{"id":95,"date":"2021-12-05T15:38:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T20:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/?page_id=95"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:23:38","slug":"camp-olvido","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/novellas\/camp-olvido\/","title":{"rendered":"Camp Olvido"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">LAWRENCE COATES<br><br>2015 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY JOSEPH BATES<br>2015. ISBN 978-1-88116-357-2 <br>$15.00 <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/books\/camp-olvido-a-novella\/9781881163572\">Bookshop<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Camp-Olvido-Lawrence-Coates\/dp\/1881163571\">Amazon<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pathwaybookservice.com\/products\/camp-olvido-1\">Pathway<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In the California heartland in 1932, at a migrant labor camp whose very name means forgotten, a child&#8217;s sudden illness leads to tensions between workers wishing to break camp and the land barons enforcing their contracts. Into this dispute Esteban Alas\u2014contrabandista and self-styled businessman\u2014is reluctantly drawn as a mediator, until an act of violence forces him into a more tragic role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">Reviews &amp; Such<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Joe Plicka reviewed Coates&#8217; recent work, including&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em>, for the Summer 2016 issue of&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/629290\/pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Western American Literature<\/a><\/em>: &#8220;Coates boils the fear, greed, ignorance, and desperation of an entire society down into these characters with his hard, gleaming prose.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.raintaxi.com\/camp-olvido-a-novella\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Rain Taxi<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;reviewed&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em>&nbsp;in May 2016: &#8220;A &#8216;child stalked by death&#8217; and an incidental act of kindness in a world without it drives the tragedy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>David Abrams included&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em> in his&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com\/2016\/01\/a-year-of-reading-best-novellas-of-2015.html\">&#8220;Best Novellas of 2015&#8221;<\/a>&nbsp;list on his blog, The Quivering Pen:&nbsp;<em>&#8220;Camp Olvido<\/em>&nbsp;stunned me into silence. I sat there with this universe in my hand for the longest time.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>John Taylor recommended&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em>&nbsp;in the December 2015 edition of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.midwestbookreview.com\/mbw\/dec_15.htm#taylor\">Midwest Book Review<\/a>: &#8220;A fully absorbing novella by a true master of the storytelling arts.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/reviews.libraryjournal.com\/2015\/10\/books\/fiction\/top-fall-indie-fiction-best-bets-beyond-the-big-house-titles\/\">Library Journal<\/a>&nbsp;<\/em>reviewed&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido&nbsp;<\/em>calling it a<em>&nbsp;<\/em>&#8220;starkly beautiful work [which] delivers a sense of entrapment most of us can barely imagine,&#8221; in &#8220;Top Fall Indie Fiction: Best Bets Beyond the Big-House Titles&#8221; on October 29, 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Camp Olvido<\/em>&nbsp;is everything a novella should be\u2014intense as it is resonant, propulsive as it is deep\u2014but, even more than a shining example of the form, it is simply a great story. I haven\u2019t read anything as powerful about pickers and California since I read John Steinbeck. Lawrence Coates writes with every bit as much tenderness and compassion, but this moving novella\u2014full of characters I won\u2019t forget and images I can\u2019t\u2014is cut with a clear-eyed, brutal honesty that gives it a hard-won wisdom and beauty all its own.<strong>\u2014Josh Weil<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The New Valley: Novellas<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>[A] stunning exploration of one man&#8217;s bold actions and their consequences. Gorgeously written, the novella shows the dark side of California&#8217;s prosperity, with violence and, unexpectedly, elements of the divine. A superb addition to a distinguished series.<strong>\u2014Cary Holladay<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>A Fight in the Doctor&#8217;s Office<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Horse People: Stories<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I have rarely read a novella so rich, with the moral complexities of Melville\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Billy Budd<\/em>&nbsp;and the social and visual acuity of a film like Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Los olvidados<\/em>&nbsp;. . . Read&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em>, a masterful work of fiction, as provocative as it is jaw-dropping in its beauty.<strong>\u2014Wendell Mayo<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The Cucumber King of Kedainiai<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In&nbsp;<em>Camp Olvido<\/em>, Lawrence Coates paints a sensual and humane picture of life and death in a depression-era work camp peopled by Latino fieldworkers . . . showing not only the sorrow of endemic poverty and powerlessness but the love and good humor of a community that can endure.\u2014<strong>Bonnie Jo Campbell<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>Mothers, Tell Your Daughters<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Once Upon a River<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawrence Coates is the author of four novels, most recently&nbsp;<em>The Goodbye House<\/em>. He has received such honors as the Western States Book Award in Fiction and an NEA Fellowship in Fiction. He teaches Creative Writing at Bowling Green State University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"931\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/coates_campolvido.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-84\" style=\"width:450px;height:698px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/coates_campolvido.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/coates_campolvido-193x300.jpg 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"725\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Coates.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-125\" style=\"width:450px;height:544px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Coates.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Coates-248x300.jpg 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAWRENCE COATES 2015 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY JOSEPH BATES2015. ISBN 978-1-88116-357-2 $15.00 Bookshop | Amazon | Pathway In the California heartland in 1932, at a migrant labor camp whose very name means forgotten, a child&#8217;s sudden illness leads to tensions between workers wishing to break camp and the land barons enforcing their contracts. Into this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":995,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-95","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}