CHARLES LOCKHART is Professor of Political Science at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.

John Olson is an American poet and novelist. Born August 23, 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Olson has lived for many years in Seattle, Washington. He has published eight collections of poetry and one novel, Souls of Wind, nominated for The Believer Magazine book of the year award. In 2004, Seattle's weekly newspaper, The Stranger, for whom he has written occasional essays, gave Olson one of its annual "genius awards."His writing notebooks have been exhibited at the University of Washington. Olson's prose poetry has been reviewed in print and online poetry magazines he poet Philip Lamantia said that Olson was "extraordinary...the greatest prose poetry [i've] ever read." and Clayton Eshleman said "he is writing the most outlandish, strange, and inventive prose poetry ever in the history of the prose poem."