About BrightCity > Eric Olsen
Photograph by Geri Kodey
Before helping to create BrightCity Books, Eric co-founded (with Glenn) and directed the International Institute of Modern Letters, a literary think tank that helped writers who were victims of censorship, and created the first American City of Asylum, in Las Vegas. The Institute also created programs to support emerging writers in this country and abroad. Before that, Eric was executive editor of custom publishing at Time Inc Health, a Time Warner company. And before that, he was a freelance journalist. He has published hundreds of magazine articles, a few short stories, and six nonfiction books—most recently two books about design using concrete as a fine finish material, with architect Fu-Tung Cheng. Eric too is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Teaching/Writing Fellow. After leaving the Workshop, he received a James A. Michener Fellowship for fiction. He has fine-press experience and harbors a soft spot for hand-stitched bindings.