Ever wonder what dinosaur poets would write about if they knew their moment of extinction was near? That’s one of the questions poet Tanya Olson, associate teaching professor of English, considered while writing her latest book, Born Backwards (YesYes Books, 2024). As she worked on the collection, Olson reflected on extinction and preservation—of food, objects, experiences, relationships, places, and people, especially butch life in the American South during the 1980s and ’90s. 

“The poems of Born Backwards remember anyone who feels out of place—in a body, a hometown, or a century,” says Olson. “In a time when such histories are again a threat, remembering becomes urgent.”

One of Oslon’s favorite parts of teaching is guiding students through the research process for their writing. Some of Olson’s research for the 20 poems in Born Backwards draws on her life growing up in the South. She shares episodes of her time on her grandmother’s farm doing chores, learning to drive from her father—starting with a push mower—and helping her mom tend a large vegetable garden. Alongside these experiences are reflections on questions of being queer and the decision to leave in search of a more queer-friendly place.

Olson also draws inspiration from the MTV revolution of the 1980s and the country music she heard growing up—artists like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Loretta Lynn—as well as the trailblazing career of k.d. lang, a pioneer for lesbian country music artists. Reflecting on extinction and preservation, Olson contemplates what could be lost if she is the last butch to remember smoky lesbian bars and to witness the decline of butch culture, wondering who will preserve these histories in the future.

Get tickets to see Tanya Olson at Profs & Pints Baltimore: Queer Country on Monday, August 18, 2025.

Read more of Tanya Olson’s poetry in Boyishly (Yesyes, 2013) and Stay (Yesyes, 2019).

Header graphic: Design by Jill Blum/UMBC. Book cover and headshot courtesy of Tanya Olson.