Matthew Olzmann

Biography

Matthew Olzmann is the author of two collections of poems, Mezzanines, which was selected for the Kundiman Prize, and Contradictions in the Design, both from Alice James Books. He’s received fellowships from Kundiman, the Kresge Arts Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Necessary Fiction, Brevity, Southern Review, and elsewhere. He teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

See Work

POETRY / Fall 2017

from Cockaigne

By Matthew Olzmann

 

It was actually a good year, the year before the downfall, a surprisingly good year in our little town. It was a year of bread on the table, a year with a new IPA in our glasses, a year with friends who visited with great frequency.

To...

POETRY / Fall 2017

To Bruce Wayne

By Matthew Olzmann

A good place to hide a drop of water is a stream.
A good place to hide a stream is beneath an ocean. 

A good place to hide a man is among thousands
of other men. Watch how they rush
through the city like water through a ravine.