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I love the simplicity of [Vertigo]. As well as a straightforward use of just one visual sequence, the sound moves from very busy to entirely silent. It's so marvellously succinct.




  • La rebeldía del sol en Metaverso radio 3 extra, julio 2023
  • 'How to Film a Poem' – article on poetry film in Readingroom, June 2023
  • 'Rebellious Sun' sees the light in Spain on The Big Idea, May 2023
  • 'Charles Olsen’s blinding new collection La rebeldía del sol (Rebellious Sun) in the footsteps of Antonio Machado' by Sarah Tremlett in Liberated Words, April 2023
  • Review of La rebeldía del sol (Rebellious Sun) on Kete Books by Erica Stretton, March 2023



Rebellious Sun burns with curiosity and restless energy, a wandering journey of travel, culture and thought.

Erica Stretton in Kete Books



  • Antenablue en el taller ‘La Palabra Vista’: “El reto es pensar cómo la poesía puede ser llevada a imágenes”, Arte y Cultura | Fundación ONCE, enero 2023
  • Cartagena se engalanó de magia con el Festival Internacional de Poesía en La Libertad, diciembre 2022
  • Cartagena fue epicentro de la celebración de la poesía en El Universal, diciembre 2022
  • Anuncian celebración de la Feria del Libro 2022 en San Pedro Sula en TIEMPO, octubre 2022
  • Bringing poems to the big screen—FILMETRY Festival melds poetry and film in Langsing City Pulse, September 2022
  • El poema del neozelandés Charles Olsen que invita a pararnos en medio del vértigo cotidiano en la voz de marchena, septiembre 2022
  • Vértigo (Día Europeo De Las Lenguas) por Antonio Martín Flores en Un Poema Cada Semana, septiembre 2022



Es un lujo poder ver y escuchar la lectura, la maestría del autor en el momento que hace la pausa, breve pero vertebradora del poema, de su antes y de su después, generadora de nostalgia, melancolía y a la vez, una profunda y necesaria... calma

Sobre el poema Vértigo en la voz de marchena



  • Poetas internacionales unidos por Soria y Machado por S. Almoguera en El Día de Soria, agosto 2022
  • Charles Olsen presenta el poemario “La rebeldía del sol” en la Revista Trasdemar, agosto 2022
  • La videopoesía se abre paso con nuevas sensibilidades en Colombia en WMagazín, marzo 2022
  • En asociación con CIHAR se celebró el V Festival Internacional Febrero Poético (FIFP) Oriente – Occidente en CHIAR, febrero 2022
  • Una mirada inglesa a la cultura colombiana, en el Hay Festival en EL TIEMPO, enero 2022
  • Liberated Words, VideoBardo & the Poetics of Poetry Film. Documentaries featuring Spanish, Portuguese and Argentinian Videopoets in Brave New Literatures Festival, VERSOPOLIS, February 2022
  • Poetry and Film in Colombia published in The London Magazine, December 2021
  • 2020/2021 ANUARIO Centro de Residencias Artísticas (PDF) published by Matadero Madrid, December 2021
  • Collaborative te reo poetry film in VII Festival Cinemística, Spain published in The Big Idea, November 2021
  • Poemas premiados del concurso Given Words para el día nacional de la poesía en Nueva Zelanda published in Trasdemar, September 2021
  • “Como lo veo” Tres poemas de Mikaela Nyman. Traducción de Charles Olsen y Miguel Ángel Arcas published in Trasdemar, September 2021
  • NOHO MAI (article and poetry film) published in Love in the Time of Covid, February 2021
  • Ice on the Water published in Atticus Review, February 2021
  • Sea Air in the Time of COVID published in Love in the Time of Covid, January 2021
  • Two artworks published in Flash Frontier – DOORS, December 2020
  • Interview about NOHO MAI on Te Ao, Māori Television (from minute 42), December 2020
  • LYRICAL VISIONS V, with 'Ice on the Water' on martinsercombe.com (Scroll down to 2020), November 2020
  • 'Te reo poetry film wins a major Irish award' – Peta-Maria Tunui and Waitahi Aniwaniwa McGee talk about NOHO MAI with Lynn Freeman on RNZ Standing Room Only – Podcast, December 2020
  • Te reo poetry film wows Irish judges on Waatea News, November 2020
  • Interview Waitahi Aniwaniwa McGee and Charles Olsen talk about NOHO MAI win at Ó Bheal's Poetry Film Festival on Waatea Radio – Podcast, November 2020
  • NOHO MAI wins Ó Bhéal's 8th International Poetry-Film Competition, Ó Bhéal, Cork Poetry Events, November 2020
  • Maori love poem in Berlin short film final on Waatea News, November 2020
  • Interview Peta-Maria Tunui and Charles Olsen talk about NOHO MAI at ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival on Waatea Radio Podcast, November 2020
  • NOHO MAI flies to Germany, The Big Idea, November 2020
  • La Voz#6. Charles Olsen (leo dos poemas de Antípodas) en SIN ESTUDIOS La radio sin paredes, mayo 2020



The sparse lines of the poem ran along the wind of the film with powerful imagery. Strong but subtle.



An absolutely stunning film. The finely wrought dance of words, visuals, music, pace and the dreamlike cadences of the Māori language. Noho Mai delivered everything I look for in a poetry film. A moving, beautiful poem and universal, timeless core of meaning which speaks also to our particularly detached and disconnected times.



A beautifully crafted poetry film (the delicacy of the sound) full of Ma-like moments, bringing New Zealand’s mystery to life.

Sarah Tremlett on Noho Mai







Marcapiel, Revista electrónica de literatura, México, 7/10/2018 (via web archive)


Entrevista por Xánath Caraza en Revista Literaria Monolito 21/05/2018






…there’s a tendency to a crystalline timelessness of observation. Verbs disappear in favour of nouns and adjectives. At times these images are mysteriously affecting:

Sip of moon, sweet sorrow.
Empty glass.
Through the window the chirrup of crickets.

—‘The Trumpet’

Review of Antípodas by Hamish Dewe, Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2018


Translating English, and other languages into Spanish has been part of Madrid based New Zealand poet Charles Olsen’s creative journey. He’s only learnt Spanish since moving to Spain fourteen years ago. But that didn’t stop him from creating interesting poetic works.







[a] gem of a book trailer

Libro de huellas featured in Moving Poems


a beautiful and mesmeric film

In Silence and The Afternoon featured in the June 2017 edition of Poetry Film Live

The intense otherness we often feel when travelling is constantly present. Moments seem so vivid and the traveller feels hyper-aware. I imagine Olsen sitting outside a Spanish cafe, listening to flamenco, jotting these down.

Helen Heath on Sr Citizen in Scoop Review of Books







Entrevista sobre Antípodas en el programa
La tarde en 24 horas-La hora cultural en RTVE, 2016



By far one of my favourites for its beauty and aesthetic audacity. The New Zealander Charles Olsen has created a rhythmic flamenco portrayal of Les demoiselles d’Avignon, the masterpiece of Picasso. Superimposed highly coloured images, the movement of dresses, rustling eye-like fans … this short film is a real treat, an artistic reverie of freshness and incredible originality.

Delphine Neimon on The dance of the brushes in www.theartchemists.com [FRENCH]






There's a great variety of subject matter, but they all share a common theme of love for Madrid and its residents. Poems such as Urban Landscape and Street Portraits have the city's idiosyncratic barrios as their theme, whereas I Won't Call and I Wait are about Olsen's emotional experiences. It is hugely difficult to write prose, let alone poetry, in a language that is not one's mother tongue, and yet Olsen manages to string together some beautiful and evocative phrases about what it really means to be a citizen of Madrid. The text is accompanied by Olsen's photographs, sketches, drawings and paintings, making it a charming volume.

Harriet Smart on Sr Citizen in InMadrid, 2011



  • Crítica de 'La danza de los pinceles' (presentado en el Festival Flamenco de Nîmes) por Delphine Neimon, www.theartchemists.com, 29 March 2011 [FRANCÉS]
  • Entrevista en CulturArt–e, mayo 2011 [Vídeo]
  • Entrevista por R. Gonzalez en Mister Idea publicada en el blog MisterIdea, 12 mayo 2011
  • Participación en el proyecto Poetas Bajo Palabra de la Fundación Casa de Hierro, Barranquilla, Colombia, 13 noviembre 2010
  • Crítica Tener cosas que decir y saber decirlas por Xoán M. Carreira en mundoclasico.com sobre el concierto-poema multidisciplinar 'Cuatro cuentos de Andersen', septiembre 2010



Charles Olsen ha hecho una vídeo-creación simbólica de enorme sencillez visual y de una potencia afectiva aún mayor, exquisitamente imbricada en la narración y en la música…

Xoán M. Carreira en mundoclasico.com

Charles Olsen has made a symbolic video-creation of great visual simplicity and even greater emotive force, exquisitely interwoven with the narration and music…

Xoán M. Carreira in mundoclasico.com



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