VGCC Instructor honored with literary fellowship
Dr. Tanya Olson, an English instructor at Vance-Granville Community College and a Durham resident, was recently honored with a fellowship in poetry by the Los Angeles-based Lambda Literary Foundation. The organization identified Olson (pictured above) as one of 42 “emerging voices,” a group that included talented writers from every region of the United States and from as far away as Canada and Japan. As a Fellow, Olson traveled to the University of California Los Angeles in August for a week-long retreat that included workshops and one-on-one time with Eloise Klein Healy, a noted poet, professor and the editor of Arktoi Books.
“The Writers’ Retreat provides open access to industry professionals and the opportunity for fellows to create for themselves an ongoing community of practice as they advance in their craft and careers,” according to the foundation’s web site. Previous LLF Writers’ Retreat Fellows have gone on to publish an impressive array of works.
Olson has taught at VGCC since 2000. She holds the M.A. in Anglo-Irish Literature from University College, Dublin and the Ph.D. in 20th Century British Literature from UNC-Greensboro. Her work has been published in Cairn, Bad Subjects, Main Street Rag, Pedestal Magazine, Elysian Fields, Southern Cultures and elsewhere. Recognition by the LLF is only the latest in a series of honors Olson has received. In 2010, Olson was one of four winners of the nationally-known “ Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Contest , which is a partnership of the Unterberg Poetry Center at New York City’s 92nd Street Y and the magazine, Boston Review. She won first place in the 2005 Independent Poetry contest and was a runner-up for the 2009 Rita Dove Award. She has been honored with an Emerging Artist Grant from the Durham Arts Council and the 2008 Ethel Fortner Award. She helps co-ordinate Durham’s Third Friday, is a member of the Black Socks poetry group, and serves on the board of the Carolina Wren Press. In addition to being recognized for her poetry, Olson won the 2009 “Best Overall Story” Hippo award for “The Monti” storytelling series, which is based in Durham.
