Olmstead, Robert 1954–

PERSONAL:

Born January 3, 1954, in Keene, NH; son of James Paul (a factory worker) and Adeline Olmstead; married Cynthia L. Uline, April 9, 1980; children: Molly, Emily. Education: Syracuse University, B.A., 1977, M.A., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Ohio Wesleyan University, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware, OH 43015. Agent—Amanda Urban, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Professor and writer. Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, associate professor of English, 2002—, director of creative writing program. Worked previously as a high school English teacher in Jordan, NY, 1977-85, writer-in-residence at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, and director of creative writing at Boise State University, Boise, ID. Has worked variously as a carpenter, lineman, millworker, dishwasher, concrete worker, laborer, and farmer. Guggenheim fellow for fiction, 1989; National Endowment for the Arts fellow; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Literature fellow; Pennsylvania Council on the Senior Arts Literature fellow; Ohio Council for the Arts Literature fellow.

MEMBER:

Share Our Strength, PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Idaho Press Club Award; O. Henry Award honorable mention; Black Warrior Review Fiction Award; APEX Award in Journalism; Heartland Prize, Chicago Tribune, 2007, for Coal Black Horse.

WRITINGS:

River Dogs (short story collection), Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Soft Water (novel), Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

America by Land, Random House (New York, NY), 1993.

Stay Here with Me (memoir), Metropolitan Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Elements of the Writing Craft (nonfiction), Story Press (Cincinnati, OH), 1997.

A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go (novel), Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1998.

Coal Black Horse (novel), Thorndike Press (Waterville, ME), 2007; also published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 2007.

Contributor to publications, including Mid-American Review, McSweeney's, Willow Springs, Epoch, Idaho Review, Cutbank, Black Warrior Review, Greensboro Review, The Vintage Book of Contemporary AmericanShort Story, Story, Ploughshares, The Graywolf Annual 4, Granta, AKC Gazette, Faultline, Fiction Writer, Writers Digest, New York Times Book Review, Spin, and Sports Afield.

SIDELIGHTS:

Discussing Robert Olmstead's short story collection River Dogs in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani observed that "nasty things happen." The first story in the volume depicts the protracted drowning of a sackful of mongrel puppies, just one of many brutal incidents frequenting the lives of the roughhewn hunters, farmers, and laborers that inhabit Olmstead's rural New England. While noting that such animal—and human—"indignities and reversals" fill the stories of River Dogs, Kakutani also determined, "We begin to realize that Mr. Olmstead does not focus on accidents, death and visceral detail out of some morbid fascination; rather, he seems to regard such matters as a normal part of life in a dangerous, natural world." In the Toronto Globe and Mail Douglas Hill, too, acknowledged "shocking violence in these pages," but added that "none of it appears gratuitous." "There are many losses in the stories of River Dogs. Losses of face, of innocence, of crops, of lovers and of people, farm animals and pets," reiterated Chicago Tribune reviewer Christopher Zenowich. He added, "There is a paradoxical tension between the enduring landscape of these stories, so tangibly imagined, and the vulnerability of the people and creatures who inhabit it."

Contemplating the cavalier way in which Olmstead's characters deal with nature's cruelties, David Guy wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "There is a pervading sense of insensitivity about [them] that verges on plain meanness." Nonetheless, Guy stated: "The collection as a whole has a certain power, with striking descriptions of nature and of occupations that seldom find their way into fiction." Similarly appreciating Olmstead's "instinctive feel for the land and the cyclic changes wrought by the seasons and the shifting weather," Kakutani was "unable to get a real handle on Olmstead's people" as well, deciding: "Their lack of awareness, coupled with their tendency to undervalue language, … often has the effect of making them seem oddly opaque—like primitive folk-art figurines, inappropriately placed in a realistic and minutely detailed set." The reviewer determined that "while the author demonstrates a canny knowledge of how people work—how they handle a chain-saw, … how they manufacture a certain kind of brick—he has yet to discover a means of fully illuminating the quality of their lives, without violating the integrity of their personalities."

Zenowich, however, found "unpredictable yet hardedged wisdom in the narrators of these stories"; calling River Dogs "a wonderful debut," the critic maintained that "Olmstead's originality springs from a voice that vividly and unforgettably conjures this foreign landscape while simultaneously populating it with characters whose quiet reconciliations with life mirror our own." Citing good storytelling, well-crafted prose, and sardonic humor, Hill likewise praised the author's "highly entertaining, highly disturbing fiction." Olmstead conveys "what a reader believes … to be real experience," wrote the reviewer, "passages of life lived uncompromisingly, squeezed hard for the meanings they can release."

In addition to his collection of short stories, Olmstead has published a memoir titled Stay Here with Me, as well as several novels. His most recent, Coal Black Horse, is set in the Civil War era and follows a teenaged boy on a mission to find his father, a soldier fighting in the war's most brutal battles. A beautiful black stallion is young Robey's near-constant companion as he is tested by tragedy and sorrow on his journey to manhood. Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Leslie Baldacci described the book as "a taut, elegant novel of nearly flawless tone and structure—sweepingly descriptive, chock-full of unforgettable characters, authenticized with coarse country dialogue, satisfying on many levels." Cody McDevitt, writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, stated that "if the story was a chronicle of the battles, it would be a tremendous read." Problematic, noted McDevitt, is that "Olmstead writes like a bonfire—intense at all times." Boston Globe critic William Martin commented that the novel "does what good historical fiction should. It shows us the world as it was to those who inhabited it." Martin further pointed to Olmstead's prose as being "as muscular, sturdy, well hewn, and wise as the coal-black horse himself."

Olmstead told CA: "When I was eighteen and on a twenty-four-hour run from Canada to North Carolina for no good reason, I'd just got into the heart of the Smokies and picked up an all-night radio station out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. At least I think it was Fort Wayne. Seems as though when I was a kid all the late-night radio came out of Fort Wayne or Buffalo. Anyways, I was getting tired of reformed drunks and Bible thumpers yelling ‘testify, testify!’ So when this guy called in and started telling a story, I listened. It was a full-moon early morning in August, and I had this notion that he and I were the only two people left alive because I hadn't seen another car for a long time. Maybe some whitetail grazing beside the road, pockets of mist, the way it gets ghosty in those mountains.

"The guy said he and a buddy once went up into the mountains to go bear hunting. Spent all late afternoon and into the night on stand, waiting for old mister bear to wander by. As it was, they didn't get one, but on the drive out in the darkness, one ran into the side of the pickup and broke its neck, killed itself. So they loaded it in the back and proceeded on down the mountain. Everywhere they stopped, gas stations and diners, this guy's buddy told a different story about how they got that bear, stories about pursuit, near misses, hair's-breadth escapes—heady stuff like that.

"‘Well, I knew how we got that bear, so when we were alone so nobody could hear, I confronted him,’ the guy on the radio said. ‘I told him he was a liar and asked him why he was making up stories. "Because he deserves it," my buddy says, pointing to the bear. He deserves a good story.’

"I now know it's an old story, but it's a good one."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2007, Margaret Flanagan, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 57.

Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1987, Christopher Zenowich, review of River Dogs.

Entertainment Weekly, April 13, 2007, Tanner Stransky, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 77.

Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 18, 1987, Douglas Hill, review of River Dogs.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 1194.

Library Journal, November 15, 2006, Ann H. Fisher, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 59.

New York Times, April 18, 1987, Michiko Kakutani, review of River Dogs.

New York Times Book Review, May 24, 1987, David Guy, review of River Dogs.

Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2006, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 27.

School Library Journal, June 1, 2007, Teri Titus, review of Coal Black Horse, p. 180.

Washington Post, April 15, 2007, Ron Charles, review of Coal Black Horse, p. BW07.

ONLINE

Boston Globe Online,http://www.boston.com/ (May 20, 2007), William Martin, "Olmstead's Angels and Demons Vie at Gettysburg," review of Coal Black Horse.

Chicago Sun-Times Online,http://www.suntimes.com/ (April 22, 2007), "A Young Boy's Life Upended by War," review of Coal Black Horse.

Coal Black Horse Web site,http://www.coalblackhorse.com (August 20, 2007).

Ohio Wesleyan University Department of English,http://english.owu.edu/ (August 20, 2007), faculty profile.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Online,http://www.postgazette.com/ (June 24, 2007), Cody McDevitt, faculty profile.