Kirby Olson studied poetry at Naropa Institute with Gregory Corso, Ed Dorn, Allen Ginsberg, & Ed Sanders.  Waiting for the Rapture is his first publication of poetry.  He taught English & American Literature at a Finnish university for several years & is currently a professor of philosophy & literature at SUNY-Delhi.

He is the author of Comedy After Postmodernism (Texas Tech, 2001), Andrei Codrescu & The Myth of America (McFarland, 2005), Gregory Corso: Doubting Thomist (Southern Illinois U. Press, 2002), & Temping: A Novel (Black Heron Press, 2006).  Olson is also a member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Delhi, New York.

He blogs regularly at Lutheran Surrealism.