Truth recovery: an interview with Lance Olsen

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lance Olsen is author of more than 30 books of and about innovative writing, including, most recently, the novels Skin Elegies [Olsen, Lance. 2021. Skin Elegies. Ann Arbour, MI: Dzanc] and Always Crashing in the Same Car [Olsen, Lance. 2023. Always Crashing in the Same Car. Tuscaloosa, AL: FC2, University of Alabama]. His short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies. . A Guggenheim, Berlin Prize, D.A.A.D. Artist-in-Berlin Residency, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, two-time N.E.A. Fellowship, and Pushcart Prize recipient, as well as a Fulbright Scholar, he teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah. This interview is a dialogue about the blurring of fiction and non-fiction, creative writing's place and role in the twenty-first Century, and Olsen's commitment to experimental writing and his use of processes, concepts and ideas to subvert what many regard as traditional writing and storytelling. It also considers how narrative can be deconstructed, reconfigured, re-constructed and re-invigorated; the possibilities and ethics of remix and appropriation; the failures of mainstream publishing; and how we can or might represent our complex and confusing lives on the page.