Robert Olmstead (born January 3, 1954) is an American novelist and educator.
Early life and education
Olmstead was born in 1954 in
Westmoreland,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
. He grew up on a farm. After
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, he enrolled at
Davidson College with a
football scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholars ...
, but left school after three semesters in which he compiled a poor academic record.
[David Marc]
Robert Olmstead ’77, G’83; Telling Stories
''Syracuse University Magazine'', Volume 25, Number 2, Summer 2008 He later attended
Syracuse University,
where he studied with
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story during the 1980s.
Early life
Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mil ...
and
Tobias Wolff
Tobias is the transliteration of the Greek which is a translation of the Hebrew biblical name he, טוֹבִיה, Toviyah, JahGod is good, label=none. With the biblical Book of Tobias being present in the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha of the Bible, T ...
and received both
bachelor's and
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. s, in 1977 and 1983, respectively.
Career
He was the former Director of Creative Writing at Ohio Wesleyan University and now serves as an emeritus faculty member at the university. He has also served as the Senior Writer in Residence at Dickinson College and as the director of creative writing at Boise State University
Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...
. Olmstead teaches in the Low-Residency MFA program in creative writing at Converse College.
Olmstead is the author of the novels ''America by Land'', ''A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go, Soft Water, Far Bright Star'' and ''Coal Black Horse.'' He is also the author of a memoir ''Stay Here With Me'', as well as ''River Dogs'', a collection of short stories, and the textbook ''Elements of the Writing Craft''. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 and an NEA Literature Fellowship in 1993.
His novel ''Coal Black Horse'' (2007) has received national acclaim, including the 2007 ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' Heartland Prize for Fiction and the 2008 Ohioana Book Award for Fiction; it was also selected for the "On the Same Page Cincinnati" reading program and the Choose to Read Ohio’s 2011 booklist.
Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
has named his novel ''Far Bright Star'' (2009) (the second book in the ''Coal Black Horse'' trilogy) as one of the Top Ten Westerns of the Decade; the book also received the 2010 Western Writers of America Spur Award. One reviewer praised Olmstead's ability to "translate nature's revelatory beauty into words", commenting that ''Coal Black Horse'' evokes what Henry David Thoreau described in ''Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
'' as "the indescribable innocence and beneficence of Nature"; by contrast, the Mexican desert of ''Far Bright Star'' is "the place of the sun shriveled and the dried up". The ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' review praised the authenticity of the imagery and experiences in Olmstead's writing, while also comparing his writing to that of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
. It noted the influence of contemporary events, such as the guerrilla warfare during the U.S. occupation of Fallujah during the Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
.
Works
Olmstead's published works include:
* ''River Dogs'' (1987)
* ''Soft Water'' (1988)
* ''A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go'' (1990)
* ''America By Land'' (1993)
* ''Stay Here With Me'' (1997)
* ''Coal Black Horse'' (2007)
* ''Far Bright Star'' (2009)
* ''The Coldest Night'' (2012)
* ''Savage Country'' (2017)
References
External links
Algonquin Books' Robert Olmstead web pages
Robert Olmstead on His Life as a Writer
(audio of KBOO Community Radio interview, August 27, 2009)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olmstead, Robert
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
1954 births
Living people
Ohio Wesleyan University faculty
Syracuse University alumni
Novelists from New Hampshire
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from Ohio
People from Westmoreland, New Hampshire