{{Short description|American novelist}} {{BLP sources|date=October 2021}} {{infobox writer |name=Toby Olson |birth_date={{birth year and age|1937}} |birth_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |occupation=Novelist |alma_mater=Occidental College<br>Long Island University |awards=PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (1983)<br>Henry Viscardi Achievement Award (2015) }} '''Toby Olson''' (born 1937 Chicago) is an American novelist and winner of the 1983 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |date=1983-05-22 |title='SEAVIEW' AUTHOR WINS PEN/FAULKNER AWARD |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/22/books/seaview-author-wins-pen-faulkner-award.html |access-date=2022-12-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==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 and Long Island University.
He co-founded and taught at the Aspen Writers' Workshop, and at Long Island University and The New School For Social Research, and since 1975 Temple University.
Recently, he has collaborated with composer Paul Epstein, 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 Temple University Opera Theater.
He lives in Philadelphia and North Truro, on Cape Cod.
==Awards== * 1983 PEN/Faulkner Award, for ''Seaview'' * 1985 Guggenheim Fellowships<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/10963-toby-olson |title=Toby Olson - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=2009-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603235931/http://www.gf.org/fellows/10963-toby-olson |archive-date=2011-06-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * 2015 Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards * Rockefeller Foundations * National Endowment for the Arts
==Works== === Novels === * {{cite book| title=Changing Appearance| publisher=Membrane| year=1975| isbn=0-87924-021-0}} * {{cite book| title=The Life of Jesus| publisher=New Directions| year=1976| isbn=0-8112-0614-9 }} * {{cite book| title=Aesthetics| publisher=Membrane| year=1978| isbn=0-87924-049-0}} * {{cite book| title=Seaview| publisher=New Directions| year=1982| isbn=0-8112-0828-1 }} * {{cite book| title=The Woman Who Escaped From Shame| publisher=Random House| year=1986| isbn=978-0-394-54715-2| url=https://archive.org/details/womanwhoescapedf00olso}} * ''Utah'' * {{cite book| title=Dorit in Lesbos| publisher=Linden Press/Simon & Schuster| year=1990| isbn=978-0-671-68486-0 }} * {{cite book| title=At Sea| publisher=Simon & Schuster| year=1993| isbn=978-0-671-73641-5 }} * {{cite book| title=Write Letter to Billy| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XOFI2Ys_TzoC&q=Toby+Olson| publisher=Coffee House Press| year=2000| isbn=978-1-56689-103-5 }} * {{cite book| title=The Blond Box| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Y4hQ8yUVzYC&q=Toby+Olson| publisher=FC2| year=2004| isbn=978-1-57366-110-2 }} * ''The Bitter Half''. * ''Tampico''. {{ISBN|978-0-292-71827-2}}
===Poetry=== * ''The Wrestlers & other poems''. Barlenmir House, 1984 * {{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/wearefireselecti0000olso| url-access=registration| quote=Toby Olson.| title=We are the fire: a selection of poems| publisher=New Directions Publishing| year=1984| isbn=978-0-8112-0914-4 }} * {{cite book| title=Unfinished Building| url=https://archive.org/details/unfinishedbuildi00olso| url-access=registration| quote=Toby Olson.| publisher=Coffee House Press| year=1993| isbn=978-1-56689-009-0 }} * {{cite book| title=Human Nature| publisher=New Directions| year=2000| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiQMoY3f4BQC&q=Toby+Olson&pg=PP1| isbn=978-0-8112-1440-7 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20091226071615/http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/olsonA.html "Toby Olson", ''Shearsman Books''] *[https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead/mss0184.xml Toby Olson letters to Carl Thayler collection] held by [https://library.udel.edu/special/ Special Collections, University of Delaware Library]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Toby}} Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:Occidental College alumni Category:Long Island University alumni Category:Long Island University faculty Category:The New School faculty Category:20th-century American poets Category:21st-century American poets Category:American male poets Category:PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania