell's, Friends Meeting House, Art Jericho,
Albion Beatnik Bookshop, the Vaults and Gardens, Turrill Sculpture Garden, St Margaret's Institute, and the Gardeners Arms.
A musical setting of “Winter Worry” by Cambridge composer Kate Waring was first performed by Jessica Lawrence-Hares in the Fitzwilliam Museum
and Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 2009, and elsewhere in Cambridge in 2013.
An Irish play, Two Roses, was described as “a superior piece of theatre … beautifully rendered” in a review of a 1992 professional equity production in
Los Angeles. An expanded version earned commendation in a competition sponsored by the Oxford Playhouse in 2009. Twelve other plays have been
performed or read before paying audiences in the Oxford Fringe Festival and other theatrical events in Oxford, San Francisco, Sutton Coldfield,
and Easton, Pennsylvania. His stories have been broadcast on BBC Oxford and published in anthologies and literary magazines. See
http://e-voice.org.uk/oxfordplaywrights/profiles/copy-of-profiles-2-2/
Before moving to Oxford in 2002, he contributed 120 editorial-page essays and pieces of performing arts criticism to a Massachusetts newspaper.
Formerly Manager of Energy Market Research at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), he is author of more than two dozen major
research reports, technical papers, and articles, principally on energy economics. He was also a Senior Staff Writer/Editor with LSI Logic.
He taught writing at De Anza College and graduate courses in marketing at Golden Gate University. As a National Merit Finalist and U.C. Regents Scholar,
David earned a BA in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University,
and an MBA in management from Golden Gate University.
A victim of childhood polio and disabled by CFS/ME in adulthood, he was formerly a polymer technologist, energy economist, management consultant,
and performing arts critic.
A member of Writers in Oxford, Back Room Poets, the Poetry Society, Oxford Stanza, and organizer of Oxford Cafe Poets and co-host of White Horse Poets, David is listed in The International Who's Who in Poetry, and as a poet and fiction writer in The Directory of Writers. David's profile appears in The Directory of Poets &
Writers at the following address: www.pw.org/content/david_olsen.
David's fourth poetry chapbook, Exit Wounds, (2019) is from Finishing Line Press, publisher of his second and third chapbooks, Sailing to
Atlantis (2013) and New World Elegies (2011). His Greatest Hits (2001) is among the volumes in the Greatest Hits invitational series of
poetry chapbooks from Pudding Publications.
David’s work has appeared in dozens of British and American anthologies and literary journals. Since 2008 he has placed work in Britain’s Acumen, Magma,
Envoi, Poetry News, Dream Catcher, The Interpreter’s House, Orbis, Prole, South, Frogmore Papers, Ink Sweat & Tears, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, London Journal
of Fiction, Lunar Poetry, The Journal, Proletarian Poetry, Assent, Northampton Poetry Review, International Times, SAW Poetry, Poetry Nottingham, Oxford Magazine,
The Dawntreader, Gold Dust, The Stare's Nest, Morphrog, and several anthologies, including six from Cinnamon Press, two from Templar Poetry, three from Albion
Beatnik, and one each from BelgravePress, Writing Magazine, Babel, The Poetry Kit, and the University of London’s Human Rights Consortium.
Since 2012 he has placed poems in Blueline, Lunch Ticket, Vermont Literary Review, Pedestal, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Turtle Island Quarterly, The Aurorean, Pinyon, Pilgrimage, California State Poetry Society Poetry Letter, Plath Profiles, Strong Voices, Touch: The Journal of Healing, The Lake, Bohemian Renaissance, Months to Years, Scintilla, Ash & Bones, Poetry and Business, Devilfish Review, Cyclamens and Swords, Pyrokinection, District Lit, Winning Writers Newsletter, and anthologies from Main Street Rag (2), Concrete Wolf, Mutabilis, WaterWood, Blue Lyra, Origami Poems Project, Origami Poems Project, San Francisco Peace and Hope (2), Kind of a Hurricane Press (3), and Medusa's Laugh Press (US); Salzburg Poetry Review (Austria); The French Literary Review and Paris Lit Up (both France); ROPES (Ireland); The Deronda Review (Israel/US); and anthologies from Voices Israel (Israel/US) and Sense (Netherlands).
In 1998 he was the only living North American anthologized in The Literature of Poverty at the World Bank’s internet website.
His poems, plays and stories have earned recognition in more than 50 literary competitions in North America and UK. In 1990 David became the
fourth recipient (in 11 years) of the Daly City Arts Commission trophy for excellence in poetry. Since 2008 David’s poems have won UK competitions
sponsored by Cinnamon Press, Writing Magazine and the Deddington Festival, and earned commendations from Cinnamon Press, the Bedford Prize,
Nottingham Open, Newark Poetry Society, Yeovil Literary Prize, and Cannon Poets.
David has twice read by invitation at the Derwent Poetry Festival and once in London, Reading, Northampton, Ludlow, Upper Heyford, and performs about six times per year at charity benefits and other readings in Oxford in such diverse venues as the Ashmolean Museum, Blackwell's, Friends Meeting House, Art Jericho,
Albion Beatnik Bookshop, the Vaults and Gardens, Turrill Sculpture Garden, St Margaret's Institute, and the Gardeners Arms.
A musical setting of “Winter Worry” by Cambridge composer Kate Waring was first performed by Jessica Lawrence-Hares in the Fitzwilliam Museum
and Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 2009, and elsewhere in Cambridge in 2013.
An Irish play, Two Roses, was described as “a superior piece of theatre … beautifully rendered” in a review of a 1992 professional equity production in
Los Angeles. An expanded version earned commendation in a competition sponsored by the Oxford Playhouse in 2009. Twelve other plays have been
performed or read before paying audiences in the Oxford Fringe Festival and other theatrical events in Oxford, San Francisco, Sutton Coldfield,
and Easton, Pennsylvania. His stories have been broadcast on BBC Oxford and published in anthologies and literary magazines. See
http://e-voice.org.uk/oxfordplaywrights/profiles/copy-of-profiles-2-2/
Before moving to Oxford in 2002, he contributed 120 editorial-page essays and pieces of performing arts criticism to a Massachusetts newspaper.
Formerly Manager of Energy Market Research at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), he is author of more than two dozen major
research reports, technical papers, and articles, principally on energy economics. He was also a Senior Staff Writer/Editor with LSI Logic.
He taught writing at De Anza College and graduate courses in marketing at Golden Gate University. As a National Merit Finalist and U.C. Regents Scholar,
David earned a BA in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University,
and an MBA in management from Golden Gate University.
A victim of childhood polio and disabled by CFS/ME in adulthood, he was formerly a polymer technologist, energy economist, management consultant,
and performing arts critic.
A member of Writers in Oxford, Back Room Poets, the Poetry Society, Oxford Stanza, and organizer of Oxford Cafe Poets and co-host of White Horse Poets, David is listed in The International Who's Who in Poetry, and as a poet and fiction writer in The Directory of Writers. David's profile appears in The Directory of Poets &
Writers at the following address: www.pw.org/content/david_olsen.
