Olsen, Tillie

Tillie Olsen, in full Tillie Lerner Goldfarb Olsen, née Tillie Lerner, (born January 14, 1912, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.—died January 1, 2007, Oakland, California), American writer and social activist known for her powerful fiction about the inner lives of the working poor, women, and minorities. Her interest in long-neglected women authors inspired the development of academic programs in women’s studies, especially at the university level in the United States.

During her lifetime Olsen gained considerable fame, particularly among scholars. The American Academy of Arts and Letters cited Olsen in 1975 for creating a freshly poetic form of fiction. She held nine honorary doctorates, and she won grants from the Ford (1959–61) and Guggenheim (1975) foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts (1967), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (1983), as well as countless residencies at artists’ colonies. Yet she never finished high school, and her modest output and complicated relationship with her own past have generated a mixed legacy.