I’ve had the deep pleasure of knowing literary genius Lance Olsen for at least sixteen years now; and within that time, I’ve reviewed his work, interviewed him twice (first in 2013 and then in 2014), published him ten times in Big Other, taught two of his books (Skin Elegies and Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing), publicized six of his books ([[ there. ]], How to Unfeel the Dead: New & Selected Fictions, Theories of Forgetting, Skin Elegies, My Red Heaven, and Always Crashing in the Same Car), and featured him in the inaugural lineup of Subversity’s Innovative Fiction Seminar, all the while impressed by his profound courage, creativity, intelligence, rigor, humor, generosity, and so much more. Innovative artist par excellence, Lance’s writing always delights, startles, and puzzles; and inspires me to reject cliché and received thinking, to rebel against “conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct,” which Hannah Arendt (with whom Lance shares a birthday) says has “the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.” So here are at least sixty-nine reasons for all of us to celebrate Lance Olsen:

1. 1. 1. Absolute Away (Dzanc Books, 2024)
      2. Shrapnel (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024)
      3. Always Crashing in the Same Car (FC2, 2023)
      4. Skin Elegies (Dzanc, 2021)
      5. My Red Heaven (Dzanc, 2020)
      6. Dreamlives of Debris (Dzanc, 2017)
      7. There’s No Place Like Time: A Retrospective (&Now Books, 2016)
      8. Theories of Forgetting (Fiction Collective Two, 2014)
      9. Calendar of Regrets (Fiction Collective Two, 2010)
      10. Head in Flames (Chiasmus Press, 2009)
      11. Anxious Pleasures: A Novel After Kafka (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007)
      12. Nietzsche’s Kisses (Fiction Collective Two, 2006)
      13. 10:01 (Chiasmus Press, 2005; hypermedia version: Iowa Review Web 7.2, 2005)
      14. Girl Imagined by Chance (Fiction Collective Two, 2002)
      15. Freaknest (Wordcraft, 2000)
      16. Time Famine (Permeable Press, 1996)
      17. Burnt (Wordcraft, 1996)
      18. Tonguing the Zeitgeist (Permeable Press,1994)
      19. Live from Earth (Available Press/Ballantine Books,1991)
      20. Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2012)
      21. Rebel Yell: Writing Fiction (Cambrian Press, 1998)
      22. [[ there. ]] (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2014)
      23. In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop, co-edited with Mark Amerika (SDSU Press, 1995)
      24. Lolita: A Janus Text (Twayne, 1995)
      25. Surfing Tomorrow: Essays on the Future of American Fiction (Potpourri, 1995), editor
      26. William Gibson: A Reader’s Guide (Starmont House, 1992)
      27. Circus of the Mind in Motion: Postmodernism and the Comic Vision (Wayne State University Press, 1990)
      28. Ellipse of Uncertainty: An Introduction to Postmodern Fantasy (Greenwood Press, 1987)
      29. How to Unfeel the Dead: New & Selected Fictions (Teksteditions, 2014)
      30. Hideous Beauties (Eraserhead, 2003)
      31. Sewing Shut My Eyes (Fiction Collective Two/Black Ice, 2000)
      32. Scherzi, I Believe (Wordcraft, 1994)
      33. My Dates with Franz (Bluestone Press, 1993)
      34. “Cuddly Doll Caught on Barbed Wire” (Big Other, 2024)
      35. “Absolute Away” (Big Other, 2024)
      36. “(Trans)Forms as Philosophy” (Big Other, 2022)
      37. “Always Crashing in the Same Car” (Big Other, 2021)
      38. “He Can’t Remember, He’s No Longer Sure, Maybe” (Big Other, 2021)
      39. “Beautiful Boy Falling” (Big Other, 2020)
      40. “A Sentence About a Sentence I Love: From Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons“ (Big Other, 2019)
      41. “169 Tweets on the Nature of Possibility” (Big Other, 2019)
      42. Lance Olsen’s “Literary Pillars” (Big Other, 2012)
      43. Between the Covers podcast with Lance Olsen about My Red Heaven
      44. Between the Covers podcast with Lance Olsen about Absolute Away and Shrapnel
      45. Interview with Lance Olsen on NPR’s Berlin Journal
      46. My interview with Lance Olsen about Head in Flames
      47. My interview with Lance Olsen about Calendar of Regrets
      48. John Domini’s Interview with Lance Olsen about Theories of Forgetting
      49. Interview with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche’s Kisses
      50. “Urgent Possibility: Talking With Lance Olsen on FC2’s 40th Birthday”
      51. “The Difficult Imagination”
      52. “Narratological Amphibiousness, or: Invitation To the Covert History of Possibility”
      53. Marcus Smith’s interview at WBYU’s Thinking Aloud
      54. Rachel Levy’s interview at the Lit Pub
      55. “Blindmanning as Being”
      56. But I Digress… podcast interview with Lance Olsen
      57. “Book Notes” for [[ there. ]] at Largehearted Boy
      58. “Book Notes” for Theories of Forgetting at Largehearted Boy
      59. Robert Lopez’s interview with Lance Olsen
      60. George Salis’s interview with Lance Olsen
      61. Lance Olsen interview for Architectures of Possibility at Audible Authors
      62. Interview about Architectures of Possibility
      63. “Accretive Dreams, Junk Narrativity, & Orphaned Excess in Moderation”
      64. “Embodying the World”
      65. “Learning to Wish for More”
      66. Interview with Lance Olsen at continent
      67. Flashpoint’s interview with Lance Olsen
      68. Pop Matter’s interview with Lance Olsen
      69. Continuum’s interview with Lance Olsen