News & Reviews
Better World Books Summer Challenge
Better World Books created a state-by-state summer reading challenge, and they chose The Master of Monterey as one of their three books for California.
Bowling Green State Alumni Summer College
BGSU’s Alumni Summer College will take place from June 29 – July 1, and I’ll be leading a session on Brainstorming the Novel. Details to follow.
American Book Review of The Goodbye House
D. Star Costello’s review of The Goodbye House appeared in the January-February issue of American Book Review. “The Goodbye House is a novel that strips away the gloss of the American Dream and reveals the everyday people struggling underneath.”
My First Time
A short essay of mine has appeared on the website of The Quivering Pen about writing, working as a freelance journalist in Mexico, and other things.
Southeast Review Interview
I spoke about novels, novellas, teaching, and the season of significance with Misha Rai of Southeast Review.
AWP Signing
I’ll be signing copies of Camp Olvido at the AWP Conference in Los Angeles on Friday, April 1. The event will take place at the Miami University Press Booth #902 from 2 pm – 3 pm.
Camp Olvido named one of the best novellas of 2015
“There are some books when, after you finish them, leave you breathless, quiet, and thoughtful. Camp Olvido stunned me into silence. I sat there with this universe in my hand for the longest time.”
Camp Olvido was named one of the best novellas of 2015 by David Abrams at The Quivering Pen. The list included Mesilla, by Robert James Russell, and On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World, by Elizabeth Kadetsky.
Mid-American Review on “Camp Olvido”
In its most recent issue, Mid-American Review said this of Camp Olvido: “In taut vibrant prose, [he] weaves together the desperation, monotony, and violence of a 1930s labor camp in California.”
Midwest Book Review of “Camp Olvido”
Midwest Book Review featured Camp Olvido in its December Bookwatch. “A fully absorbing novella by a true master of the storytelling arts, Camp Olvido by novelist Lawrence Coates is a highly recommended and deftly crafted literary work that will linger in the mind and memory long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf.”
University of Utah’s Reading Room
The University of Utah’s Alumni Connection featured Camp Olvido in their Reading Room feature.
In the California heartland in 1932, at a migrant labor camp whose very name means “forgotten,” a child’s sudden illness leads to tensions between workers wishing to break camp and the land barons enforcing their contracts. Into this dispute, Esteban Alas—contrabandista and self-styled businessman—is reluctantly drawn as a mediator, until an act of violence forces him into a more tragic role.
About Lawrence
Lawrence Coates is the author of five books, most recently The Goodbye House. His work has been recognized with the Western States Book Award in Fiction, the Donald Barthelme Prize in Short Prose, the Miami University Press Novella Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction. He currently teaches in the MFA program at Bowling Green State University.