Olsen studied English Literature at Cambridge University before subsequently completing an Master of Arts in Fine Artist She completed her Doctor of Philosophy on "Contemporary Poetics and Innovative Women"s Writing" in 2002, and went on to teach on the Performance Writing programme at Dartington University alongside Caroline Bergvall.
Her work incorporated traditional books alongside images, texts for performance, films, and site specific work. Olsen describes her work as involving avant-garde modernist and contemporary poetics, feminist theory and writing practice, Language Writing, ecology and environmental literatures, and performance. She subsequently moved to Royal Holloway, University of London, where she is now Reader in Poetic Practice, teaching undergraduate English Students and postgraduate Creative Writing students.
With Robert Gavin Hampson, she founded and ran the Master of Arts in Poetic Practice at Royal Holloway from 2003-2013.
Starting in 2014 this was absorbed into the Master of Arts Creative Writing course as the Poetic Practice Pathway. The course is now taught by Olsen, Hampson, and Kristen Kreider.
She was the Judith East. Wilson Fellow at the University of Cambridge from 2013-2014. Between 2006 and 2010 Olsen was the editor of the online journal How(2).
With Will Montgomery and Kreider she runs POLYply, a cross-media and intermedia performance series, that incorporated Poetry, art, music, and film.
