Matthew Olzmann
Photo by Margarita Corporan
Bio
Matthew Olzmann is the author of two collections of poems, Mezzanines, which was selected for the 2011 Kundiman Prize, and Contradictions in the Design. His third book, Constellation Route, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in January 2022. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and the Kresge Arts Foundation, Olzmann’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize XLV Kenyon Review, New England Review, Southern Review, and elsewhere. He’s previously taught poetry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and for the InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit, Michigan. He is now a senior lecturer of creative writing at Dartmouth College and also teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Ellen Bryant Voigt says, “Perhaps the emotional life is finally all that connects us, one to another.” This past year was marked by widespread anxiety and social isolation. Inside this isolation, poetry has often been the vehicle that’s allowed me to continue to feel the type of connection that Voigt describes. I recall Mark Strand saying, “Poetry helps us imagine what it’s like to be human,” Lucille Clifton saying, “One thing poetry teaches us, if anything, is that everything is connected,” and Audre Lorde defining poetry as “the skeleton architecture of our lives.”
Each of these writers, at different times, has benefitted from the support of the National Endowment for the Arts. I mention this because when given the question of “What does this award mean to you at this point in your career?” the first thing I think of is other writers. Their histories, lineages, and traditions of making our world more human and humane.
I’m working on a new collection of poems exploring current political and social tensions, conspiracy theories, fissures among our collective perceptions of reality, and the struggle to resist cynicism while immersed in a climate that grows increasingly hostile toward wonder and astonishment. I am grateful for this generous fellowship which will support my project through the gift of time, and the relief of some financial concerns. I’m also grateful for the validation and encouragement that comes with this recognition. And I am especially appreciative of the NEA’s persistent and steadfast advocacy for hundreds of writers whose work has already enriched my life beyond measure. These writers have repeatedly made me feel more connected to the world, and they’ve made that world more bearable, bewildering, and enchanted. It is a privilege and an immense honor to, in receiving this award, find myself among them.