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

Occidental College

Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...

 and Long Island University

Long Island University

Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

.

He co-founded and taught at the Aspen Writers' Workshop, and at Long Island University

Long Island University

Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

 and The New School For Social Research

The New School

The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...

, and since 1975 Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

.

Recently, he has collaborated with composer Paul Epstein

Paul Epstein

Paul Epstein was a German mathematician. He was known for his contributions to number theory, in particular the Epstein zeta function....

, 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

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

 Opera Theater.

He lives in Philadelphia and North Truro

North Truro

North Truro is a village in the town of Truro, Massachusetts, United States. Due to its proximity to urbanized Provincetown, it is somewhat more densely developed than the rest of the town, with houses and small resort facilities lining the two main thoroughfares, U.S. Route 6 and MA Route 6A...

, on Cape Cod.

Awards

• 1983 PEN/Faulkner Award, for Seaview
  Seaview (novel)
  Seaview is a novel by Toby Olson. It received the 1983 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction....
  
  
• 1985 Guggenheim Fellowships
• Rockefeller Foundations
• National Endowment for the Arts

External links

• "Toby Olson", Shearsman Books

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