Robert Olmstead

Olmstead delivers another richly characterized, tightly woven story of nature, inevitability and the human condition. Reminiscent of Kent Haruf, Olmstead's brilliantly expressive, condensed tale of resilience and dusty determination flows with the kind of literary cadence few writers have mastered. Robert ... (more)Olmstead is the author of five previous books (River Dogs, Soft Water, A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go, America by Land, and Stay Here With Me). The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA grant, he is a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.

A veteran soldier battles for survival in another meditative, beautifully written novel from Olmstead. The story begins in the summer of 1916, a few months after Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M. Officer Napoleon Childs has led a U.S. Army expedition deep into the Mexican desert in pursuit of ... (more)this chimerical figure. The sun is punishing, the landscape is daunting and chasing the spookily elusive Villistas is beginning to show on Napoleon and his men. Olmstead is wondrously attuned to the natural world and the realities of war; he uses sand, heat and distant mountains as a stage set, and his narrative unfolds with all the formal rigor of a Greek tragedy.

The In-Store book group, led by Anita Zager, will be reading Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. New members are always welcome!

Meet Robert Olmstead, the author of national bestseller Coal Black Horse, now in paperback. This gritty, moving story put readers on Civil War battlefields as a 14-year-old searches for his father amid the gore and violence of war.

ROBERT OLMSTEAD signs Coal Black Horse, his critically acclaimed novel about a 14-year-old boy sent out by his mother to find his father on Civil War battlefield.

"Join us for a lively presentation and open discussion about the craft of writing presented by Robert Olmstead, the renowned author of Coal Black Horse, chosen as this year’s On the Same Page book. Box lunches will be available for purchase from Bronte’s Bistro."