Karen Olsson
Photo by Matt Valentine
Bio
Karen Olsson’s most recent book is The Weil Conjectures: On Math and the Pursuit of the Unknown. She is also the author of two novels, All the Houses (2015) and Waterloo (2005) and has written for a number of magazines, among them the New York Times Magazine and Texas Monthly. A graduate of Harvard College and the Warren Wilson MFA program for writers, she lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.
In the weeks before I learned I’d been awarded this grant, I had decided that the novel I’m writing now would really benefit from (1) some out-of-town research and (2) my finding a work space outside of my house where I could finish a draft. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull either of those off, and then came a call from the National Endowment for the Arts. The money is very welcome, since it’ll help pay for those things, and it also means a great deal to me to have received a vote of confidence from the fellow writers and readers on the selection panel. Every writing project is so precarious, so vulnerable to second-guessing, and I hope the NEA’s investment will serve as a buffer against my doubts and other intrusions. Already the support makes me feel a little less isolated, as though some kind strangers are cheering me on.